Advanced Placement United States History
Chapter 22: The Ordeal of Reconstruction – 1865-1877 (pages 477-499)
Big Themes:
- Johnson’s political blunders and Southern white recalcitrance led to the imposition of congressional military Reconstruction on the South. Reconstruction did address difficult issues of reform and racial justice in the South and achieved some success, such as the Fourteenth (citizenship and equal protection of the laws) and Fifteenth (black voting rights) Amendments. But its ultimate abandonment meant those provisions remained unfulfilled promises, while Reconstruction left behind a deep legacy of racial and sectional bitterness..
Read Chapter 22 (pages 477 – 499) - It is recommended that you take notes on the chapter but not required.
Key People, Places, and Terms –Select 4 Names (1-8) and 12 descriptions (7-26)from the list below that you deem important. Then, define and cite the significance of your choice. Place your choices and definition on a separate piece of paper. (These terms could be used for notecard bonus)
***When identifying People and Terms keep in mind the timeline of chapter
1. Oliver O. Howard4. Charles Sumner
2. Andrew Johnson5. Thaddeus Stevens
3. Alexander Stephens6. William Seward
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7. Freedmen’s Bureau17. Military Reconstruction Act
8. 10 percent plan18. Fifteenth Amendment
9. Wade-Davis Bill19. Ex parte Milligan
10. “conquered provinces”20. “radical” regimes
11. moderate/radical Republican21. scalawags
12. Black Codes22. carpetbaggers
13. sharecropping23. Ku Klux Klan
14. Civil Rights Act24. Force Acts
15. Fourteenth Amendment25. Tenure of Office Act
16. “swing around the circle”26. “Seward’s Folly”
Guided Reading Questions – Please submit your answers on a separate piece of paper. In addition, please include the questions with your responses.
- What were the major problems facing the South and the nation after the Civil War? How did Reconstruction address them, or fail to do so?
- How did freed blacks react to the end of slavery? How did both Southern and Northern whites react?
- How did the white South’s intransigence and President Johnson’s political bungling open the way for the congressional Republican program of military Reconstruction?
- What was the purpose of congressional Reconstruction, and what were its actual effects in the South?
- What did the attempt at black political empowerment achieve? Why did it finally fail? Could it have succeeded with a stronger Northern political will behind it?
- Why did Reconstruction apparently fail so badly? Was the failure primarily one of immediate political circumstances, or was it more deeply rooted in the history of American sectional and race relations?