Brinkley Reconstruction

Freedmen’s Bureau

Helped freed slaves and poor whites in the South with food, jobs, and education.

Radical Reconstruction Plan

Strict policies for the South, including civil rights for freedmen and military rule.

Lincoln’s Reconstruction Plan

Let Southern states rejoin the Union if 10% of voters swore loyalty.

Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan

Similar to Lincoln's, but too lenient on the South and didn’t protect freedmen.

Congressional Reconstruction Plan

Congress took control, enforcing civil rights and military rule in the South.

John Wilkes Booth

Assassinated President Lincoln in 1865.

Black Codes

Laws limiting the rights of African Americans in the South after the Civil War.

Civil Rights Act of 1866

Law granting equal rights to African Americans, overriding Black Codes.

13th Amendment

Abolished slavery in the U.S.

14th Amendment

Granted citizenship and equal protection under the law to all born in the U.S.

15th Amendment

Gave African American men the right to vote.

Tenure of Office Act

Limited the president's power to remove officials without Senate approval.

Command of the Army Act

Restricted the president’s control over the military.

Scalawags

Southern whites who supported Reconstruction and the Republican Party.

Carpetbaggers

Northern whites who moved to the South after the Civil War for economic opportunities.

Sharecropper

Poor farmers who worked land owned by others in exchange for a share of the crops.

Crop-lien System

A credit system that trapped farmers in debt to landowners and merchants.

Liberal Republicans

Republicans who wanted civil service reform and opposed corruption in government.

Credit Mobilier Scandal

A corruption scandal involving railroad companies and government officials.

Grantism

Political corruption during Ulysses S. Grant’s presidency.

Panic of 1873

Economic depression caused by over-speculation and bank failures.

Seward’s Folly

The U.S. purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867, initially criticized as wasteful.

Ku Klux Klan

A white supremacist group that used violence to oppose Reconstruction and intimidate African Americans.

Enforcement Acts

Laws to protect African Americans from Klan violence and ensure voting rights.

Rutherford B. Hayes

19th U.S. president who ended Reconstruction by withdrawing federal troops from the South.

Samuel Tilden

Democratic candidate in the 1876 election, won the popular vote but lost after a disputed result.

Solid Democratic South

The South became solidly Democratic after Reconstruction, rejecting Republican policies.

Bourbon Government

Conservative Southern Democrats who took control after Reconstruction.

Redeemers

Southern Democrats who worked to end Reconstruction and restore white supremacy.

Home Rule

Southern states gaining control over their own governments after Reconstruction.

New South

The idea of a modernized South focused on industrialization and economic change.

Booker T. Washington

African American leader who advocated for vocational education and economic self-reliance.

Atlanta Compromise

Booker T. Washington’s speech promoting vocational training for blacks while accepting segregation.

1877

The year Reconstruction officially ended with the Hayes-Tilden compromise.

Civil Rights Cases of 1883

Supreme Court ruling that allowed segregation in private facilities.

Plessy v. Ferguson

Supreme Court case that legalized segregation under “separate but equal” doctrine.

Cumming v. County Board

Supreme Court ruling that allowed the closure of black schools while maintaining white schools.

Disenfranchisement

Denying African Americans the right to vote, often through laws like literacy tests and poll taxes.

Poll Tax

A tax imposed on voters to prevent African Americans from voting.

Literacy Test

A test given to voters to restrict voting rights, especially for African Americans.

Jim Crow Laws

State laws that enforced racial segregation in the South.

Lynching

The extrajudicial killing of African Americans, often by hanging, to enforce racial control.

Ida B. Wells

African American journalist who campaigned against lynching and for civil rights.

Constiutional Reconstruction

Only time when Blacks had civil rights during reconstruction.

Pardon

A government action that forgives someone for a crime, removing the punishment.

Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

The process where President Johnson was accused of breaking the law, but he was not removed from office after Senate trial.

Tenant Farmer

A person who rents land to farm instead of owning it.

Compromise of 1877

An agreement that ended the Reconstruction era by removing federal troops from the South in exchange for a Republican president.

Radical Republican

A group of Northern politicians who wanted harsh policies for the South after the Civil War, especially for protecting the rights of African Americans.

White Southerners “Solid South”

The term for the South’s consistent support of Democratic political power and resistance to Republican policies after the Civil War.

Abraham Lincoln

- Role: President during Civil War, started Reconstruction.

- Goals: Quickly reunite the country, end slavery.

- Achievements: Ended Civil War, issued Emancipation Proclamation, started Reconstruction.

Andrew Johnson

- Role: President after Lincoln's assassination.

- Goals: Reunite the country, pardon the South.

- Achievements: Let Southern states rejoin easily, clashed with Congress over Reconstruction.

Ulysses S. Grant

- Role: President during Reconstruction.

- Goals: Protect African American rights, enforce Reconstruction laws.

- Achievements: Supported 15th Amendment, fought KKK violence.

Rutherford B. Hayes

- Role: President after disputed 1876 election.

- Goals: End Reconstruction, heal divisions.

- Achievements: Removed troops from South, ending Reconstruction.