Political History: The Reconstruction Era

The Reconstruction Era was a period of rebuilding and reconciliation after the Civil War. The primary goal was to reunite the North and South and to create a more unified nation.

The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1865, abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime.

The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1868, granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, including African Americans.

The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1870, prohibited states from depriving citizens of their right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Hiram Revels was the first African American to serve in the United States Congress. He was elected to the Senate from Mississippi in 1870.

The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, also known as the Freedmen's Bureau, was a federal agency created in 1865 to oversee the Reconstruction of the South.

The Ku Klux Klan was a white supremacist terrorist organization that opposed Reconstruction. It used violence and intimidation to prevent African Americans from exercising their civil rights.

The Compromise of 1877 was a political deal that allowed white Southerners to regain control of their state governments. In exchange, the federal government agreed to withdraw its troops from the South and to end Reconstruction.

United States v. Cruikshank was a Supreme Court case that overturned the Civil Rights Act of 1875. The Court ruled that the federal government did not have the authority to protect African Americans from discrimination by private individuals.

Andrew Johnson was the president who oversaw the Reconstruction Era. He succeeded Abraham Lincoln after his assassination in 1865.

Rutherford B. Hayes was the president who signed the Compromise of 1877. He served as president from 1877 to 1881.

Rutherford B. Hayes was the president who oversaw the end of Reconstruction. He served as president from 1877 to 1881.