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Period: to
Reconstruction Era
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Assassination of President Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was shot in Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. on April 14th, 1865. The man who shot the President was a Southern sympathizer from Maryland, named John Wilkes Booth. This was just days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered at the Appomattox Court House to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, due to lack of manpower and resources. President Abraham Lincoln suffered injuries throughout the night, and eventually passed the morning of April 15th, 1865. -
President Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction Plan
President Andrew Johnson stepped in as President of the United States after President Lincoln's assassination and death in April of 1865. President Andrew Johnson's plan for Reconstruction of the United States after the Civil War included giving amnesty to white Southerners who pledged their loyalty to the United States. He allowed them to reclaim property and allowed southern states to start new state level governments with supervision. This did not apply to Confederate officers (Evans). -
Ratification of the 13th Amendment
Post President Lincoln's death, President Johnson fulfilled the wishes of President Lincoln by urging for the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution via passage through Congress. Although President Johnson was a Southerner and is often described as racist, he made sure to honor President Lincoln's legacy by seeing to it that slavery was abolished in the United States of America. The amendment got Senate and House approval and was ratified on December 6th, 1865 -
Purchase of Alaska
The United States' Secretary of State at the time, William Seward, arranged and negotiated for the United States to purchase Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million. The purchase added an extra 20% of what land the United States already had, and was initially seen as a useless and underwhelming purchase on Seward's part; however, this is worth including because Alaska proved to be rich in resources such as oil, gold, copper, and other resources, making it known as a success(Gilder Lehrman). -
Ratification of the 14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment was ratified on July 9th of 1868, much to President Johnson's dismay. The 14th Amendment declares birthright citizenship and the Equal Protection Clause, guaranteeing that no state could infringe on the equal protection of the laws of all citizens within their jurisdiction. The President had opposed this amendment for two years, eventually losing the battle when the Senate and House approved it and sent it out to the states for ratification. -
Ulysses S. Grant Wins the 1868 Presidential Election
Following President Johnson's attempted impeachment, he did not run for president again in 1868. So, famous Union General and war hero Ulysses S. Grant (Republican) ran against Horatio Seymour (Democrat) in the 1868 Presidential Election; Grant won in a landslide, receiving 214 out of 294 electoral votes. This is important to include because President Grant was officially the 18th President of the United States, and the first president elected of the Reconstruction Era (Gilder Lehrman). -
Women Gain the Right to Vote in Wyoming Territory
Women in the Wyoming Territory are the first women to receive the right to vote in the United States of America in 1870. Although the 15th Amendment allowed men of color to vote, language used in the writing of the amendment denied women the right to vote in the states; so as a territory, Wyoming granted women suffrage in 1870. This is important to include because it demonstrates how the 15th amendment was exclusive of women of all races, white and African American alike (Gilder Lehrman). -
Ratification of the 15th Amendment
The 15th Amendment was ratified under President Ulysses S. Grant in early February of 1870. The amendment granted all male citizens of the United States the right to vote; however, obstacles like unfair literacy tests and severe intimidation were put in place to prevent African American men from voting. The 15th Amendment also did not address the issue of women's suffrage, barring white and African American women alike from voting. This was done by using specific wording when writing it. -
The Panic of 1873
The Panic of 1873 was a major national depression caused by an international economic crisis; the depression brought high rates of unemployment, bankruptcy, and businesses closing in the United States and Europe. This had a great impact on the railroads, which were a large part of the American economy at this point. Approaching the end of Reconstruction, the Democratic Party began to gain popularity over the Republican Party in office, making this significant (Gilder Lehrman). -
Minor v. Happersett Supreme Court Case
Following major controversy over whether or not the 15th Amendment extended voting rights to female citizens of the United States, the Supreme Court ruled that it did not in the case of Minor v. Happersett. The Supreme Court decided to keep women's suffrage a state issue and interpret the 15th Amendment as applying only to men. This is important to include because even nearing the end of Reconstruction each citizen was still not given the same rights under the law (Gilder Lehrman).