Week 15 — Readings & Resources · Reconstruction

Course: U.S. History to 1877 (HIST 1301) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Hartwell
Objectives covered: Objective 8 — analyze the causes, conduct, and consequences of the Civil War and Reconstruction.

How to use this page

Everything here is a link to an external resource — open it in your browser. Nothing needs to be downloaded, and there is nothing to buy. Work the groups in order; they follow the lecture sequence. Total time is roughly 45–55 minutes if you do one item per group; do all and you'll be very comfortable heading into both the workshop and the final exam.

Order that matches the lecture: ① the Reconstruction Amendments → ② presidential vs. congressional Reconstruction → ③ Black political participation and the Freedmen's Bureau → ④ the backlash and the end of Reconstruction → ⑤ the week's primary sources (for the workshop).

① The Reconstruction Amendments

Maps to Lecture Segments 2 and 3. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments are this week's spine. Know what each one did.

Primary text — U.S. Constitution, Amendments XIII–XV (Avalon Project at Yale)
🔗 https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/amend1.asp
Why it's assigned: the actual text of all three Reconstruction Amendments in one place — the 13th (slavery abolished), the 14th (citizenship + due process + equal protection), and the 15th (vote). Read Sections XIII, XIV, and XV. This is the primary source; the quiz draws directly from the text.
⏱ ~10 min

Reading — "The Fourteenth Amendment" (National Archives milestone-documents page)
🔗 https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/14th-amendment
Why it's assigned: the National Archives page includes the full transcript of Section 1 and context on what the amendment was designed to do. The primary source for the workshop comes from here.
⏱ ~10 min

② Presidential vs. Congressional Reconstruction

Maps to Lecture Segment 3. The clash between Johnson and the Radical Republicans is the central political drama of 1865–1868.

Reading — "Reconstruction" (OpenStax, U.S. History, Chapter 16)
🔗 https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/16-introduction
Why it's assigned: a clear, free survey of presidential vs. congressional Reconstruction, the Reconstruction Acts, Johnson's vetoes, and the political dynamics of the era. Read §16.1–16.3.
⏱ ~15 min

Video — "Reconstruction and 1876" (CrashCourse US History #22)
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWgwJkR_ypA
Why it earns the click: an accessible overview of the whole arc from emancipation through 1877 — the constitutional amendments, the battle with Johnson, Black political participation, the KKK, and the Compromise of 1877. 13 minutes; worth watching before the quiz.
⏱ ~13 min

③ Black Political Participation and the Freedmen's Bureau

Maps to Lecture Segments 4–5. The remarkable, brief era of Black political power — and the federal agency that tried to support it.

Reading — "The Freedmen's Bureau" (National Archives)
🔗 https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/freedmens-bureau
Why it's assigned: the National Archives' overview of the Bureau — its mandate, its schools, and its limits. Use it alongside the lecture's account of land redistribution and the Bureau's end.
⏱ ~8 min

Reading — "Reconstruction" (Khan Academy, US History, Reconstruction era)
🔗 https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history
Why it's assigned: in the Reconstruction era unit, the articles on "Reconstruction" and "African American life after the Civil War" cover Black officeholding, the amendments, and the backlash. (Navigate to The Civil War era or Reconstruction era units.)
⏱ ~10 min

④ Backlash, the KKK, and the End of Reconstruction

Maps to Lecture Segments 6–7. How Reconstruction ended — and why.

Reading — "The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow" overview (PBS)
🔗 https://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_compromise.html
Why it's assigned: the PBS overview includes a clear account of the Compromise of 1877 and what its immediate consequences were for Black Southerners. Short and direct.
⏱ ~5 min

⑤ The Week's Primary Sources (for the Workshop)

You'll analyze both of these in Primary Source Workshop 15. Read them before the workshop so you arrive ready to source, close-read, and corroborate.

Primary source — The Fourteenth Amendment (1868), Section 1
🔗 https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/14th-amendment (National Archives — full transcript)
🔗 https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/amend1.asp (Avalon Project — scroll to "XIV")
Why it's assigned: this week's workshop centers on the exact text of Section 1. Read it word by word. Notice: it is directed at the states ("No State shall…"), because the Black Codes were state laws.
⏱ ~5 min

Corroborating source — Mississippi Black Codes (1865)
🔗 https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/ms_blackcodes.asp (Avalon Project)
🔗 https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbpe.2430140d/ (Library of Congress — broadside)
Why it's assigned: the Black Codes are what the Fourteenth Amendment was written to answer. Reading them side by side with Section 1 is the whole corroboration exercise: the Codes restrict what the Amendment was designed to guarantee.
⏱ ~8 min (skim key provisions)

Optional one-stop references

• Gilder Lehrman Institute — Reconstruction primary sources
  🔗 https://www.gilderlehrman.org/programs-exhibitions/reconstruction
  Curated primary sources and context on Reconstruction; a useful supplement for the discussion and assignment.

• National Archives — DocsTeach: Reconstruction documents
  🔗 https://www.docsteach.org/topics/reconstruction
  Document sets with analysis tools for the Freedmen's Bureau, the amendments, and more.

Pick-one quick path (≈30 min total)

In a hurry? Do exactly these and you'll be ready for the quiz and workshop:
1. Read the Reconstruction Amendments text (group ①, Avalon) — especially the full text of Section 1 of the 14th.
2. Read the OpenStax Chapter 16 §16.1–16.3 (group ②) for the political narrative.
3. Skim the Mississippi Black Codes (group ⑤) — the vagrancy and apprenticeship provisions are the most important.

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move pages. If a link fails, tell Prof. Hartwell and use the National Archives, Avalon, or OpenStax links in the meantime. The Constitutional text is also at https://constitution.congress.gov.