Tuesday 4/04

Reconstruction Amendments

TEKS 8.9B, 8.15D, 8.16B

I can describe how the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments reflect constitutional principles and explain
their impact on life in the United States.
I can evaluate the impact of the election of Hiram Rhodes Revels.
I can analyze how the U.S. Constitution reflects the principles of individual rights.
1. Daily Warm-Up on Onenote.
2. Students access in OneNote the reading about reconstruction and the amendments passed.
3. Read together as a whole class or allow students to read on their own.

Tuesday

1. The period of rebuilding after the Civil War is called?

The period of rebuilding after the Civil War is called _____________________.

2. What did President Lincoln state in his emancipation proclamation?

In Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation Lincoln stated that ___________________.

 Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation has been called a hollow document since it “freed no
slaves.” The Proclamation only freed persons held as slaves in rebelling states. Lincoln realized that as
President, he had no legal grounds to single-handedly end the institution of slavery. He recognized that
the Emancipation proclamation needed to be followed by a constitutional amendment in order to
guarantee the abolition of slavery. Passed in 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery
throughout the nation, confirming the intent of the Emancipation Proclamation.

1. Summarize what the Thirteenth Amendment did.

The Thirteenth Amendment ________________.

2. Why was Lincoln’s Proclamation a “hollow document”

The Proclamation is a hollow document because ___________.

1.

Although the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, it failed to give slaves equal protection
under the law. The Supreme Court had ruled in Dred Scott that slaves were not citizens, but property.
After the Civil War ended, many Southern states passed Black Codes, which denied the freed slaves their
civil rights. The Radical Republican Congress passed the Civil Rights Act in response to the Black Codes,
and quickly proposed its terms as a Constitutional amendment.

Equal protection under the 14th Amendment means the government must treat people equally. The
Fourteenth Amendment granted U.S. citizenship and equal protection to all former slaves. It said that
states must provide all former slaves. It said that states must provide all citizens with “due process of
law” and “equal protection of the laws.” It also prohibited state governments from denying any citizens
their rights to a fair trial. In effect, the Fourteenth Amendment allowed federal courts to protect
individual rights from acts by state governments. It also stated that no one in the former Confederate
government could be a member of the federal government. Finally, it said that all debts incurred by the
United States to fight the Confederacy were to be paid, but none of those incurred by the Confederacy.
Before being re-admitted into the Union, Southern states were forced to ratify this amendment.

3. List three things the Fourteenth Amendment did.

The Fourteenth Amendment

 __________________
 __________________
 __________________

4. Was the Thirteenth Amendment effective in freeing slaves?

The Thirteenth Amendment WAS/WASN’T effective in freeing slaves because ___________________.

5. Define equal protection.

Equal protection means __________.

The Fifteenth Amendment, the last of the Civil War Amendments to be ratified, was designed to close
the last means being used by white Southern leaders to deny civil rights to newly freed, former slaves.
This amendment guaranteed voting rights to male freedmen but not to women.

“The 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”

6. What did the Fifteenth Amendment do?

The Fifteenth Amendment ______________.

7. Why was the Fifteenth Amendment made?

The Fifteenth Amendment was made because of the ______________.

Some Southern whites supported the Republican Party. These were often pro-Union business leaders and
farmers who had not owned enslaved people. Former Confederates who held resentment against those
who had been pro-Union called these people scalawags, a term meaning “scoundrel” or “worthless
rascal.” Republicans also had the support of many Northern whites who moved to the South after the war.
White Southerners called these Northerners carpetbaggers. The term referred to cheap suitcases made of
carpet fabric. White Southerners were suspicious of the Northerners’ intentions. Some carpetbaggers were
dishonest people looking to take advantage of the South’s difficulties, but most were not. Many sincerely
wanted to help rebuild the South.

8. Define scalawags.
Scalawags means _____________.
9. Why were carpet baggers disliked by the south.
Carpet baggers were disliked by the south because _____________.

The Freedmen’s Bureau was established by Congress to help the freed slaves with food, clothing and
medical care. Some of the bureau’s agents were former Northern veterans, empowered to settle disputes
between the freedmen and their former masters. The bureau also searched for lost family members, made
slave marriages legal, opened schools to teach former slaves to read and write, and organized to demand
their civil rights. The new Southern states were slow to extend voting rights to the freedmen. Some
freedmen called for Southerners to give them their own land and tools – “20 acres and a mule” – but
Southern governments refused to do so. Instead, Southern states passed “Black Codes” – based on older
“Slave Codes” in order to regulate the lives of the freedmen. The aim of these codes was to preserve
traditional Southern society despite the abolition of slavery.

10. What was the Freedmen’s Bureau

The Freedmen’s Bureau was __________.
11. What were Black Codes used for?
Black codes were used for ____________.

Following the war, plantation owners in the South faced a dilemma. Even if a family still owned a large
amount of land, they could not farm it by themselves: they needed workers. The Southern economy was
in such shambles that in many instances landowners lacked the money to buy seed and farm
implements, much less to hire laborers. To deal with the South’s economic problems, plantation owners
and freedmen developed the system of sharecropping as a replacement for slavery. Former plantation
owners provided livestock, tools, and land to former slaves in exchange for a share of the crop. Other
former slaves became tenant farmers, paying rent for use of the land. Their arrangements soon
developed into a new means of oppression of the freedmen.

Representative of the changes taking place in the south was the election of Hiram Rhodes Revels. He
became the first African American to serve in the U.S. Congress. Born in North Carolina, Revels attended
college in the North and became a minister. He helped raise two regiments of African Americans during
the Civil War. During Reconstruction, he moved to Mississippi, where he served in local and state
governments before being elected as a U.S. Senator in 1870. In the Senate, he spoke on behalf of racial
equality and amnesty for former Confederates. Senator Charles Sumner, a Radical Republican, spoke of
the importance of Revels’ election: “The Declaration was only half established by Independence. The
greatest duty remained behind. In assuring the equal rights of all, we complete the work.”

12. What are the two different ways of sharecropping systems?

The two different kinds of sharecropping systems were ______________ and ___________________.

13. Who is Hiram Rhodes Revels and why is he important?

Hiram Rhodes Revels is _____________ and he is important because ______________.

14. Which amendment do you think was the most effective in making slaves free?

The most effective amendment was _____________.

15. Why was this amendment so effective in freeing slaves?

This amendment was so effective because of the ____________.