Reconstruction Era

This set of flashcards covers key vocabulary and concepts from the Reconstruction Era, summarizing essential terms and their definitions.

Reconstruction

The period from 1865 to 1877 during which the United States rebuilt after the Civil War and readmitted former Confederate states.

Freedman

An individual who has been freed from slavery.

Ten-Percent Plan

Lincoln’s proposal for Reconstruction that allowed a southern state to be readmitted to the Union once 10% of its voters pledged loyalty to the U.S.

Wade-Davis Bill

A proposed bill for Reconstruction that required a majority of white males in a southern state to take the Ironclad Oath to be readmitted to the Union.

Ironclad Oath

A pledge that the individual had never supported the Confederacy, required for former Confederate states to rejoin the Union under the Wade-Davis Bill.

Military Reconstruction Acts

Acts that divided the South into five military districts and required new elections with supervision and ratification of the 13th and 14th Amendments.

Sherman's Special Field Order No. 15

Order by General Sherman that redistributed land to freed African Americans, giving them 40-acre plots.

Radical Republicans

Congressional faction led by Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens that sought to impose harsher Reconstruction policies.

14th Amendment

1868 amendment that granted citizenship to all persons born in the U.S. and aimed to protect citizens' rights.

15th Amendment

1870 amendment that prohibited denying the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Freedman's Bureau

A agency established in 1865 to help newly freed African Americans adjust to life post-slavery.

Sharecropping

A system where African Americans rented land from plantation owners in exchange for a share of the crop produced.

Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

A violent terrorist organization aimed at white supremacy and preventing African Americans from voting.

Compromise of 1877

The agreement that settled the disputed 1876 presidential election, effectively ending Reconstruction.

Jim Crow Laws

State and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States.

Poll Taxes

Fees required to be paid before voting, used to disenfranchise African American voters.

Literacy Tests

Tests requiring voters to demonstrate reading and writing skills, often used to restrict voting rights among African Americans.

Grandfather Clauses

Laws that allowed individuals to bypass literacy tests and poll taxes if their grandfathers had the right to vote prior to the Civil War.