by Nicole Chartier, Union Colony Schools
In this webquest students become editors for a brand new history text book. They are asked to analyze various primary sources and to choose the ones which will best demonstrate that Reconstruction ultimately failed in its goals.
Introduction
In 1865, the U.S. Civil War ended after four devastating years. Although the war had begun as a struggle to reunite a nation in which slavery would still exist, it ended as a war to free people from slavery. Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 symbolically established a national intent to eradicate slavery in the United States. In January of 1865, the 13th amendment to the Constitution officially abolished slavery in this country, while the 14th amendment, passed in 1866, set forth three principles:
- All persons born or naturalized in the U.S. were citizens for the nation and no state could make or enforce any law that would abridge their rights of citizenship.
- No state could deny any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.
- No state could deny any person equal protection of the laws.
Finally, the 15th amendment, passed in 1869, outlawed the denial of voting rights due to race, color, or past servitude.
However, Congress was unsuccessful in its attempt to build a new political order based on equality. In less than a decade, African Americans were effectively disfranchised and racial segregation was imposed on nearly every aspect of their lives. Tired of struggling with the problems of reconstruction, the North accepted this new order in the South.
It wasn’t until the 1960s, almost 100 years after passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, that issues of equality for all again gained a national focus.
What happened?
Information taken from The Library of Congress
PICTURE CREDIT: "Negro expulsion from
railway car, Philadelphia." London News, September 27, 1856.
African-American Perspectives: The Progress of a People, Library of
Congress.