Lincoln's Assassination

UNit 13: Reconstruction

Lesson: Lincoln's Assassination

Tennessee State Standards:

8.69 Analyze President Abraham Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan, President Andrew Johnson’s Plan, and the Radical Republican Plan for Reconstruction.

reconstruction Begins

After the Civil War, the United States had to find a way to bring the eleven southern states back into the union. It also had to deal with issues stemming from the emancipation of 4 million slaves in the United States. This process, known as Reconstruction, lasted from 1865 to 1877.

LINCOLN'S RECONSTRUCTION PLAN

Conflicts about the process of reconstruction soon arose. Abraham Lincoln wanted to be fair to the south and allow those states back into the union as quick as possible. Lincoln‘s Reconstruction Plan required the former Confederate States to do three things to rejoin the union:

First, 10% of the people in each state who had voted in the 1860 Presidential Election had to take an oath to obey the constitution. For this reason, it is often referred to as the "10% plan."
Second, each state had to set up a new government with a new state constitution.
Third, each state had to abolish slavery. Lincoln's plan would pardon all but the highest Confederate officials and military leaders.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION

On April 14, 1865, Lincoln, his wife Mary Todd Lincoln, and some friends of sat in the box at Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC, watching a performance of the play "Our American Cousin."

At 10:15 p.m. that evening, John Wilkes Booth walked into the box and shot Lincoln in the back of the head. Lincoln died the following morning. People throughout the nation were shocked!

Not surprisingly, Lincoln‘s assassination angered northerners and opened the doors for revenge against the south. African-Americans also did not achieve the gains they wished. This is partly because the new president, Andrew Johnson, was not sympathetic to their needs.

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