AP US History AMSCO Guided Notes
5.11: Failure of Reconstruction
AMSCO Guided Notes
AP US History Guided Notes
AMSCO 5.11 - Failure of Reconstruction
Learning Objectives
- Explain how and why Reconstruction resulted in continuity and change in regional and national understandings of what it meant to be American.
I. Lincoln's Last Speech
1. What position did Lincoln take on voting rights for freedmen in his last public address?
2. How did Lincoln's assassination affect the prospects for Reconstruction reform?
II. Evaluating the Republican Record
A. Accomplishments
1. What major reforms did Republican legislators implement in Southern state constitutions during Reconstruction?
2. What institutions and infrastructure did Republicans establish or promote in the South?
B. Failures
1. What instances of corruption occurred during Republican rule in the South, and how did this compare to corruption elsewhere in the nation?
III. The End of Reconstruction
1. Who were the redeemers and what political program did they pursue when they took control of Southern state governments?
IV. White Supremacy and the Ku Klux Klan
1. What was the purpose of the Ku Klux Klan and what methods did it use to achieve its goals?
2. How did Congress respond to Ku Klux Klan violence during Reconstruction?
V. Southern Governments
1. What did the new Southern state constitutions accomplish, and what important right did they fail to extend to African Americans?
2. Why were Republicans dismayed by the election results in the new Southern state governments?
VI. Black Codes
1. What restrictions did Black Codes place on African Americans' economic and legal rights?
2. How did the 13th Amendment's exception for criminal punishment enable a new form of forced labor in the South?
VII. Sharecropping
1. How did sharecropping develop as a system, and what role did African American autonomy play in its adoption?
2. Why did sharecropping ultimately become a new form of servitude despite initially offering opportunities for poor farmers?
VIII. The Amnesty Act of 1872
1. What did the Amnesty Act of 1872 accomplish, and what were its political consequences for Southern state governments?
IX. The Election of 1876
1. Why was the 1876 presidential election controversial, and how did the electoral commission resolve the dispute?
2. What was the political situation in the South by 1876 regarding federal troop presence and Democratic control?
X. The Compromise of 1877
1. What were the terms of the Compromise of 1877, and how did it resolve the disputed election?
2. How did the Supreme Court decisions of the 1880s and 1890s contribute to the end of Reconstruction?
XI. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES: DID RECONSTRUCTION FAIL?
A. Blame for Too Much Equality
1. What was the Dunning school interpretation of Reconstruction, and how did it influence views on racial segregation?
2. How did D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation reflect the historical perspective of the Dunning school?
B. Praise for Accomplishments
1. How did African American historians like W. E. B. Du Bois and John Hope Franklin challenge the Dunning school interpretation?
C. Blame for Too Little Equality
1. What criticisms did historians of the 1980s make about Congress's approach to Reconstruction?
2. According to Eric Foner, what institutions did freedmen and freedwomen establish during Reconstruction, and how did they connect to later progress?
Key Terms
redeemers
Ku Klux Klan
Force Acts
Black Codes
sharecropping
Amnesty Act of 1872
Rutherford B. Hayes
Samuel J. Tilden
Election of 1876
Compromise of 1877