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Brooks Simpson: Emancipation & Reconstruction | BRI Scholar Talks

BRI Senior Teaching Fellow Tony Williams sits down with Foundation Professor of History at Arizona State University and Civil War and Reconstruction expert, Dr. Brooks Simpson, to discuss the tumultuous period of Reconstruction and how the country addressed African American rights after the Civil War. Simpson delves into the justice and injustice of the policies and laws of Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, and Congress. What successes were achieved by African Americans during Reconstruction? How were African-American rights curtailed by white supremacist violence and legalized discrimination?

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Lesson

The End of Slavery and the Reconstruction Amendments

5 Activities60 Min

The interests of Northern and Southern states grew increasingly divergent. Eleven states eventually seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. After the Civil War, Congress required that the southern states would approve the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments as a condition of their re-entry into the union. The Thirteenth Amendment banned slavery throughout the United States. The Fourteenth Amendment granted citizenship to formerly enslaved people and banned states from passing laws that denied the privileges and immunities of citizens, due process, or equal protection of the law. The Fifteenth Amendment extended the right to vote to black men. The Fourteenth Amendment in particular was a dramatic departure from the Founders’ Constitution, and set the stage for dramatic increases in the size, scope, and power of the national government decades later.