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Reconstruction

Two competing plans for rebuilding the South, three new amendments, and the deal that finally let Reconstruction die.

6 topics · 19 questions

Each topic is a path, not a menu: work down it in order and every question builds on the one above. Click any of them to watch the answer draw itself.

Presidential Reconstruction Against Radical Reconstruction

  1. How it worksCompare Andrew Johnson's lenient Reconstruction plan with the Radical Republicans' plan enforced by the military.
  2. How it worksWalk me through how the Radical Republicans divided the South into five military districts after 1867.
  3. Going furtherWhat happens to Andrew Johnson's power over Reconstruction once the House actually impeaches him in 1868.
Your turn1 of 2
President Andrew Johnson wanted Southern states readmitted to the Union quickly under lenient terms. Congress's Radical Republicans wanted much stronger federal guarantees for freedpeople before readmission. Why did Congress and the president end up fighting each other over how to rebuild the South?

The Reconstruction Amendments

  1. Going furtherWhat happens to the 15th Amendment's promise once states start writing literacy tests and poll taxes.
  2. How it worksShow me what the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments each actually changed in the Constitution.
  3. How it worksHow did the 14th Amendment's citizenship clause overturn the Dred Scott decision from a decade earlier.
Your turn1 of 2
Between 1865 and 1870, three separate constitutional amendments dealt with slavery, citizenship, and voting rights one at a time rather than all together in one amendment. Why did it take three separate amendments to secure freedom, citizenship, and the vote?

The Freedmen's Bureau

  1. How it worksShow me the Freedmen's Bureau routing food, schools, and legal help across the defeated South after 1865.
  2. Common mistakeWhy isn't it true that the Freedmen's Bureau ever delivered on its promise of forty acres and a mule.
  3. How it worksHow did the Freedmen's Bureau build thousands of schools that taught formerly enslaved children and adults to read.
Your turn1 of 2
The Freedmen's Bureau employed only about 954 agents to serve roughly 4.06 million newly freed people across the defeated South. About how many people did each agent serve on average?

Sharecropping and the New South Economy

  1. How it worksWalk me through how sharecropping trapped a family in debt to the same landowner year after year.
  2. How it worksHow does a crop-lien system turn a bad harvest into debt that follows a sharecropping family into next season.
  3. Common mistakeWhy isn't sharecropping simply a fair deal between an equal landowner and an equal tenant farmer.
Your turn1 of 2
After emancipation, many Black families ended up farming the same plantation land they had worked while enslaved, this time as sharecroppers splitting the crop with the landowner. Why did freedom still leave so many families farming the same land under a different name?

Black Codes and the Rise of Jim Crow

  1. Going furtherWhat happens to Black political power in the South once Jim Crow laws and violence spread state by state.
  2. How it worksShow me Black Codes restricting labor and movement giving way to full Jim Crow segregation by the 1890s.
  3. How it worksHow did Plessy v. Ferguson's separate but equal ruling in 1896 give Jim Crow laws legal cover.
Your turn1 of 2
Within months of the Civil War ending, Southern state legislatures passed a wave of new laws called Black Codes, restricting freedpeople's labor contracts, movement, and legal rights. Why did these laws appear so quickly?

The Compromise of 1877

  1. How it worksShow me the Compromise of 1877 trading the presidency for the withdrawal of federal troops from the South.
  2. How it worksHow did pulling the last federal troops out of the South in 1877 let Southern Redeemer governments retake control.
  3. Going furtherWhat happens to Reconstruction's gains for Black Southerners once federal protection is gone in 1877.
  4. Ties togetherHow does the Compromise of 1877 clear the way for the Jim Crow system that follows it for the next 80 years?
Your turn1 of 2
The 1876 presidential election between Rutherford Hayes and Samuel Tilden ended in a dispute over contested electoral votes. Why did resolving that dispute end up deciding the fate of Reconstruction itself?