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The Rough 1860's Decade
Period 3
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The Ku Klux Klan rose to prominence after the Civil War as a reactionary measure by ex-Confederate soldiers and supporters. They terrorized innocent black public officials, political leaders, and families to strike fear in the hearts of the oppressed, as an attempt to crush any further racial revolution. Their gruesome acts of violence towards people of color ranged from the burning of the Holy Cross to the unjust public lynching of many civilians. Their main goal was to promote and maintain the notion of "white supremacy" by preventing or scaring the black population away from the voting polls in most southern states. For a short while, the Klan did in fact manage to keep the blacks and colored in the depths of society, but were betrayed by their inability to remain organized and disciplined. Their once massive following of several hundred thousand avid supporters dwindled, and they were gradually reduced to the irrelevant state that defines them today.
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Sand Creek Massacre
The Sand Creek Massacre took place November 29, 1864. This attack was led by Colonel John Chivington, and consisted of 650 volunteer soldiers attacking a Native American Village. This village belonged to Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians. This attack is popular because of the brutality and tension between cultures both before and after the attack. John Chivington was very public about his dislike toward the Native American Community and even went as far as calling them "Red Devils". Chivington who was a highly regarded public figure and even a church pastor said the Native American population either had to be whipped out exterminate.Probably his most known quote was when he said " the only thing to do with a caught Indian is to kill them. A lot of tension fighting for land, resources caused the massacre, and all the massacre did was cause more problems. There was many retaliation attacks by the Native Americans using their guerilla tactics to set up ambushes.
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The Emancipation Proclamation is an executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War using his war powers. It proclaimed the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves, and immediately freed 50,000 of them, with nearly all the rest freed as Union armies advanced. The Proclamation did not compensate the owners; it did not make the ex-slaves, called Freedmen, citizens.
The 13th and 14th Amendments
13th Amendment Background
The first of three Reconstruction Amendments enacted in the years immediately following the Civil War, the Thirteenth Amendment officially prohibited slavery in the United States and its territories. Originally proposed by Senator John Henderson in January 1865 and almost immediately adopted by the U.S. Congress, although not without considerable debate, the amendment received the requisite number of state endorsements on December 18, 1865. The selective enforcement of certain laws allowed blacks to continue to be subjected to involuntary servitude in some cases such as the Black Codes. Yet, the Black Codes, which were the laws passed by states and municipalities denying many rights of citizenship to free blacks after the Civil War, were still enforced in some states contributing to involuntary servitude.
13th Amendment Clauses
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
14th Amendment Background
One of the most controversial and debated provisions of the U.S. Constitution, the Fourteenth Amendment was one of three Reconstruction amendments enacted in the years immediately following the Civil War. The Fourteenth Amendment was remarkable for two primary reasons: first, it expanded the definition of U.S. citizenship to include people of all races, specifically African Americans; and second, it commanded the federal government to ensure the protection of certain fundamental rights at the state level. Suggested by a congressional committee of 15 members that began drafting the amendment in 1866, it received congressional endorsement on June 13, 1866 and had garnered sufficient state support by July 28, 1868 to be officially adopted and enacted.
It also had many clauses contributing to many fields:
Its Citizenship Clause provides a broad definition of citizenship.
Its Due Process Clause prohibits state and local governments from depriving persons of life, liberty, or property without certain steps being taken to ensure fairness. This clause has been used to make most of the Bill of Rights applicable to the states.
Its Equal Protection Clause requires each state to provide equal protection under the law to all people within its jurisdiction.
Also, this amendment outlawed the black codes. It also disappointed several peoples as well. Radical Republicans thought that it failed to give the vote to black people outright and advocates of women’s suffrage were disappointed because it is the first time using the word male in the Constitution to define who could vote. It alsohad little immediate impact in the South. Yet, after the passage, white violence against black people began to increase. In the 1870s, several decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court diminished some provisions of the amendment, but this would become an important cornerstone for African-American rights in the future.
14th Amendment Clauses
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.