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**Theme:** Reconstruction **Topic:** Changing the role of the government **Free Response Question**: Explain how and why the role3 of the federal government changed as a relsut of the Civil War with respect to the following during the period 1861-1877

Introductory Paragraph **Setting: 1861 after the American Civil War** **Basis for Analysis**: Policies expanding the country westward, rules and laws helping to ease the south into freedom, and aid given to former slaves to help them get jobs and start the southern economy again. **Partitions**: The role of the federal government was expanded to deal with expansive, racial and economic problems of the time. **Thesis:** The new form of the U.S. government was somewhat successful in solving the new post war problems

**Partition 1:** Race Relations •Blacks were recently emancipated from slavery and there was still much racial tension among them and former slaveholders. •Legislation was passed giving blacks the right to vote and hold office in the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. •There was much backlash from the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists. •After that there was minimal effort by the federal government to provide equal protection under the law until the time of the Civil Rights Movement and at times was even counter productive with the Jim Crowe Laws in the south.

**Partition 2:** Westward Expansion •Many whites thought it to be their duty to expand their reach across North America and into the West • Many immigrants were moving to the U.S. for various reasons - Irish potato famine - In search of wealth in the California gold rush - In search of opportunity and freedoms • The U.S. government waged multiple wars against the Native Americans to keep pushing them West to get them out of potential U.S. land. • In the Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo the U.S. pressed for land in the Alta California and Sante Fe regions in order to be able to more easily build the transcontinental railroad. • The transcontinental railroad connected the East and West, promoting migration and movement westward.

** Partition 3: Economic Develpoement ** • Nowhere to go for former slaves beside back to work on plantations. • Many got cheated out of money and labor by private land owners because many had little experience in selling the labor. • The government created the Freedmen's Bureau. • The Bureau helped former slaves and share croppers find jobs, education, food and healthcare.

General Information: <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">Events leading up to the time period. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">Government Actions <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">Southern working conditions European Immigration Reasons for expansion Racial tensions