Lesson: Reconstruction

5-1.2 Explain the effects of Reconstruction, including new rights under the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments; the actions of the Freedmen’s Bureau; and the move from a plantation system to sharecropping.

Essential Information:

Three Reconstruction amendments were designed to end slavery and protect the rights of the newly freed slaves.

The thirteenth amendment freed the slaves everywhere in the United States. It is a common misconception that the Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves. The only slaves freed by President Lincoln’s proclamation were slaves that were in territories still controlled by the Confederacy. The Confederate government did not recognize the right of the President of the United States to free its slaves. The Union Army freed the slaves in the territories that it conquered. However, there were still slaves in the border states that had not left the Union and in parts of the South that the Union Army did not control. This amendment recognized the rights of all Americans to “life liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as promised in the Declaration of Independence. Consequently, during Reconstruction, the rights of African Americans were protected by the federal government. The fourteenth amendment overturned the Dred Scott decision and recognized the citizenship of African Americans. The amendment also recognized the rights of all citizens to “due process of law” and “equal protection of the laws.” The amendment affected African Americans in all parts of the United States, not just in the South. Southern states refused to ratify the amendment and so Congressional Reconstruction was imposed.

The fourteenth amendment also included provisions for lessening the political power of states that did not recognize the rights of citizens to vote. However, this was not effective and led to the passage of the fifteenth amendment.

The fifteenth amendment declared that a male citizen’s right to vote could not be infringed upon based on “race, creed or previous condition of servitude.” The amendment affected African Americans in all parts of the United States, not just in the South. Southern states were required to write new constitutions that allowed African Americans to vote. Southern critics claimed that the only reason Congress passed this amendment was to protect the power of the Republican Party. Certainly this motive played a part in the passage of the fifteenth amendment, however, as a result of the amendment; African Americans were able to vote and hold political office and were elected to state legislatures and congressional delegations during the Reconstruction period. Although the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments were designed to protect the rights of African Americans, they were only effective so long as the Republicans had control of state governments or federal troops were able to protect African American’s social and political rights. No provisions were passed to ensure that African Americans would be able to own land and most Southerners refused to sell land to African Americans, even if the former slaves had the money to purchase it. Consequently the economic rights and independence of freedmen were limited, even during Reconstruction. Once Reconstruction ended, there were no protections in place for the rights of African Americans. Although African Americans had constitutional rights as a result of the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendments, these were often violated by groups such as the Ku Klux Klan.