Chapter 17

American History (reconstruction Era)

1865

Lincoln’s assassination/ 13th Amendment

1868

14th Amendment

1877

End of reconstruction

1865-1869

Andrew Johnson

1869-1877

Ulysses S. Grant

1877-1881

Rutherford B. Hayes

Reconstruction Era

the era of rebuilding in America after the Civil War

Freedmen

Former slaves living in America (approx 3.5 mil.)

10% Plan

10% of registered voters in a state needed to swear an oath of loyalty for the state to join America

Radicals

republicans who DID NOT support Lincoln’s plan

Wade-Davis Bill:

proposed to give Congress control of reconstruction

pocket veto

presidential right to kill a bill by not acting up on it before Congress adjourned

black codes

laws that Southern states created to limit freedmen’s rights

freedmens Bureau

an organization that provided aid & supplies to the freedmen in the South

civil rights bill

guaranteed citizenship to freedmen born in the US

14th Amendment

guaranteed citizenship to any person (including freedmen) born in America

15th Amendment

guaranteed the right to vote for any American citizen (including freedmen)

Reconstruction Act

divided the South into 5 sections to be rebuilt by a military general

tenure of office act

prevented the President from dismissing civil officers appointed by the Senate without consent from the Senate

compromise of 1877

officially ended Reconstruction

carpet baggers

Northern politicians who took Southern political positions after the war

Scalawags

white southerners who cooperated with carpetbaggers

Klu Klux Klan

secret society that used terror tactics to suppress the rights of freedmen

Amnesty Act

restored political rights to most of those who had cooperated with the Confederacy

poll taxes

taxes that citizens had to pay before votion

solid South

indicated the many years that South voted steadily Democrat

Booker T. Washington

freedman who became a spokesman for freedmen’s rights after the war; he also was the author of “Up from Slavery”

Tuskegee Institute

the 1st university for freedmen in America

George Washington Carver

best-known science professor at Tuskegee

Freedman’s Aid Society

created by the Methodist Episcopal church to set up schools in Southern states for the education of slaves

sharecropping

division of land into small plots worked by farmers & their families