Marc Fohran, Bailey Litwin,

Jennifer Wang, &

Jackie Williams

THE THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT

Lincoln’s Assassination, The Appomattox, and the End of

the War

The ThirteenthThe Fourteenth The Fifteenth

THE AMENDMENTS

THE THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT

The Thirteenth Amendment was passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified by the states on December 18, 1865

The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery offi cially.

While the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves in Confederate states, further action was needed to permanently guarantee the elimination of slavery throughout the United States and its territories.

THE THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT

After slavery ended, southern states tried to control the African Americans through Black Codes, a series of laws which enforced segregation, limited black job opportunities, and kept African Americans from voting.

These concerns were addressed with the Fourteenth Amendment.

THE FLAW OF THE THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT

The Fourteenth Amendment was adopted on July 9, 1868. It is split into many clauses.

Its Citizenship Clause provides a broad defi nition of citizenship. It overrules past beliefs that people of African descent could not be citizens of the United States.

The Due Process Clause prohibits state and local governments from taking away life, liberty, or property without having it justifi ed. This clause has been used to make the Bill of Rights have more power in the states.

The Equal Protection Clause requires each state to provide equal protection under the law to all people within its power, regardless of race.

The amendment also includes a number of clauses dealing with the Confederacy and its offi cials.

THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT

The Fourteenth Amendment was also passed in response to the Black Codes that southern states had passed after the Thirteenth Amendment.

Black Codes attempted to return former slaves to something like their former condition by forcing them to enter into year-long labor contracts, prohibiting them from owning firearms, and preventing them from suing or testifying in court, among other things.

FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT

The Fifteenth Amendment prohibits the federal and state governments from not allowing a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen’s race or previous condition of servitude.

It was ratified on February 3, 1870 as the third and final of the Reconstruction Amendments.

THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT

APPOMATTOX

The Army of Northern Virginia, directed by Robert E. Lee, was greatly weakened after battle. The tired, hungry survivors marched west toward Amelia Court House in hopes of fi nding food.

When Lee and his men arrived they found only ammunition. They continued to march west on empty stomachs. Lee hoped to reach Danvil le or Lynchburg and eventually l ink up with Joseph Johnston and his army.

Grant was determined to stop Lee. General Sheridan, a major general of the Union, directed his cavalry to cut Lee off. On April 6, the Union forces caught up with Lee’s army. In a hard-fought but hopeless battle, the Union army captured 6,000 men, and again weakened the Army of Northern Virginia. 

Lee and the remnants of his army moved toward Appomattox Court House, where two trainloads of food awaited the starving Southerners. On April 7, Sheridan's horsemen set out to capture Appomattox. 

That night, Grant sent a message to Lee. In the message he asked Lee to surrender.

THE BATTLE

Grant was determined to stop Lee. General Sheridan, a major general of the Union, directed his cavalry to cut Lee off. On April 6, the Union forces caught up with Lee’s army. In a hard-fought but hopeless battle, the Union army captured 6,000 men, and again weakened the Army of Northern Virginia. 

Lee and the remnants of his army moved toward Appomattox Court House in Virginia, where two trainloads of food awaited the starving Southerners. On April 7, Sheridan's horsemen set out to capture Appomattox. 

That night, Grant sent a message to Lee. In the message he asked Lee to surrender.

THE BATTLE

On April 8, Lee replied that he was willing to talk with Grant, but not to surrender his army, which continued to move toward Appomattox

In the early morning of April 9 Lee's men made a fi nal attempt to break away from the Union. The attack failed, fi nally convincing Lee that the end had come. He sent an offi cer to Grant asking for "a suspension of hostilities pending the adjustment of the terms of surrender of this army.”

Grant was very generous. Lee's men were allowed to return to their homes. Offi cers could keep their weapons, and soldiers who privately owned horses could keep them for use in their livelihoods. Lee agreed to all of the conditions, and the two commanders signed the surrender document in the house of McLean

THE SURRENDER

The Battle of Palmito Ranch, fought on May 12-13, 1865, was the last major battle of the Civil War.

It was technically a Confederate victory.The last surrender of the Civil War was by General

Edmund Kirby Smith, who surrendered on June 2nd.

THE LAST BATTLE OF THE CIVIL WAR

LINCOLN’S ASSASSINATION

President Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth in Ford’s Theater in Washington, D. C. on April 14 th, 1865.

Lincoln was paralyzed and barely breathing. He was carried to a boarding house across the street, and died on April 15 th. He never regained consciousness.

John Wilkes Booth was captured and shot in a barn in Bowling Green, Virginia on April 26 th.

FORD’S THEATER

Booth had not fought in the war, and so felt a little like a coward. He decided that Lincoln was a tyrant, and so tried to get rid of him.

A conspirator of Booth’s, Lewis Paine, attacked Secretary of State William Henry Seward. Seward was stabbed in the throat but survived because of a metal surgical collar he was wearing at the time.

Paine and three other conspirators, George Atzerodt, David Herold, and Mary Surratt were hanged on July 7 th, 1865.

BOOTH AND HIS CONSPIRATORS

Everybody mourned the President’s death.The newly freed slaves saw him as their savior and

guardian, and did not know how they would be treated with him gone.

Southern people were not happy with the President’s death. They knew that the President would be kind to them, unlike many other politicians.

THE AFTERMATH

RECONSTRUCTION AND THE FUTURE OF AMERICA

The Reconstruction Period was between the end of the Civil War in 1865 and the removal of the last federal troops from the South in 1877.

Reconstruction was the name Lincoln used for the process of bringing North and South together into a united nation.

This period was marked by horrific racial violence, widespread Southern poverty, and general political unrest, unlike what Lincoln had planned.

However, it was not all bad.

RECONSTRUCTION AND THE FUTURE OF AMERICA

The South was devastated after the war. The war had drained them of resources, and the Union army had destroyed buildings, fields, and railroads.

The four million freed slaves looking for work, shelter, and resources did not help.

The post-war governments in the South were not recognized by the northern Republicans in Congress. This led to the Reconstruction Acts of 1867, in which it states that in order to be readmitted to the Union, the ex-Confederate states had to accept the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, disenfranchise ex-Confederate soldiers, and establish a new state constitution. By 1880, all the states had been readmitted into the Union.

THE BAD PART

Disenfranchised ex-Confederates did not like their Reconstruction governments (which were comprised of pro-Unionist Southerners and black people)

In order to intimidate black people, they made groups like the Ku Klux Klan, where they used intimidation tactics to keep black voters away from the polls.

By 1876, the combination of racial intimidation and dwindling interest in the southern states meant that the South was nearly all Democratic again.

The white Democrats made a deal with President Rutherford B. Hayes to remove the last federal troops from the South.

THE BAD PART

Because ex-Confederates were disenfranchised, black people had more political power than they ever had before and would not experience for another hundred years.

Congress created the Freedman’s Bureau to aid and protect newly emancipated blacks.

Establishment of free public schoolsAbolishment of debt imprisonmentDrafting of state constitutions that had the concept of

equal rights

THE GOOD PART

Created by:Marc FohranBailey Litwin Jennifer Wang Jackie Williams

Now make sure you study.

THE END