Unit 5: Reconstruction of a Nation (1865-1880)

Unit Overview: Reconstruction of a Nation

This unit covers the years 1865 to 1880. Major events/themes covered in this unit:

Unit Essay: Reconstruction

In order to get credit for this project you must write an essay on the following topic:

ReconstructionIn 1865, after four grueling years of war, the Confederacy had been defeated and their society had been in many ways destroyed. Before he died, Lincoln understood that the South would be in need of reconstruction and had begun to make plans for its rebuilding. The great problem that the Federal government faced in Southern reconstruction was how to integrate African Americans as equals in a society where they had previously been slaves, all the while facing a hostile and resistant population. Using the knowledge you have gained from your lessons in this unit, write a well-developed essay of no less than 600 words on whether or not the Reconstruction can be viewed as a success.

Helpful links for this essay:

Reconstruction Era

Black Codes/ Ku Klux Klan

Freedmen's Bureau

Compromise of 1877

The New South

Plessy v Ferguson

US Civil War and Reconstruction in 10 minutes (10:21)

"Worse than Slavery", a Reconstruction Era political cartoon

Unit Videos:                                                    

Civil War Episode 9: The Better Angels of Our Nature

God in America 3: A Nation Reborn

US Civil War and Reconstruction in 10 minutes (10:21)

Unit Lectures:

Reconstruction Essay Class

Unit Primary Sources:

Civil War Unit 5 Key Terms

Civil War Unit 5 Key Terms

For this project you must define the terms listed below and explain each term's significance to the unit/era being studied. Your definition should be 2-3 sentences long and may be copied and pasted from a source like Wikipedia, but the significance of the term must be in your own words and based on your own understanding. To fill out a term's significance, ask yourself, "Why is this item included in my study of this unit? Why is this term in a history book?" The answer to this question is your term's significance. 

Unit 5 Key Terms:

Battle of Fort Stedman

Battle of Five Forks

Appomattox Campaign

Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

Ten Percent Plan (of Reconstruction)

President Andrew Johnson

Radical Republicans

Reconstruction Era

Black Codes

Carpetbaggers/Scalawags

The 13th Amendment

Civil Rights Act of 1866

Ku Klux Klan

Freedmen's Bureau

The 14th Amendment

The 15th Amendment

Civil Rights Act of 1871

Election of 1876

Compromise of 1877

Plessy v Ferguson

Below is an example of a key term done with the proper format:

William the Conqueror: William I (c. 1028[2] – 9 September 1087), also known as William the Conqueror (Guillaume le Conquérant), was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II. Before his conquest of England, he was known as William the Bastard because of the illegitimacy of his birth.To press his claim to the English crown, William invaded England in 1066, leading an army of Normans, Bretons, Flemings, and Frenchmen (from Paris andÎle-de-France) to victory over the English forces of King Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings, and suppressed subsequent English revolts in what has become known as the Norman Conquest.[3] (I copied and pasted this definition from Wikipedia)

Significance: William the Conqueror is significant because his conquest of England created the first nation state in Europe. His rearrangement of English feudal territories to give himself dramatically more power than the the barons and nobles around him caused him to be the most powerful monarch in Europe and eventually led to the rise of other nation states over the next few centuries. (These are my words based on my knowledge of English and European history.)