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Establishment of the “Freedmen’s Bureau”
After the Emancipation Proclamation, which gave freedom to any slave, over 4-million African Americans (or freedmen) were left homeless, starving, etc..
The Freedmen's Bureau was established from racial equality which gave food and clothing, opened hospitals and temporary camps, helped locate family members, gave education, helped freedmen legalize marriages, gave employment, and investigated racial confrontations, and settled freedmen on abandoned or confiscated lands (etc..). -
Start of Reconstruction
After the civil war a fresh start was necessary and much work was left for the government to mend their country back together. Abraham Lincoln, the president at the time, thought the South should be treated leniently to rebuild a nation that is united. Lincoln focused on mending the nation's current wounds and not push the South. -
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was shot, in Ford’s Theater in Washington D.C, by actor John Wilkes Booth, to then soon die the next morning. Effects: When he became president in 1861 the South started to divide itself from the union or the U.S which was a start of the Civil War. He issued the Emancipation Proclamation which gave liberty to any slave in the southern state and were then declared free which really wasn’t good news for the South. He abolished slavery with passing the 13th amendment. -
Andrew Johnson elected president
Vice president Andrew Johnson becomes president after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the mending and reconstruction of the country is then left for Johnson to take care of. Andrew Johnson tough in the future will not work well with the (Radical) republicans due to their different ideologies. The republicans will then see him as an obstacle to reconstruction and will decide to impeach the president for but will lose by one vote. -
Ratification of the 13th Amendment
The amendment states: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
The amendment had abolished slavery in the U.S which was passed February 1, 1865 by Abraham Lincoln and was ratified on December 6, 1865. -
“Black Codes” enacted
They limited rights of blacks. They gave the blacks little liberty (legal marriage, land ownership) but it limited what they could do like denying them the rights to testify against whites, to serve on juries or in state militias, vote, or work in a job without the permission a of an earlier employer. The S.C code included a contract form for black “servants” who agreed to work for whites. They also gave another source of labor for white employers which were orphans or children of bad parents. -
Start of the “Ku Klux Klan” (KKK)
The KKK was founded in 1865 Pulaski, Tennessee, as a group of political and social terrorists made from former Confederate soldiers or people and others with the goal of white supremacy because of the rights being given to the blacks. They represented southern resistance and intimidated the blacks and whites of the republican party. By 1870 the KKK had spread to nearly every southern state. Nathan B. Forrest, a leading confederate general, was the first chosen leader. -
Civil Rights Act
The Civil Rights Act of 1866 gave citizenship and the same rights that the white citizens get to all persons in the United States “without distinction of race or color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude.” It became a law after overturning Andrew Johnson's veto on April 9, 1866. -
Memphis Massacre (Race Riot)
A riot between the police, whites, and African Americans had caused the death of 2 whites and 46 blacks along with the destruction of 3 black churches, 8 schools, and 50 homes. The event wound up helping shape Reconstruction and speed the passing of the 14th amendment due to the shock and effect on the country. (it actually made the Republicans speed up and try harder in controlling the South) -
New Orleans Race Riot
After recent “Black Codes” Republicans were determined to secure rights for all Americans so they set the Louisiana Constitutional Convention. During a break of the Convection a fight between armed whites and black marching in protest. The unarmed blacks were attacked and some killed (law enforcement official were part of it). The riot was stopped with with 38 dead. (city placed under martial law for days) it also shocked the country and cause Republicans and northerners to take further action. -
Reconstruction Acts of 1867
On March 2, 1867 congress enacted the Reconstruction Acts (series of 4 acts though this is one of them) which divided the South (except Tennessee since it had readmitted into the Union) into five military districts where the military or army commander has supreme power or authority to the state government. Under the terms of the new acts new constitutions were written in the south and by 1868, 6 states had readmitted into the union. -
Impeachment of President Andrew Johnson
For the first time in the U.S house of representatives impeached a president. President Andrew Johnson was with the Union but had roots in the south. "This is a country for white men," he commented, "and as long as I am president, it shall be a government for white men." Johnson wasn't favored by the Republicans and he had constantly been arguing and blocking due to different ideologies. Knowing he was slowing them down he was impeached. He though was kept in office due to a near 1 vote. -
Ratification of the 14th Amendment
Ratified on July 9, 1868, the 14th amendment granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” which included former slaves recently freed. It also forbids states from denying any person "life, liberty or property, without due process of law" or to "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” which is simply means granting more equality, protection, freedom, and citizenship to the African Americans. -
Ulysses S. Grant elected president
Ulysses S. Grant was a past commanding general of the Union in the civil war who led armies over the confederacy in victory and was later elected 18th president as an American hero in 1868 (winning in 1869). He was going to work in implementing reconstruction and erasing every last bit of slavery. He was elected hoping to end turmoil or trouble with him the Republicans (makes sense since he was a Union general) and actually mend the country. -
Ratification of the 15th amendment
Ratified February 3, 1870 the 15th amendment gave the right of voting to the African American men. It included "right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." There though any discriminatory practices prevented them from voting. -
First Black Senator Elected
February 25, 1870 the Hiram Rhodes Revels of Mississippi became the first African American senator. He was born in North Carolina and attended college in the North and became minister. He helped raise two regiments of African American soldiers in the civil war and established schools for freed slaves. After the war, Revels moved to Mississippi, where he won election to the state senate. He spoke on behalf of racial equality and amnesty to past confederates. -
“Freedmen’s Bureau” abolished
The Freedmen’s Bureau had been helpful to the African Americans by helping them with education and distributing essentials to them and actually sought to improve life and chances of them but, it was the least liked of the reconstruction ideas so under white Southern pressure congress shut down the organization. -
Civil Rights Act of 1875
On March 1, 1875 the Civil Rights act was passed which protected all Americans, regardless of race, in their access to public places and things like restaurants, theaters, trains and other public transportation, and protected the right to serve on juries. Though it was not enforced, and the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional in 1883. -
End of Reconstruction (March 4, 1877)
In the election of Rutherford Hayes in 1876 he agreed to remove the troops from the south in exchange from South government support to end reconstruction. The withdrawal of troops was done while trying to leave the Civil rights of African Americans protected which were not kept from the south due to them passing a series of laws requiring the separation of whites from “persons of color” on public transportation, in schools, parks, restaurants, theaters and other locations.
