Reconstruction

For a dozen years after the Civil War, millions of former slaves joined with many whites in trying to reshape the South into a free and equal society. The enormous social and political experiment was called Reconstruction. When it was abandoned, the whole nation suffered a terrible defeat that has set back the cause of freedom and democracy ever since. Until recently the facts about Reconstruction were hard to uncover, for many histories ignored or distorted what really had happened. This primary source portfolio provides the background to Reconstruction and describes the intense political battles which shaped it. It examines the struggle of the blacks for jobs, schools, land reform, and political power. How the new governments performed and the way they were overthrown is recreated through prints, photographs, cartoons, broadsides, newspapers, and other documents of the times. This portfolio includes a Study Guide with reproducible student activities and a timeline of the reconstruction. 5 Illustrated Broadsheet Essays: * No More Driver's Lash for Me * Black Codes and White Rule * Forty Acres and a Mule * From Sheriff to Senator * "Home Rule" Again-and White Supremacy 10 Primary Source Documents: * A Chronology of Reconstruction * A broadside: Men of Color, To Arms! Now or Never! about 1863 * Portraits of Black Members of the Louisiana Legislature of 1868, with extracts from the Reconstruction Constitution * Ku Klux Klan sheet * The front page of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, December 26, 1868 * The front page of the New Orleans Tribune, January 15, 1869 * Five Thomas Nast cartoons * The Joint Resolutions of Congress proposing the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution * Two pages of the Report on Conditions of Affairs in the Southern States, 1872 * A broadside: Robert B. Elliott Delivering His Speech on Civil Rights, January 6, 1874