Unit 1 Important Chronological Events

April 9, 1865

Day Robert E. Lee surrenders to Grant.

April 14, 1865

President Lincoln is assassinated.

Reconstruction (1865–1877)

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1865

Civil War ends; 13th Amendment abolishes chattel slavery.

Spring 1866

All states had been readmitted to the Union. Elected state legislatures that were creating laws restricting freedom of former slaves. Created Black Codes.

1866

Southern Homestead Act: Land that’s federally owned in 5 southern states was to be made available to former enslaved people for purchase. South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana.

1865-1866

Presidential Reconstruction under Andrew Johnson; Southern states readmitted quickly.

1866-1867

Rise of Black Codes; Congress passes Civil Rights Act (1866).

1867

Congress passes Reconstruction Acts, imposes military rule in the South.

1867

Office of Tenure Act: Before the president can make/nominate someone into their cabinet, they need Congressional approval. Eventually struck down by SCOTUS.

February 1868

Johnson becomes the first president to become impeached, not removed though.

1868

14th Amendment grants citizenship and equal protection to freedmen.

1870

15th Amendment grants Black men the right to vote.

1877

Compromise ends Reconstruction; federal troops withdrawn from the South.

The New South (1877–early 1900s)

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Post-1877

Southern economy begins modest industrialization; rise of textiles, tobacco, and steel.

Late 1800s

Railroads expand, facilitating economic growth and westward expansion.

1870s-1900s

Sharecropping and tenant farming trap many in poverty; segregation laws (Jim Crow) solidify.

1866-1900s

Rise of the Ku Klux Klan and racial violence to enforce white supremacy.

Gilded Age (1870s–1900)

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1870s-1890s

Rapid industrialization, urbanization, and immigration from Europe and Asia.

1869

Transcontinental Railroad completed.

Late 1800s

Rise of industrialists/ “robber barons” (Rockefeller, Carnegie, Vanderbilt).

Labor Conflicts

Homestead Strike (1892), Pullman Strike (1894).

1870s-1900s

Political corruption, patronage, and the rise of reform movements.

1882

Chinese Exclusion Act; rise of nativism.

1887

Dawes Act targets Native American lands.

1890

Sherman Antitrust Act passed.

Late 1800s

Social Darwinism influences business and politics.

Progressive Era (1890s–1920s)

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1890s-1920s

Reformers address labor rights, women’s suffrage, temperance, urban problems, and conservation. Jane Addams establishes Hull House; Ida B. Wells fights for Black women’s rights and anti-lynching.

1906

Pure Food and Drug Act; Meat Inspection Act.

1913

16th Amendment (income tax) ratified; 17th Amendment (direct election of senators).

1920

19th Amendment grants women the right to vote. Progressives often excluded African Americans, who suffered under Jim Crow during the “nadir” of race relations.