Lincoln and Reconstruction

Flashcards about the Lincoln and Johnson Reconstruction plans.

Lincoln's 10% Plan

Lincoln's plan for Reconstruction, requiring 10% of a state's 1860 voters to take an oath of loyalty to the Union to be readmitted.

Wade-Davis Bill

A stricter plan for Reconstruction proposed by Congress, requiring 50% of voters to take an "ironclad" oath of past loyalty.

Pocket Veto

How Lincoln blocked the Wade-Davis Bill, allowing it to expire without his signature after Congress adjourned.

Andrew Johnson

Lincoln's Vice President who became president after Lincoln's assassination; his Reconstruction plan was lenient towards the South.

Johnson’s Presidential Reconstruction plan

Offered pardons to most Confederates, allowed states to re-establish governments without guaranteeing black suffrage, and required ratification of the 13th Amendment.

Civil Rights Act of 1866

Defined citizenship and affirmed that all citizens are equally protected by the law, regardless of race; passed over Johnson's veto.

Radical Republicans

A faction within the Republican Party who believed the South should be punished and that Black Americans should have full citizenship rights.

Military Reconstruction Act of 1867

Divided the South into five military districts and required states to ratify the 14th Amendment and grant Black men the right to vote.

Tenure of Office Act

Required the president to obtain the consent of the Senate before removing an appointed official; passed to limit Johnson's power.

Impeachment

The House of Representatives impeached Johnson for violating the Tenure of Office Act; he was acquitted by one vote in the Senate.

Freedmen’s Bureau

Provided assistance to formerly enslaved people and poor whites in the South, offering aid in education, jobs, medical treatment, and legal help.

Oliver Howard

Head of the Freedmen’s Bureau.

40 acres and a mule

A promise, largely unfulfilled, that formerly enslaved families would receive forty acres of land and a mule from confiscated Confederate land.

Carpetbaggers

Northerners who moved to the South during Reconstruction, often with the goal of helping with Reconstruction efforts or seeking economic opportunity.

Scalawags

Southern white Republicans who supported Reconstruction and cooperated with Black Americans and Northerners.

Enforcement Acts

Laws passed in the 1870s to protect African Americans' right to vote and prevent intimidation by groups like the Ku Klux Klan.

Compromise of 1877

An informal agreement that ended Reconstruction; federal troops were removed from the South in exchange for Rutherford B. Hayes becoming president.

Black Codes

Restrictive laws passed by Southern states after the Civil War that severely limited the rights and freedoms of African Americans.

Ku Klux Klan

A white supremacist terrorist organization that used violence and intimidation to suppress Black political power and restore white dominance in the South.

US v Cruikshank

A Supreme Court case that weakened the federal government's power to protect the civil rights of African Americans from actions by private individuals and state governments.

Jim Crow Laws

State and local laws enacted in the Southern United States. They enforced racial segregation in all public facilities

Plessy v. Ferguson decision

A landmark Supreme Court decision in 1896 that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the "separate but equal" doctrine.

13th Amendment

Abolished slavery throughout the United States.

14th Amendment

Granted citizenship and equal protection under the law to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, including formerly enslaved people.

15th Amendment

Prohibited the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on "race, color, or previous condition of servitude."