U.S. History / Unit 2: Reconstruction & The West

Reconstruction

period of rebuilding the United States immediately following the Civil War (1865-1877)

Freedmen's Bureau

federal agency established in 1865 and designed to aid freed slaves and poor white farmers in the South after the Civil War

Thirteenth Amendment

1865 constitutional amendment that abolished slavery

Lincoln's Ten Percent Plan

Lincoln's plan for Reconstruction; required 10 percent of a state's voters to take an oath of loyalty to rejoin the Union; required states to accept emancipation; offered full pardons to all former Confederates

Andrew Johnson

17th President of the United States; a Southerner from Tennessee; as V.P., he became president upon Lincoln's death; opposed Radical Republicans who passed Reconstruction Acts over his veto; first U.S. president to be impeached

scalawag

negative term for a southern white who supported the shift in power to Congressional Republicans and the army in the South during Reconstruction

carpetbagger

negative term given by Southern critics to Northerners who moved to the South after the Civil War

Black Codes

laws passed in the southern states during Reconstruction that attempted to keep freedmen dependent on the plantation by greatly restricting African Americans' rights and opportunities

Ku Klux Klan

first terrorist organization in America; a secret society that used terror and violence to advance their goal of restoring the old social and political order in the South and promoting hatred and discrimination to keep Blacks from exercising their civil rights

Thaddeus Stevens

leader of the Radical Republicans in Congress who believed in harsh punishments for the South; absolutely opposed to President Johnson and his plan for Reconstruction.

Civil Rights Act of 1866

first federal law to define citizenship and establish for all citizens equal protection of their civil rights even over state laws

Fourteenth Amendment

1868 constitutional amendment which defined citizenship and guaranteed all citizens equal protection under the law

Reconstruction Acts

(1867-1868) the laws that put the southern states under U.S. military control and required them to draft new constitutions upholding the Fourteenth Amendment before they could be readmitted to the Union

impeachment

an action by the House of Representatives to charge the president or other federal officials of committing "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors."

Andrew Johnson's impeachment

Andrew Johnson violated the Tenure of Office Act by firing his Secretary of War without the Senate's permission, causing the House of Representatives to issue articles of impeachment calling for his removal from the presidency

Ulysses S. Grant

American general during the Civil War and the 18th President of the United States (1869-1877); presidency is remembered as corrupt because he often selected people for his administration who engaged in illicit activities

Fifteenth Amendment

1870 constitutional amendment that guaranteed voting rights regardless of race or previous condition of servitude

Enforcement Acts

1870 and 1871 laws passed by Congress in response to actions of the KKK and other Southern groups; they prohibited radical anti-black groups and made it a federal offense to interfere with any citizen's right to vote

Redeemer

term for white southern Democrats who returned to power after 1870, gaining control of (or "redeeming") Southern states

Compromise of 1877

agreement by which Rutherford B. Hayes won the 1876 presidential election in exchange for removing all remaining federal troops from the South; ended the Reconstruction period

Pacific Railway Act

Congressional measure which gave land to railroad companies to help facilitate the construction of railroad lines from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean

Transcontinental Railroad

the first rail system that crossed the continental United States, creating a link between the eastern and western United States

Homestead Act

law passed by Congress to encourage settlement in the West by giving 160 acres of government owned land to citizens (usually small farmers) willing to live on and cultivate it for at least five years

sod house

house built from squares of turf and soil of the prairie, stacked up like bricks

Indian Wars

(1864-1890) series of conflicts between white settlers backed by the U.S. Army against different Native American tribes usually over land; resulted from the movement of settlers into the West; involved cycles of promises made and broken between the U.S. government and native tribes

Bureau of Indian Affairs

federal agency that managed relations with the Native American tribes and nations, including overseeing allocation of Indian reservations

Sand Creek Massacre

incident in which the Colorado militia killed about 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho elderly, women, and children at their camp near the Sand Creek Reservation

Battle of the Little Bighorn

battle in which Sioux forces led by Chief Sitting Bull decisively defeated U.S. Army troops under the command of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer

Dawes Act

law passed by Congress that divided Indian reservation land into private family plots for individual Indians and promised them citizenship; it promoted the idea of Indian assimilation through Americanization

Wounded Knee Massacre

the U.S. cavalry killed approximately 300 Sioux by Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota; this confrontation marked the end of Indian resistance; considered the end of the Indian Wars

Americanization

the process in which Native Americans were to be absorbed into the mainstream American society by forcing them to abandon their traditional cultures and adopt the culture of white America

Exodusters

African Americans who migrated from the South to the West (especially Kansas) during the Reconstruction period; this was the first significant migration of blacks out of the South after the Civil War

Oklahoma Land Run

the discovery that 2 million acres in central Oklahoma had not been assigned to any Native American group led to a mass migration of over 50,000 white settlers to the area who lined up along the border waiting for the signal to jump off and grab their share of the land for free

Pendleton Civil Service Act

1883 law that created a civil service system for the federal government in an attempt to hire employees based on a merit system rather than on a patronage (or spoils) system

Interstate Commerce Act

1887 law passed to regulate interstate businesses; initially created to oversee interstate railroad procedures; established the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), the first federal agency monitoring business operations

The Grange

a social and educational organization for farmers formed after the Civil War

Gold Standard

a monetary system in which monetary units (such as paper money and coins) are determined to be equal to the value of a stated amount of gold

Populist Party

a political party formed in 1891 by small farmers and factory workers to advocate a larger money supply, free coinage of silver, work reforms, immigration restrictions, government ownership of railroads and telegraph systems