Reconstruction & New South - Ch 15

13th Amendment

Amendment to the US Constitution, passed before the end Civil War, which permanently ended slavery in the United States.

Freedmen

millions of formerly enslaved peoples freed after the Civil War through the 13th Amendment.

Freedmen’s Bureau

government funded organization to help newly freed blacks and poor whites through education and assistance in buying land. 

Reconstruction

the process of reuniting the country after the Civil War and reintegrating seceded states and giving Freedmen rights, opportunities and protection.

Radical Republicans

group of Republicans who sought to punish the former Confederacy and wanted to do more to help Freedmen after the Civil War.

10% Plan

President Lincoln’s plan for Reconstruction. It was considered lenient, and he wanted it that way to quickly heal the nation. He made and started using this plan during the war to try to bring Texas, Arkansas, and Tennessee back into the Union.

Wade Davis Bill

Congress’s first plan for Reconstruction in July 1864, before the end of the War. It called for a provisional governor of each state, a majority white males to pledge allegiance to the union, each state would set up a new constitution, each state would abolish slavery and disenfranchise Confederate leaders. Lincoln pocket vetoed this Bill before it could become a law.

Andrew Johnson

17th president after Lincoln was assassinated. He was more of a common man, from Tennessee originally and a Democrat. His view on Reconstruction was that it was more Restoration. He was insecure and felt only white men could rule the south. He offered amnesty for those who would take an oath of allegiance, and wealthy southerners had to personally appeal to this man.

Black Codes

laws in Southern states that gave whites control over former slaves. They included laws against vagrancy and could punish blacks by forcing them to do labor. It was aimed to tie blacks to the land for cheap labor and not let them leave easily.

14th Amendment

this Reconstruction period Amendment to the US Constitution defined citizenship and the rights associated with it. It also barred some former Confederates from public office.

Reconstruction Act of 1867

the Radical Republican plan for Reconstruction.  States were put into five military districts, each ruled by a military commander.  Then, qualified people would register to vote for elected conventions to make new state constitutions, which had to allow for black male suffrage.  They would then elect state governments with the oversight of the US government.  They would then have to ratify the 14^th Amendment to be considered for statehood.

15th Amendment

Amendment which would forbit states and US governments from denying suffrage on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Impeachment

the process of accusing a government official like the President or a federal judge, of a high crime or misdemeanor.

Scalawags

a derogatory term in the South for a Southern Republican.

Carpetbaggers

a derogatory term for a Northerner who came South to help with Reconstruction. They were usually Republicans.

Sharecropping

system of farming where someone would work another person’s land in exchange for part of the harvest to keep for themselves or to sell. It was taken up by poor blacks and whites after the Civil War and often created a system of perpetual debt.

Seward’s Folly

term for US purchase of Alaska from Russia for $7M.

Ku Klux Klan

terrorist organization who intimidated blacks and white Republicans from voting during Reconstruction and after.  This group was started by former Confederates to support Democrats.

Compromise of 1877

agreement that determined the Election of 1876 between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel Tilden.  In return for the election going to Hayes, Republicans agreed to end the military occupation of the South and essentially ending Reconstruction.

Redeemers

Democrats who took back offices after Reconstruction ended in 1877. They represented not only the planter class, but a new merchant and businessman class with political power in the New South.

Booker T. Washington

a former slave who founded Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. He was educated at Hampton Institute and argued that blacks should self improve through education, particularly to get jobs in the trades and agriculture. He argued blacks should adopt traits of middle class whites.

Plessy v. Ferguson

1896 Supreme Court Case which said that separate but equal accommodations were okay and did not violate black equal rights. This set the precedent for segregation.

Jim Crow Laws

state laws designed to segregate schools and prevent black votes. It stripped blacks of social, economic, and political gains made in Reconstruction.

Lynching

mob killing of someone, particularly of African Americans in the South during the Jim Crow era. It was meant to intimidate blacks to prevent them from voting, or for revenge for accused and often non existent crimes.

Ida B. Wells

black journalist who launched an anti lynching movement by publishing articles after a lynching in Memphis, Tennessee. She pushed unsuccessfully for a new law, but did bright attention and gained support for her cause.