The Reconstruction Era

Flashcards covering key vocabulary from the Reconstruction Era lecture, including definitions of important terms, plans, acts, and social concepts.

Reconstruction

The period from 1865 to 1877 during which the United States began to rebuild after the Civil War and included the process by which the federal government readmitted former Confederate states.

Freedman

Freed slaves who, after the Civil War, nearly 4 million of them, needed food, clothing, and jobs.

Lincoln's Ten-Percent Plan

A lenient Reconstruction plan proposing that when 10% of a state's 1860 voters pledged allegiance to the U.S. and abolished slavery, the state could be readmitted to the Union and create a new government.

Wade-Davis Bill

A stricter Reconstruction plan proposed by Radical Republicans, requiring a majority of a state's white male adults to pledge loyalty, only non-Confederate white males to vote for delegates to a constitutional convention, all new state constitutions to ban slavery, and barring former Confederates from holding office.

Ironclad Oath

An oath required by the Wade-Davis Bill, where individuals swore they had never in the past supported the Confederacy, as a condition for former Confederate states' re-admittance to the Union.

Pocket Veto

A legislative maneuver used by President Lincoln to block the Wade-Davis Bill by taking no action on it.

Military Reconstruction Acts of 1867

Acts that divided the South into five military districts, established new elections with voting mostly allowed by former slaves, and required states to ratify the 13th and 14th Amendments after drafting new state constitutions.

Johnson's Presidential Reconstruction

A lenient Reconstruction plan requiring a majority of voters in each southern state to swear loyalty to the U.S. and approve the 13th Amendment to rejoin the Union.

Freedman's Bureau

Created by Congress in March 1865 to help African Americans adjust to life after slavery by providing food, clothing, medical care, and setting up schools in the South.

Sharecropping

An agricultural system where many African Americans rented land from plantation owners in return for a share or percentage of the total crop produced.

Black Codes

Laws passed by Southern states after the 13th Amendment that limited the rights of African Americans.

Radical Republicans

Northern members of Congress, led by Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens, who opposed Lincoln's Ten-Percent plan and Johnson's plan, wanting to punish southern slave owners and ensure African Americans had the right to vote.

Graft

Gaining money illegally through politics in order to maximize the benefits to private interests.

14th Amendment

Ratified in 1868, it declared that all people born in the U.S. are citizens and no state may take away the rights of citizens.

15th Amendment

Ratified in 1870, it states that the right to vote cannot be denied to citizens because of their race or color or because they were once enslaved.

Ulysses S. Grant

The 18th President of the United States (1869-1877) who presided over the last half of Reconstruction, supported amnesty for Confederate leaders, and protected the civil rights of African Americans.

Amnesty

A pardon, specifically mentioned as supported by President Grant for Confederate leaders.

Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

A violent terrorist organization devoted to white supremacy, whose tactics Grant tried to suppress during Reconstruction.

Panic of 1873

An economic depression during Grant's presidency that caused scores of smaller banks to close and the stock market to plummet.

Scalawags

Southerners who became Republicans during Reconstruction.

Carpetbaggers

Northerner Republicans who moved to the South during Reconstruction.

Compromise of 1877

An agreement to settle the disputed Election of 1876, resulting in Rutherford B. Hayes becoming president and the end of military occupation of the South, leading to white Democrats taking control of southern state governments.

Redemption

The overthrow or defeat of Radical Republicans (white and black) by white Democrats, marking the end of the Reconstruction era in the South.

Poll Taxes

Laws passed in the South after Reconstruction to deny African Americans equal rights by requiring a fee to vote.

Literacy Tests

Laws passed in the South after Reconstruction to deny African Americans equal rights by requiring voters to pass a reading and writing test.

Grandfather Clauses

Laws passed in the South after Reconstruction that exempted individuals from poll taxes and literacy tests if their ancestors had been able to vote before 1866 or 1867, effectively disenfranchising African Americans.

Segregation

The systemic separation of people, often by race, in public and private life, enforced by laws like Jim Crow Laws after Reconstruction.

Jim Crow Laws

State and local laws enacted in the Southern and some border states from the late 19th to the mid-20th centuries, enforcing racial segregation.

Lynching

The extrajudicial killing of an individual by a mob, often targeting African Americans in the post-Reconstruction South.

Civil Rights Movement

A movement that began approximately 100 years after Reconstruction, dedicated to ending racial segregation and discrimination against African Americans and securing equal rights.