1. Chapter 15: The Meaning of
Freedom
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HIS 121 01 PR

2. Blacks and the meaning of Freedom
 Blacks relished the opportunity to demonstrate their liberation from the regulations,
significant and trivial, associated with slavery
 No longer required to obtain pass from their owners to travel

3. Families in Freedom
 Black churches and school, and secret slave church, were strengthened, expanded, and
free from white supervision
 Black women devote more time to their families
 Men considered it a badge of honor to see their wives at home

4. Masters without slaves
 South’s defeat was complete and demoralizing
 Planter families face profound changes
 Most planters defined black freedom in the narrowest manner

5. Key Terms

6. Emancipation

Who
 Abraham Lincoln

What
 Was an Executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln , as war measure during the
the Executive Branch Of United States

American Civil War, to all segments of
Where
 Confederate States
 Union States

When
 January 1863

Impact
 The Emancipation Proclamation Freed all slaves living in the states that had left the union

As a result most former slaves worked as laborers or joined the Union Military, which eased the Union’s Shortage of soldiers

7. Freedmen’s Bureau
 Bureau was an experiment in government social policy that seems to belong more
comfortably to the New Deal of 1930s
 Bureau was agents were supposed to establish schools, provide aid to the poor
 The task of the Bureau—establishing schools, providing aid to the poor and aged, settling
disputes, etc.—was daunting, especially since it had fewer than 1,000 agents.
 The Bureau’s achievements in some areas, notably education and health care, were
striking
 The Bureau lasted from 1865 to 1870

8. Freedmen’s Bureau
 What
 Was established to help poor blacks and whites in the south
 Where
 South

When
 !865 to 1870

Impact
 The Freedmen’s Bureau established schools in the south
 Was established to help poor blacks and whites in the south

9. Andrew Johnson
 He identified himself as the champion of the “honest yeomen” and a foe of large planters
 He believed that Africa-Americans had no role to play in reconstruction
 Johnson lacked Lincoln’s political skills and keen sense of public opinion.

10. Sharecropping
 Many African=Americans rented land for a share or percentage of the total crop
produced
 Landowners divide their land and assigned each head of household a few acres, along
with seed and tools

11. Reconstruction
 1865-1877
 Period during which the U.S. began to rebuild after the Civil War and included the process
by which the federal government readmitted former Confederate states
 Main idea
 Radical republicans in Congress opposed Abraham Lincoln’s and Andrew Johnson’s plans for
Reconstruction and instead implemented its own plan to rebuild the south after the civil war

12. Reconstruction
 Failure
 Johnson’s plan for Reconstruction offered pardons to the white southern elite
 Johnson’s plan allowed the new state governments a free hand in managing local affairs.
 End of Reconstruction
 Reconstruction ended in 1877.
 It would be nearly a century before the nation again tried to bring equal rights to the
descendants of slaves

13. Black Codes
 Southern governments began passing new laws that restricted the freedom of blacks
 These new laws violated free labor principles and called forth a vigorous response from
the Republican North
 These laws granted blacks certain rights, such as legalized marriage, ownership of property
and limited access to the courts
 Purpose:
 Guarantee stable labor supply now that blacks were emancipated.
 Restore pre-emancipation system of race relations.

14. Wade-Davis Bill
 Required 50% of the number of 1860 voters to take an “iron clad” oath of allegiance
(swearing they had never voluntarily aided the rebellion). Senator
 Required a state constitutional Congressman Benjamin convention before the election
Henry Wade W. Davis (R-OH) of state officials. (R-MD)
 Enacted specific safeguards of freedmen’s liberties
 “Iron-Clad” Oath.
 “State Suicide” Theory [MA Senator Charles Sumner]

15. Wade-Davis Bill
 Who
 Congress man Henry Davis
 Senator Benjamin Wade
 What
 Required 50% of the number of the 1860 voters to take an “iron clad” oath of allegiance
 Required a state constitutional convention before the election of state officials
 When
 1860
 Impact
 Enacted specific safeguards of freedmen’s liberties

16. Thaddeus Stevens
 1792-1868
 Regarded the seceded states as “conquered provinces,” promoted much of the major
reconstruction legislation
 The 14th amendment reconstruction, he said, “must revolutionize southern institutions
habits, and manners… the foundation of their institutions,,, must be broken up and relaid
or all our blood and treasure have been spend in vain.”

17. Thaddeus Stevens
 Who
 Part of a group in congress that was given the name “Radicals
 What
 Believed freedmen should be granted free land and guaranteed citizenship
 Wanted the south to abide by strict rules before being readmitted to the union and we called for
punishment for the leaders of the confederacy

18. Homestead Act
 Offered 160 acres of land in the west to any citizen who would settle and farm the land for
5 years
 600,000 families took advantage of this government offer
 Many homesteaders were southerners both white and African-American

19. Homestead Act
 When
 1862
 What
 Authorized congress to grant 160 acres of public land to a western settler, who had to live on the
land for five years to establish a title

20. 13th Amendment
 Amendment Ratified in December, 1865.
 Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime where of the
party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place
subject to their jurisdiction.
 Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

21. 13th Amendment
 Who
 Congress
 What
 Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have
been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any places subject their jurisdiction
 When
 Ratified December 1865
 Impact
 Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation
 This amendment abolished slavery from the United States and its territories

22. 14th Amendment
 It placed in the Constitution the principle of citizenship for all persons born in the United
States and empowered the federal government to protect the rights of all Americans
 It did not grant blacks the right to vote

23. 14th Amendment
 Who
 Congress
 What
 Provide a constitutional guarantee of the rights and security of freed people
 Insure against neo-confederate political power
 Enshrine the national debt while repudiating that of the confederacy
 Impact
 Southern states would be punished for denying the right to vote to black citizens
 It placed in the Constitution the principle of citizenship for all persons born in the United States and
empowered the federal government to protect the rights of all Americans
 It did not grant blacks the right to vote
 Gave citizenship to former slaves and guaranteed no state could enforce a law that took away their
rights as citizens
 When
 Ratified in July, 1868

24. 15th Amendment
 Ulysses S. Grant won the 1868 presidential election.
 The Fifteenth Amendment was ratified in 1870
 It prohibited federal and state governments from denying any citizen the right to vote
because of race.
 Didn’t extend suffrage to women

25. Hiram Revels
 Born on September 27,`827 in North Carolina
 Hiram was first a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1845
 He was the first African American to be on the United States Senate
 Until the 14th amendment was made Revels couldn’t be a part of the Senate
 Hiram was Chaplin to black people in the army Hiram made to regiments in the army

26. Carpetbaggers
 Carpetbaggers were northern-born white Republicans who made their homes in the South
after the war, with many holding political office.
 Northerners who wanted to take advantage of political opportunity and traveled South to
win elections
 Northerner republicans who moved to the south

27. Ku Klux Klan
 Ku Klux Klan refers to a secret society or an inner circle
 Ku klux klan-violent terrorist organization devoted to white supremacy
 Organized in 1867, in Polaski, Tennessee by Nathan Bedford Forrest.
 Represented the ghosts of dead Confederate soldiers
 Disrupted Reconstruction as much as they could.
 Opposed Republicans, Carpetbaggers, Scalawags and Freedmen.

28. KKK
 Who
 White southerners

What
 KKK was a secret society opposed to African Americans obtaining civil rights, particularly the right to vote
 Violent terrorist organization devoted to white supremacy
 Where
 Polaski, Tennessee

When
 1867

Impact
 Klan Members wore white robes and hoods to hide their identities

29. Enforcement Act
 Enforcement Act of 1870 and 1871 also known as the KKK Act
 “The Lost Cause”

30. Civil Rights Act of 1875
 Crime for any individual to deny full and equal use of public conveyances and public
places
 Prohibited discrimination in jury selection
 Guaranteed all people equal rights in public places-l ater declared unconstitutional

31. Rutherford B. Hayes
 He was the 19th president
 Born on Oct. 1822
 Died Jam 1893

32. Rutherford B. Hayes
 What
 Campaign of 1876
 Republicans Nominated Governor Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio
 Hayes had carried the disputed southern state and had been elected president

33. Radical Republicans
 Radical Republicans called for the dissolution of Johnson’s state governments, the
establishment of new governments that did not have “rebels” in power, and the
guarantee of the right to vote for black men
 The Radicals fully embraced the expanded powers of the federal government born of the
Civil War
 Charles Summer
 Thaddeus Stevens

34. Impeachment and Ulysses S. Grant
 To demonstrate his dislike for the Tenure of Office Act, Johnson removed the secretary of
war from office in 1868.
 Johnson was impeached and the Senate fell one vote short from removing him from
office.

35. Impeachment
 Who
 President Johnson
 What
 Johnson replaced generals in the field who were more sympathetic to Radical Reconstruction
 When
 February, 1868
 Where
 Stanton

Impact
 House impeached him on February 24 before even drawing up the charges by a vote of 126-47
 Johnson acquitted 35 to 19 (one short of required 2.3s vote)