From Appomattox to Reconstruction and Beyond

Developed by: Todd Goodwin

Bob Jones

Marilyn ZavorskiApplewild School

Fitchburg, MA

Fitchburg State College, Fitchburg, MA

Teaching American History: Secession, Civil War and Reconstruction

July 2005

Focus: Reconstruction and Redemption in the South, 1868-1877

The Legacy of the Civil War and Reconstruction

Fitchburg State College, Fitchburg, MA

Teaching American History: Secession, Civil War and Reconstruction

July 2005

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The McLean family, who had moved from Manassas Junction after two major battles destroyed their farm in northeastern Virginia, started a new life in the quiet western Virginia town of Appomattox Court House. They still could not escape the war. On April 9, 1865 . . .

General Grant and General Lee meet in the McLean’s parlor to arrange the surrender of Lee’s army. Though there were a few last scattered battles in other places, historians consider this surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia the end of the Civil War.

Lee’s hungry men were allowed to return to their homes and farms to face an uncertain future.

There was jubilation in the North.

http://www.wildwestweb.net/cwphotos.html

President Lincoln visited captured Richmond and was greeted as an emancipator by former slaves (Freedmen) and free blacks alike.

There were refugees all over the South, black . . .

Black family finds safety among Federal soldiers. Historical photo: Library of Congress

and white.

The South lay in ruins

from its transportation system . . .

to its economy and banking system,

to its agricultural system,

to its few factories,

and its churches and public buildings.

Ruins in Charleston, S.C.Photographer: George N. Barnard

http://www.wildwestweb.net/cwphotos2.html

Richmond, VA - City ruins, looking east from the canal basin. Photographed after the city surrendered, April 3, 1865.

Historical photo: Library of Congress

In Washington, D.C. people were thankful that the war was over and hopeful for Reconstruction.

However, on Good Friday evening, 1865, at Ford’s Theater . . .

while watching the play, Our American Cousin, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.

http://www.civilwarphotos.net/files/images/202.jpg

Washington, D.C. - John Wilkes Booth jumps from the presidential box after shooting President Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, April 14, 1865.

Drawing: Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, May 6, 1865

President Lincoln's funeral car.April 1865

Photographer: Andrew J. Russell. http://www.wildwestweb.net/cwphotos2.html

The nation mourned its slain leader.

John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln’s assassin, was killed resisting arrest in northern Virginia.

His co-conspirators, such as this man Lewis Powell, who had attacked Secretary of State Seward, were rounded up and brought to trial.

In May of 1865 the Union Army came to Washington, D.C. for a grand review before returning home.

Infantry units passing on Pennsylvania Avenue near the Treasury. Grand Review of the Army. Washington, D.C., May 1865.

Mathew Brady, Photographer (Library of Congress)

Washington, D.C. - Execution of four conspirators in Lincoln's assassination – Lewis T. Powell, Mary E. Suratt, David E. Herold and George A. Atzerodt. Original photo by Alexander Gardner. Historical photo: Library of Congress

Meanwhile Reconstruction was under way with thousands of southerners swearing allegiance to the Union.

“Franchise, And Not This Man?”

Harper’s Weekly.

August 5, 1865, p. 489

The country debated what was to become of the former slaves called Freedman.

“The First Vote”

Harper’s Weekly

November 16, 1867

Under Congressional Reconstruction the Freedmen were given the right to vote in the South.

However, some southerners had other ideas for the Freedmen.

http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/1-segregated/images/early-kkk-l.jpg

Harper’s Weekly

1874http://edusolution.com/myclassroom/classnotes/reconstruction/USAkkk.jpg

After Reconstruction ended in 1877, many whites sought a return to pre-Civil War social structures.

Under the Jim Crow system Freedmen lost many rights, such as suffrage, and they were forced into low-paying jobs, such as tenant farming and sharecropping. In effect they were treated as second-class citizens. . .

http://www.literacyrules.com/jim_crow2.htm

http://instruct.westvalley.edu/kelly/Distance_Learning/History_17B/Lecture02/Lecture02_p04.htm

or worse!

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

July 26, 2005

Click on the image below to view

USA Today’s

1946 lynchings re-enacted.

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This discrimination and segregation continued into the 1950’s and 1960’s. The Civil Rights Movement resumed the quest for freedom and equality begun during Reconstruction.

Rosa Parks’ civil disobedience triggered the Montgomery, AL, bus boycott.

The dream continues.

Image credits 

Miller, Francis Trevelyan, ed., Photographic History of the Civil War, 10 volumes, Springfield, MA: Patriot Publishing, 1911. (brown-tint images)

 Civil War ClipArt CD by Finley-Holiday Film Corp., Whittier, CA Civil War Picture CD by Finley-Holiday Film Corp., Whittier, CA

http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/brady-photos/

http://www.civil-war.net/ excellent http://civilwarclipart.com/Clipartgallery/clipart1.htm

http://www.civilwarphotos.net/files/images/202.jpg excellent

 http://classroomclipart.com/ http://216.247.171.108/Clipartgallery/illus.html

http://instruct.westvalley.edu/kelly/Distance_Learning/History_17B/Lecture02/Lecture02_p04.htm

http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/085_disc.html excellent: Civil Rights

http://www.mdhs.org/library/Z24CivilWar.html excellent

http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/civilrights/learn_more.html#reconstructionexcellent: Slavery to Civil rights

http://www.wildwestweb.net/cwphotos.html http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/cwphome.html http://www.tennessee-scv.org/Camp1513/clipart.htm http://www.wisegorilla.com/images/civilwar/civilwar.html             

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