Reconstruction: new amendments, new rights and why they were taken away

Grade 8 Social Studies Worksheet

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Use this

   Freedom and its limits, 1865 to 1866 (cards A to D). Card A, a summary in our words from the U.S. Senate: on March 3, 1865, Congress passed "An Act to establish a Bureau for the Relief of Freedmen and Refugees." The Bureau was to operate "during the present war of rebellion, and for one year thereafter," and it also established schools and supervised contracts between freedmen and employers. The Senate adopted the final conference report on the bill by 21 to 9, with 22 members abstaining, and President Lincoln signed the bill that day. In February 1866 President Andrew Johnson vetoed a bill to extend the Bureau. His reasons: the extension was unnecessary, it infringed on states' rights, it gave the federal government an unprecedented role in aiding one group, and it was expensive. A vote to override the next day failed to reach two-thirds. A second bill passed in July 1866; Johnson vetoed it again, but this time both houses overrode him. It became law on July 16, 1866 and extended the Bureau for two more years. Card B, a summary in our words from the National Archives: the Bureau's duties included issuing rations and clothing, operating hospitals, supervising labor contracts between planters and freedpeople, helping to legalize marriages made during slavery, and assisting benevolent societies in setting up schools. It was not abolished until 1872, but most of its work was done from June 1865 to December 1868. Its headquarters records "are primarily official and statistical, but may contain some information on individuals at the local level." Its field-office files also include letters from freed people. Card C, a summary in our words from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and the National Park Service: in November 1865 Mississippi voters elected many former Confederates, and in late November the new legislature passed the first Black Codes. They used vagrancy laws to control Black people, made former slaves sign a yearly labor contract, forced Black children to work as apprentices for White planters until age 18, and replaced the word "slave" with "freedman" in the penal codes. The history office says the codes had a political aim, to limit Black people's political power by denying them civil rights, and an economic aim, to force Black people to work as they had during bondage. Mississippi's population was 55 percent Black. Freedmen's Bureau officer Samuel Thomas reported in 1865 (as quoted by the Mississippi history office): "Wherever I go—the street, the shop, the house, or the steamboat—I hear the people talk in such a way as to indicate that they are yet unable to conceive of the Negro as possessing any rights at all." The history office adds that testimony like Thomas's and the Black Codes convinced Congress a more thorough Reconstruction was needed. It also says the Bureau helped to establish many of Mississippi's first public schools. Card D, a summary in our words from the U.S. House and Senate history offices: when Congress met in December 1865 it formed a Joint Committee on Reconstruction, which then refused to admit members elected in the former Confederate states. On April 9, 1866, the House overrode Johnson's veto of the Civil Rights Bill by 122 to 41, with near unanimous Republican support. A veto is overridden by a two-thirds vote in each house. The bill said "all persons born in the United States," except American Indians, were "hereby declared to be citizens of the United States," with "full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property." Johnson's veto message called it "another step, or rather a stride, toward centralization and the concentration of all legislative power in the national Government." Representative Henry Raymond of New York called it "one of the most important bills ever presented to this House for its action."

2. 1.

   Card C quotes Samuel Thomas, a Freedmen's Bureau officer, in 1865. What is his report best evidence for, Ari asks?

   • Why Congress passed the Civil Rights Bill over a veto in April 1866, after the Black Codes
   • What Black Mississippians themselves said about the Black Codes in 1865
   • What a federal officer saw and concluded about many White Mississippians in 1865
   • What White Mississippians as a whole believed about the freedpeople in 1865
3. 2.

   Card C says the Black Codes required yearly labor contracts. Card B says the Bureau supervised labor contracts. What do they support together, Bo asks?

   • Labor contracts were a main issue for both the state codes and the federal Bureau
   • The Black Codes were written to carry out the Bureau's work in the state
   • The Bureau enforced the Black Codes across the South for the state governments after 1865
   • Contracts were voluntary for freedpeople, who could refuse under the codes
4. 3.

   Cards C and D link events in 1865 and 1866. Which chain is best supported, Esme asks?

   • Former Confederates won office, Black Codes followed, Congress refused to seat them, then overrode a veto
   • The Civil Rights Bill passed over a veto first, and then Mississippi passed its Black Codes in response to it
   • Congress refused to seat Southern members because the Freedmen's Bureau had ended
   • The veto message caused Mississippi's new legislature to be elected in November 1865
5. 4.

   Card D: the House overrode the veto 122 to 41. Overriding takes two-thirds of those voting. What share said yes, and was it enough, Kira asks?

   • About 75 percent, so members of both parties agreed on the bill without exception
   • About 25 percent, which is not enough
   • About 75 percent, but two-thirds means 80 percent, so it fell short
   • About 75 percent, above the two-thirds needed
6. 5.

   A student says: "Johnson vetoed the 1866 Bureau bill only because it cost too much." How strong is that claim, given card A, Luz asks?

   • Weak: card A comes from the Senate, so it cannot be trusted about Johnson
   • Weak: card A lists several reasons, and cost is only one
   • Strong: Congress later overrode the veto, so cost must have mattered
   • Strong: card A says the extension was expensive
7. 6.

   Card D quotes Johnson and Representative Raymond about the Civil Rights Bill. How do their words differ, Milo asks?

   • Both opposed the bill because they thought it would cost too much money for the taxpayers
   • Johnson saw a stride toward centralized power; Raymond stressed the bill's importance
   • Johnson's view is settled fact, while Raymond's is a passing opinion
   • Johnson called the bill important; Raymond warned of centralized power
8. 7.

   A student says: "Congress was united behind the Civil Rights Bill." How strong is that claim, given card D, Noah asks?

   • Strong: card D says the House overrode the veto
   • Strong: Representative Raymond called it one of the most important bills
   • Weak: card D says the veto stood
   • Weak: card D shows a 122 to 41 vote, so many members still opposed it
9. 8.

   Card A covers the Bureau from March 1865 to July 1866. How did its legal life change, Pia asks?

   • It was made permanent in 1865 and then cut to two years in 1866 by Congress
   • Both of Johnson's vetoes, in February and July 1866, were overridden at once
   • The 1865 law ended it a year after the war; a July 1866 override extended it two years
   • It ended in February 1866, when Johnson vetoed the bill to extend it, and the Bureau was not extended again
10. 9.

    Card B says headquarters records are "primarily official and statistical." What limit does that put on them as evidence, Ren asks?

    • They show what officials recorded, though field-office files add freed people's letters
    • They show how much money the Bureau spent each year in each state and on which duties
    • They are useless as evidence, because officials wrote them and so tell us nothing
    • They show the freed people's own words throughout, because the Bureau copied them
11. 10.

    Cards A, B and C each mention schools. Together, which claim about schools do they best support, Tala asks?

    • The Bureau helped set up schools by working with others, as in Mississippi
    • Schools were the Bureau's main duty, and it had little other work to do
    • The Bureau ran the schools of the South by itself, with no outside help from anyone
    • The Black Codes created the first public schools in the state of Mississippi