SOL Review Materials for Unit OneUnifying the Nation: The Reconstruction and Settling the West

1. Know the physical features and climate of the Great Plains

Flatlands that rise gradually from east to west

West of the Mississippi, starting at the 100th Meridian.

East of the Rockies

Land eroded by wind and water

Low rainfall

Frequent dust storms

2. Farmers on the Great Plains Relied on Inventions and Adaptations

Dry Farming Methods:

Drilling seeds deeper, turning soil after rains, irrigation, use of windmills

Adaptations for Farming on the Great Plains:

Steel plows

Sod houses

Barbed Wire

Windmills

3. Farmers and Cattle Ranchers relied upon railroads to get their crops to market!

The cattle trails below are in green. Every cattle trail ended at a railroad line – a cowtown – where the livestock were put on trains and sent to meatpacking centers like Chicago, IL.

Wheat farmers depended on the railroads to get their crops to market, too. Often, they complained that shipping costs were too high!

4. The Reconstruction Amendments

Collectively, these amendments are known as the Reconstruction Amendments:

The 13th Amendment: The 13th Amendment bans slavery in the United States and all of its territories.The 14th Amendment: The 14th Amendment grants citizenship to all persons born in the United States and guarantees them equal protection under the law.The 15th Amendment: The 15th Amendment ensures all male citizens the right to vote regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

5. Significant Individuals of the Reconstruction Era, 1865 - 1877

Abraham Lincoln

As the President of the United States at the end of the Civil War, he crafted a Reconstruction plan calling for reconciliation. The 10% Plan would have made it easy on the Confederate States to rejoin the union.

Lincoln believed that preservation of the Union was more important than punishing the South!

6. Significant Individuals of the Reconstruction Era, 1865 - 1877:

Robert E. Lee

He urged Southerners to reconcile with Northerners at the end of the war and reunite as Americans when some wanted to continue to fight.He believed that former slaves should not be allowed to vote – a view also held by Andrew Johnson.He became president of Washington College, which is now known as Washington & Lee University.

7. Significant Individuals of the Reconstruction Era, 1865 - 1877

Frederick Douglass

This former abolitionist fought for adoption of constitutional amendments that guaranteed voting rights for African-Americans. He championed the 15th Amendment.Was a powerful voice for human rights and civil liberties for all!

8. The Accomplishments of the Radical Republicans During Reconstruction

• African Americans could hold public office.

• Southern military leaders could not hold office.

• African Americans gained equal rights as a result of the Civil Rights Act of 1866

• Northern soldiers occupied the South and enforced the laws!

• The Freedmen’s Bureau was established to aid formerly enslaved African-Americans in the South.

The Radical Republicans wanted African Americans to have full political and economic equality.

9. The Former Confederacy Resists

Southerners hated carpetbaggers – Northerners who had come South to help with Reconstruction. Former confederates believed they were taking advantage of the South. Often, they were teachers or missionaries.

Southern states adopted “Black Codes” to limit the economic and physical freedom of former slaves. The laws were used to re-institute conditions similar to slavery.

Rights that African Americans had gained were lost through “Jim Crow” laws.

10. The Compromise of 1877

Reconstruction ended as a result of the Compromise of 1877 – a bargain between Republicans and Democrats that settled the Presidential Election of 1876.

Rutherford B. Hayes became President of the United States.

Federal troops were removed from the South.

As a result, the reforms that had granted African-Americans rights and equality were lost.

Black codes and “Jim Crow” Laws were passed to take away African American Rights.

11. Factors Encouraging Westward Expansion

Opportunities for land ownership (The Homestead Act)

Technological advances in transportation and communication (Transcontinental Railroad, Telegraph)

Possibility of obtaining wealth, created by the discovery of gold and silver – although most did not.

Adventure

Desire for a new beginning for former enslaved African Americans (Buffalo Soldiers, or “Exodusters”)

12. American Indians Resist Settlers

Opposition by American Indians to Westward Expansion. (Battle of Little Bighorn, Sitting Bull, Geronimo)

Forced relocation from traditional lands to reservations (Chief Joseph of the Nez Percé “I Will Fight No More Forever Speech”)

13. American Indians Lose Territory

• Reduced population through warfare and disease (Smallpox, the Battle of Wounded Knee)

• Assimilation attempts and lifestyle changes (e.g., reduction of buffalo population)

• Reduced their homelands through treaties that were broken

The US Army authorized the killing of hundreds of thousands of buffalo during the 19th Century in order to prevent Native Americans from continuing a nomadic lifestyle. The pile of bones to the left is made of buffalo skulls.

The Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890 was one of the last violent encounters between the US Army and the Native Americans. Hundreds of members of the Sioux tribe were cut down by machine gun fire.