Reconstruction

Click here to open a Google Document with the usernames and passwords that will allow you to access databases from an off-site computer.

Databases

Historical Newspaper Databases

General Websites

History Central: The Reconstruction Period

Civil War and Reconstruction This Library of Congress exhibition contains succinct overviews of several aspects of the Civil War and Reconstruction and features primary sources, maps, and images.

For political cartoons from the Resonstruction Era and about Jim Crow laws, check out these sites:

Harper's Weekly Political Cartoons -- Reconstruction

Harper's Weekly Political Cartoons -- Black Americans

Encyclopedia of Alabama

SOCIAL

Freedman's Bureau

https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/freedmens-bureau#:~:text=The%20Freedmen's%20Bureau%2C%20formally%20known,aftermath%20of%20the%20Civil%20War.

https://www.freedmensbureau.com/

Black Codes

Black Codes - The end of the Civil War marked the end of slavery for 4 million black Southerners. But the war also left them landless and with little money to support themselves. White Southerners seeking to control the freedmen (former slaves), devised special state law codes. Many Northerners saw these codes as blatant attempts to restore slavery.

Ku Klux Klan (First Wave)

https://www.history.com/topics/reconstruction/ku-klux-klan

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/article/ku-klux-klan/6th-grade/

POLITICAL

Military Reconstruction Act

https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/military-reconstruction

Civil Rights Amendments

13th Amendment - The 13th amendment to the United States Constitution provides that 'Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States , or any place subject to their jurisdiction.' It passed the Senate on April 8, 1864 , and the House on January 31, 1865 . On February 1, 1865 , President Abraham Lincoln approved the Joint Resolution of Congress submitting the proposed amendment to the state legislatures. The necessary number of states ratified it by December 6, 1865.

14th Amendment - Following the Civil War, Congress submitted to the states three amendments as part of its Reconstruction program to guarantee equal civil and legal rights to black citizens. The major provision of the 14th amendment was to grant citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States , thereby granting citizenship to former slaves. Another equally important provision was the statement that nor shall any state deprive any person of live, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. The right to due process of law and equal protection of the law now applied to both the Federal and state governments.

15th Amendment - To former abolitionists and to the Radical Republicans in Congress who fashioned Reconstruction after the Civil War, the 15th amendment, enacted in 1870, appeared to signify the fulfillment of all promises to African Americans. Set free by the 13th amendment, with citizenship guaranteed by the 14th amendment, black males were given the vote by the 15th amendment. This Our Documents site has a facsimile of the original document, a transcription of it, and background information to help the reader put the document in context.