Reconstruction

and Expansion
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Day 1- Civil War and Reconstruction

Civil War (cont.)

The Civil War was the deadliest war for
America of any war America has ever been
involved in
Lincolns main goal in fighting the Civil War
was to preserve the Union
He later redefined the aim of the war to
include the freedom of slaves (Emancipation
Proclamation)

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 Emancipation Proclamation
Emancipation Proclamation (1862)- issued by
Lincoln as a way to broaden the goals of the
war and achieve a moral victory, but through
its principles it freed absolutely no slaves on
the day it was given; changed the purpose of
the war and caused Europeans to withdraw
from supporting the south
The Proclamation did not end slavery; this
would be done with the passage of the 13th
amendment in 1865

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 Wars Impact on the South
The war had a devastating
effect on the economy of the
South
It cut off Southern planters
from the markets in the
North, made the sale of
cotton overseas more
difficult, and the fighting
itself wreaked havoc on the
Southern economy
The Souths railroad system
was nearly destroyed and
much of its most valuable
farmland and many of the
more successful plantations
were ruined by Union troops

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 March to the Sea
March to the Sea (1864)-Sherman's
destructive route from Atlanta to Savannah,
Georgia Sherman destroyed anything and
everything, hoping to demoralize the south

Shermans men destroying a

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railroad in Atlanta
 Wars Impact
The war accomplished a number of
things
1. The war ensured the permanence
of the Union
2. The war strengthened the Norths
economy, while greatly damaging the
Souths
3. 3.5 million slaves who had once
lived in bondage emerged from the
war as free men and women

Reconstruction Era (1865-1877)-

Period after the Civil War during
which Northern political leaders
created plans for the governance of
the South and a procedure for former
Southern states to rejoin the Union;
Southern resentment of this era
lasted well into the twentieth century 5/3/17 6
 Reconstruction
Freedmans Bureau- temporary agency
created after the Civil War for former
slaves it worked to provide food and
medical care, to help the freedmen to
resettle, to ensure justice, to establish
schools, and to employ themthe bureau
was shut down in 1872
One reason the bureau was weakened was
because of the Ku Klux Klan- this group was
founded in Tennessee in 1866; its oftentimes
violent actions during the Reconstruction
era represented the resentments felt by
many Southern whites towards the changing
political, social, and economic conditions of
the Reconstruction era
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 Day 2- Go West, Young Man

Go West, Young Man

Territorial acquisitions in the
West opened new markets and
new opportunities
Many Americans believed
expanding the United States was
their manifest destiny-19th
century American belief that the
United States was destined to
expand across the continent
The Gold Rush of 1849 (gold was
discovered in California) also
spurred westward movement
(get rich quick!)
In 1871, newspaper editor
Horace Greeley wrote a famous
letter to a reader in which he
encouraged the young man to go
west for opportunities (Go
West!)
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John Gast, American Progress (1872)

9
 Immigration
During this time, immigrants came
to the United States looking for
employment and opportunities,
specifically impoverished
Europeans (many Irish from the
potato famine in Ireland)
Many Chinese immigrants also
came to America at this time,
many who encountered racism
Many of these immigrants also
moved west in search of
opportunities and money (gold
rush)
As mining declined as a source of
wealth, railroad employment grew

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 Transcontinental Railroad
The construction of the
Transcontinental Railroad
changed America forever
Completed in 1869 at
Promontory, Utah, it linked the
eastern railroad system with
California's railroad system,
revolutionizing transportation in
the west
The Transcontinental Railroad
made it easier to transport
people and goods
Many immigrants contributed to
the construction of this railroad
(Chinese, Irish, etc.), yet many
were prevented from being in
photographs
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 Homestead Act of 1862
The federal government also
encouraged westward
expansion and settlement
Homestead Act of 1862 gave
white settlers 160 acres of land
for a small fee if they occupied
the land they purchased for
five years and improved it
homesteaders- people who
used this opportunitythe
majority of the people who
took advantage of this act
abandoned the region before
the end of the required five
years, unable to cope with the
difficult lifestyle of the west
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Day 3- The Rise of Jim Crow

14th and 15th Amendments

The 14th Amendment
declared that everyone born
in the U.S. is a natural
citizen
The 15th Amendment was
ratified on February 3, 1870,
and it granted African-
American men the right to
vote. However, this right
was not fully realized until
the Voting Rights Act of
1965 was passed before
which Southern states
effectively kept African- The First Vote (political cartoon)
Americans from the voting
booths through literacy
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tests and poll taxes
 Sharecropping
Sharecropping- A
system of agriculture
where a landowner
allows a tenant to use
the land in return for a
share of the crop
produced on land
After the Civil War,
sharecropping was a
widespread response
to the economic
upheaval caused by the
emancipation of slaves
and
disenfranchisement of
poor whites
Sharecropping helped
to maintain the status
quo between Blacks
and Whites 5/3/17 14
 Jim Crow Laws
Few southerners had ever accepted
the idea of racial equality
In fact, the Supreme Court effectively
stripped the 14th and 15th
amendments of much of their
significance
In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), a case
involving a Louisiana law that
required separate seating
arrangements for the races on
railroads, the Court held that
separate accommodations were
equal, a decision that survived for
years as part of the legal basis for
segregated schools
separate but equal- state-required
racial segregation in places of public
accommodation as long as the
facilities were equal 15
 Booker T Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois
Booker T. Washington- a major
African American leader in the late
1800s and early 1900s, proposed
the idea of African Americans
gradually gaining their rights he
believed they should attend school,
learn skills, and establish a solid
footing in agriculture and trade
African Americans should forgo
agitating for political rights and
concentrate on self-improvement
and preparation for equality
Washington- In all things social we
can be as separate as the fingers,
yet one as the hand in all things
essential to mutual progress
W.E.B. Du Bois- fought for
immediate implementation of
African American rightsOpponent
of Booker T Washington
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 Day 4- Native Americans and Assimilation

Native American Life Changing

Native
Americans in
the mid and
late 1800s were
continually
being moved
and forced onto
reservations-
allotted land
with designated
boundaries for
Native
American tribes

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 Destruction of the Buffalo
Native Americans living in the Midwest
suffered due to the destruction of the
buffalo population- an animal they
relied on for many things
White settlers killed buffalo for food,
supplies, robes, leather, and even for
sport
In 1830 there were around 40 million
buffalo in the Untied States; By the
1890s fewer than a thousand of the
great beasts survived
By destroying the buffalo herds, whites
were destroying Native Americans
source of food and supplies and their
ability to resist the advance of settlers
"Kill every buffalo you can! Every
buffalo dead is an Indian gone- quote
from an American army colonel

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5/3/17 19
 Dawes Act
Dawes Act (1887)- attempt to
Americanize" the Native-Americans and
divide their land into allotments for
individual Native Am.Those who
accepted allotments and lived separately
from the tribe would be granted United
States citizenship portions of this land
ended up in the hands of white settlers
In addition, the law created federally
funded boarding schools designed to
assimilate Native American children into
white society. Family and cultural ties
were practically destroyed by the now-
notorious boarding schools, in which
children were punished for speaking
their native language or performing
native rituals
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 Assimilation
Assimilation- the act
of bringing into
conformity with the
customs, attitudes,
etc., of a group,
nation, or the like
(Native Americans
were forced to Native American man before and after
his time at a boarding school
become like white
Americans- they
were forced to
assimilate)

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Day 5-The Gilded Age

The Gilded Age

Gilded Age (1870-1900)- period
when corruption existed in
society but was overshadowed
by the wealth of the period
gilded- when something is
golden/beautiful on the surface
but is really cheap/worthless
underneath
Large-scale production and
technological innovation led to
urbanization, mass migration,
and social changes during the
Gilded Age
The increasing efficiency of
American industry during this
time made it a worldwide
economic force
One of the greatest
developments in American
industry was the increase in
the production of steel 5/3/17 22
Andrew Carnegie- King of Steel
The steel industry emerged in
Pennsylvania, and Pittsburgh
became the center of the steel
world
Andrew Carnegie- Scottish-
born industrialist who
developed the U.S. steel
industry; his is a rags-to-riches
story as he made a fortune in
business and sold his holdings
in 1901 for $447 million He
spent the rest of his life giving
away $350 million to worthy
cultural and educational
causes
Gospel of Wealth- an essay
written by Andrew Carnegie in
1889 that described the
responsibility of philanthropy
by the new upper class of self-
made rich 5/3/17 23
 John Rockefeller- King of Oil
John D. Rockefeller rose to
dominate the oil industry
Rockefeller used aggressive
business practices to build
his empire- driving out rival
firms through cutthroat
competition, arranging
secret deals, etc.
Rockefellers oil company
was named Standard Oil
Company and was formed in
1870it came to symbolize
the trusts and monopolies of
the Gilded Age... By 1877
this company controlled
95% of the oil refineries in
the US 5/3/17 24
5/3/17 25
 Standard Oil Dissolved
On May 15, 1911, the Supreme
Court ordered the dissolution
of Standard Oil Company,
ruling it was in violation of the
Sherman Antitrust Act
The break-up of Standard Oil
into 34 companies, among
them those that became
Exxon, Mobil, and Chevron,
marked the birth of strong
antitrust policy, in the United
States and beyond
Antitrust- relating to
legislation preventing or
controlling trusts or other
monopolies, with the intention
of promoting competition in
business
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