American Government Reconstruction Mr. Leasure 2014 – 2015 Harrison Career Center.

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American Government

Reconstruction

Mr. Leasure2014 – 2015

Harrison Career Center

What did the Emancipation Proclamation accomplish, and why was it important?Key Question #1

What did the Emancipation Proclamation accomplish?

•On January 1, 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves on that day.

•The proclamation had a tremendous impact on the public, but it freed very few slaves on that day.

•Nevertheless, the Emancipation Proclamation was an important symbolic measure.

•For the North, the civil war was no longer about preserving the union – it had became a war of liberation.

What is the significance of the 13th Amendment?Key Question #2

What is the significance of the 13th Amendment?

•One of the greatest effects of the Civil War was the end of slavery in the United States.

•The Emancipation Proclamation applied primarily to slaves in the Confederacy.

• In 1864, Lincoln had approved a constitutional amendment to end slavery entirely but it failed to pass Congress.

• In 1865, Lincoln urged Congress to try again. The measure, known as the Thirteenth Amendment, passed.

•By the years end, 27 states had ratified the amendment. From then on, slavery was banned in the United States.

What was reconstruction and how long did it last?Key Question #2

What was reconstruction and how long did it last?

•The process the federal government used to readmit Confederate states to the union is known as Reconstruction.

•President Andrew Johnson offered to pardon most white southerners in return for a pledge of loyalty to the United States.

•He also required the new state governments to ratify the 13th Amendment prohibiting slavery.

• In 1866, the U.S. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866. It declared that all persons born in the U.S. (except Native Americans) were citizens and entitled to equal rights.

• It declared that all persons born in the U.S. (except Native Americans) were citizens and entitled to equal rights.

•The Congress wanted equality to be protected by the Constitution itself.

•To achieve this goal, Congress proposed a new constitutional amendment in 1866.

•This proposed amendment stated that all people born in the U.S. were citizens and had the same rights.

•Before southern states could reenter the union, they had to approve the proposed amendment to extend citizenship to African-Americans.

•When they did so in 1868, it became the Fourteenth Amendment.

• In 1868, Ulysses Grant became the POTUS.

•During his tenure, the Fifteenth Amendment, which stated that citizens could not be stopped from voting “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude” was ratified.

• In 1875, the Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which outlawed racial segregation in public services and ensured the rights of African-Americans to serve as jurors.

American Government Reconstruction Mr. Leasure 2014 – 2015 Harrison Career Center.

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