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Black Codes
Black codes were laws enforced by Southern States to help control freed African Americans. Some of the Black Code laws made it where it was against the law for an African American to own or even rent farms. These laws made it very simple to take control over the African Americans. African Americans could even be arrested if they didn't have a job! Even through these tough laws African Americans said that it was still better than slavery. -
Civil Rights Act of 1866
The Civil Rights Act of 1866 is when a new bill was passed to give the Freedmen's Bureau more power. The Bureau could now make a court to trial people who were charged with interfering with African American rights. This was also passed through congress, which got the federal government into the offence of violating African American rights. African Americans were also given citizenship through this act. -
Reconstruction Acts (first and second)
The Fourteenth Amendment was not passed in 10 of the confederate states, so the congress passed the First Reconstruction Act. These 10 states were forced to change to a new form of government. Tennessee was the only confederate state who kepts its government and rejoined the union. This law also gave the right to African American men to vote. The Second Reconstruction Act helped organize state constitutional conventions and gave the army the power to register voters. -
14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment was a law that gave everyone born in the United States the chance to become a U.S citizen. The 14th Amendment made it so that once you are a United States citizen you are always one. It cannot be taken away. If a person refuesed any adult man from voting the could lose a representitive from congress. The 14th Amendment also stated that you can not take a person's life, liberty, or property without a process of law. -
The 15th Amendment
Mostly all the Southern states had rejoined the union by 1868, the time of the election. Ulysses S. Grant won the presidental election because of all the African American voters he got. The 15th Amendment then came into play to guarantee that state or federal governments could not reject any male citizen the right to vote. The 15th Amendment was ratified in 1870 and the republicans were very satisfied with their work of giving African Americans the right to vote.
