Reconstruction's Policies
A change in the federal relationship
- Reconstruction altered relationships between the states and the federal government and led to debates over new definitions of citizenship, particularly regarding the rights of African Americans, women, and other minorities.
- Two effects: a structural one (state-federal relations) and a definitional one (what citizenship means).
- Women, and other minorities are named alongside African Americans, so the citizenship debate was wider than one group.
Select all three things the 14th and 15th amendments granted.
They are distinct, and 5.11 shows them stripped at different rates.
Three amendments, three provisions
- The 13th Amendment abolished slavery, while the 14th and 15th amendments granted African Americans citizenship, equal protection under the laws, and voting rights.
- Three things granted: citizenship, equal protection, and voting rights — they are distinct, and 5.11 shows them stripped away at different rates.
- The 13th settles what the war was fought over; the 14th and 15th open the question the war did not settle.
The women's rights movement was...
One event, two opposite effects on the same movement.
The women's movement was divided
- The women's rights movement was both emboldened and divided over the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution.
- Both emboldened and divided — one event with two opposite effects on the same movement.
- 4.11 already recorded arguments over whether to narrow the goals; this is that argument reaching a constitutional moment.
An amendment, a social effect, or a cause of failure?
Sort each element of Reconstruction policy.
Select both causes of Reconstruction's ultimate failure.
Leaving out the second turns a national failure into a regional one.
The CED names both causes of Reconstruction's failure. It failed due both to determined Southern resistance and the North's waning resolve — the second is the one most answers omit, and leaving it out turns a national failure into a regional one.
Select all the groups the citizenship debate concerned.
Wider than one group.
Short-term successes, ultimate failure
- Efforts by radical and moderate Republicans to change the balance of power between Congress and the presidency and to reorder race relations in the defeated South yielded some short-term successes.
- Reconstruction opened up political opportunities and other leadership roles to formerly enslaved persons but it ultimately failed, due both to determined Southern resistance and the North's waning resolve.
- Both causes are named, and the second — the North's waning resolve — is the one most answers omit.
Reconstruction opened political opportunities and leadership roles to formerly ____ persons.
A short-term success, in the CED's own framing.
Effects of policy on society
- The objective is the effects of government policy during Reconstruction on society from 1865 to 1877.
- Effects: slavery abolished, citizenship and rights granted, offices opened to formerly enslaved persons, and a movement emboldened and divided.
- End on the CED's own verdict — short-term successes and ultimate failure, with both causes named.
A policy that requires sustained attention from a distant capital fails not only when it is resisted but when the capital stops looking. Both conditions have to hold, and only one of them is anyone's decision at the time.
Reconstruction altered relationships between the states and the federal government and led to debates over new definitions of citizenship, particularly regarding the rights of African Americans, women, and other minorities. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery, while the 14th and 15th amendments granted African Americans citizenship, equal protection under the laws, and voting rights. The women's rights movement was both emboldened and divided over the 14th and 15th amendments. Reconstruction opened up political opportunities and other leadership roles to formerly enslaved persons but it ultimately failed, due both to determined Southern resistance and the North's waning resolve.