Textbook Terms, Chapter 15

Discusses northern-southern conflicts over reconstruction and government branches.

Andrew Johnson

17th president of the United States who succeeded Lincoln, opposed Radical Reconstruction, vetoed civil rights legislation, and was impeached but acquitted by the Senate

Atlanta Compromise

1895 speech by Booker T. Washington urging African Americans to accept segregation and disenfranchisement temporarily while focusing on vocational education and economic self-help

Black Codes (And How They Were Similar to Slave Codes)

Laws passed in Southern states after the Civil War restricting African Americans’ rights and controlling labor, similar to slave codes in limiting freedom and enforcing dependency

Blanche Bruce

The first African American to serve a full term in the U.S. Senate during Reconstruction, representing Mississippi

Booker T. Washington

An African American leader who promoted vocational education and economic self-reliance as strategies for black advancement

Carpetbaggers

Northern whites who moved to the South during Reconstruction to seek political office or economic opportunities, often resented by Southern whites

Charles Sumner

A Radical Republican senator from Massachusetts who advocated for civil rights for freedmen and harsh policies toward the South

Compromise of 1877 (And What It Did)

An agreement resolving the disputed 1876 election, giving Rutherford B. Hayes the presidency in exchange for the withdrawal of federal troops from the South, effectively ending Reconstruction

Crop-Lien System

A credit system used by Southern farmers where sharecroppers and tenant farmers bought supplies on credit from merchants, often leading to cycles of debt and poverty

Enforcement Acts

Laws passed in the 1870s to protect African Americans’ voting rights and suppress Ku Klux Klan violence

15th Amendment

Ratified in 1870, it prohibited states from denying the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude

14th Amendment

Ratified in 1868, it granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States and guaranteed equal protection under the law

Freedmen's Bureau

A federal agency established in 1865 to assist freed African Americans with food, housing, education, and legal support

Hamilton Fish

U.S. Secretary of State under Grant who negotiated the Treaty of Washington and strengthened American diplomacy during Reconstruction

Hiram Revels

The first African American U.S. senator, representing Mississippi during Reconstruction

Ida B. Wells

An African American journalist and activist who led an anti-lynching campaign and advocated for civil rights and women’s suffrage

Jim Crow Laws (And How They Differ From Black Codes)

State and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the South after Reconstruction; unlike black codes, they were legal under the doctrine of “separate but equal” rather than explicitly restricting freedom

Ku Klux Klan/KKK

A white supremacist organization founded during Reconstruction that used terror and violence to intimidate African Americans and suppress their political participation

New South

A vision of a modernized Southern economy based on industry, diversified agriculture, and integration into the national economy, promoted after Reconstruction

Panic of 1873

A severe economic depression caused by over-speculation, bank failures, and railroad bankruptcies, weakening support for Reconstruction

Plessy v. Ferguson (SCOTUS)

The 1896 Supreme Court case that upheld racial segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine

Radical Republicans

A faction of the Republican Party during Reconstruction that advocated full civil rights for freedmen and harsh penalties for former Confederates

Redeemer

Southern white Democrats who regained political power after Reconstruction and sought to restore pre-war social and racial hierarchies

Reconstruction Bills

Laws passed by Congress in 1867–1868 that divided the South into military districts, required new state constitutions, and guaranteed voting rights for African American men

Scalawags

Southern whites who supported Reconstruction and the Republican Party, often viewed as traitors by other Southerners

Segregated Schools

Public schools that were racially separated, often underfunded for African Americans, reflecting the institutionalized racism of the post-Reconstruction era

Sharecropping (And How Similar to the Oppressive Black Plantation System)

A system in which freedmen and poor whites farmed land owned by others in exchange for a share of the crop; it often trapped laborers in debt and poverty, resembling the control and dependency of slavery

Thaddeus Stevens

A Radical Republican leader in the House of Representatives who championed civil rights for freedmen and harsh Reconstruction policies against the South

13th Amendment

Ratified in 1865, it abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States

Wade-Davis Bill

A 1864 Congressional plan for Reconstruction requiring a majority of white males in Southern states to take a loyalty oath before readmission, vetoed by Lincoln

William Seward

Secretary of State under Lincoln and Johnson who helped prevent foreign recognition of the Confederacy and purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867