Foner Chapter 15 Key Terms (Video Notes)

Vocabulary flashcards covering the key terms from Foner Chapter 15 on Reconstruction.

Freedman's Bureau

A federal agency (1865–1872) created to aid newly freed slaves and impoverished whites, providing food, housing, education, medical care, and help negotiating labor contracts.

Sharecropping

A labor system where freedpeople or poor whites farm land owned by someone else in exchange for a share of the crop, often leading to debt and dependency.

Crop lien

A credit arrangement where a farmer borrows against the value of their next harvest, using the crop as collateral, which frequently trapped farmers in debt.

Black Codes

Laws passed in the Southern states after the Civil War aimed at restricting the freedoms of African Americans and maintaining a controlled labor force.

Civil Rights Bill of 1866

Federal legislation granting citizenship and civil rights to African Americans and authorizing federal enforcement against discriminatory laws.

Fourteenth Amendment

Constitutional amendment (1868) granting equal protection and due process to all persons born or naturalized in the United States; defines citizenship.

Reconstruction Act

1867 laws that divided the South into five military districts, required new state constitutions supporting Black suffrage, and ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Tenure of Office Act

1867 statute restricting the President’s ability to remove certain officeholders without Senate approval, aimed at limiting Andrew Johnson.

Impeachment

Formal accusation by the House of Representatives; the Senate conducts the trial. Johnson was impeached but not removed.

Fifteenth Amendment

Constitutional amendment (1870) prohibiting the denial of suffrage based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Carpetbaggers

Northern whites who moved to the South during Reconstruction, often involved in politics or business.

Scalawags

White Southerners who supported Reconstruction and aligned with Republicans during the era.

Ku Klux Klan

White supremacist terrorist organization that used violence to oppose Reconstruction and intimidate Black citizens and allies.

Enforcement Acts

Legislation (1870–1875) designed to protect citizens’ rights to vote and to authorize federal intervention against violent suppression, especially by the KKK.

Civil Rights Act of 1875

Federal law guaranteeing equal treatment in public accommodations and jury service; later invalidated by the Supreme Court in Civil Rights Cases (1883).

Redeemers

White Southern Democrats who sought to end Reconstruction and restore white supremacy in the South after Reconstruction.

Bargain of 1877

Political agreement resolving the disputed 1876 presidential election; Republicans conceded to withdraw federal troops from the South, effectively ending Reconstruction.