APUSH Chapter 15

Civil Rights Act of 1866

• Gave citizenship and equal rights to African Americans; aimed to override Black Codes.

14th Amendment

• Granted citizenship to all born in the U.S. and guaranteed equal protection under the law.

Equal Protection of the Laws

• Government must treat all citizens equally; no discrimination by the states.

15th Amendment

• Banned denying voting rights based on race, color, or former slavery.

Credit Mobilier

• major railroad corruption scandal in the 1870s where leaders of the Union Pacific Railroad bribed members of Congress with stock to get government money and avoid investigation.

William (Boss) Tweed

• Corrupt political leader of Tammany Hall in New York City.

Patronage

• Giving government jobs to their supporters

Spoilsmen

• People who benefited from patronage.

Thomas Nast

• Political cartoonist who exposed Boss Tweed, got him arrested

Horace Greeley

• Editor of New York Tribune

• Reform minded Republicans elected him as their presidential candidate

Liberal Republicans

• Advocated for civil service reforms, end to railroad subsides, withdrawl of troops from the SOuth, reduced tariffs, and free trade.

Panic of 1873

• Economic depression caused by railroad overbuilding and bank failures.

Greenbacks

• Paper money issued by the federal government during the Civil War, not backed by gold

Redeemers

• Southern conservatives who took control of state governments

Rutherford B. Hayes

• Republican president who gained office through the Compromise of 1877.

Samuel J. Tilden 

• Democratic candidate who won popular vote in 1876 but lost presidency.

Compromise of 1877

• Ended Reconstruction by removing federal troops from the South in exchange for Hayes becoming president.

Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction 

• Lincoln’s plan to pardon most Confederates who swore loyalty and accept emancipation.

Wade-Davis Bill (1864)

Radical Republican plan requiring a majority loyalty oath before Southern states could rejoin the Union.

Freedmen’s Bureau

• Federal agency that helped freed slaves with education, food, jobs, and legal support after the Civil War.

Andrew Johnson

• Lincoln’s successor; favored lenient Reconstruction and opposed Radical Republican policies.

Presidential Reconstruction 

• Lenient Reconstruction plans by Lincoln and Johnson to quickly restore Southern states.

Black Codes

• Southern laws that restricted the rights and freedoms of African Americans after the Civil War.

Congressional Reconstruction 

• Reconstruction led by Radical Republicans that imposed stricter requirements on Southern states and protected African American rights.

Radical Republicans

• Members of Congress who pushed for full equality for African Americans and strict Reconstruction of the South.

Charles Sumner

• Leader of Radical Republicans in the Senate

Thaddeus Stephens

• Hoped to revolutionize Southern Society through extended period of military rule, and African Americans could exercise rights, education, and gain land.

Benjamin Wade

• Radical Republican who endorsed many liberal causes like women’s suffrage/ rights for labor unions ect

Reconstruction Acts (1867)

• Laws that placed the South under military rule and required new state constitutions guaranteeing Black male suffrage.

Tenure of Office Act (1867)

• Law that limited the president’s power to remove officials without Senate approval.

Edwin Stanton

• Secretary of War whose firing by Andrew Johnson led to Johnson’s impeachment.

Impeachment

• The formal charging of a government official, including the president, for misconduct.

Scalawags

• Southern whites who supported Reconstruction and the Republican Party.

Carpetbaggers

• Northerners who moved to the South during Reconstruction, often to seek political or economic opportunities.

Blanche K. Bruce

• First African American to serve a full term in the U.S. Senate.

Hiram Revels

• First African American to serve in the U.S. Senate.

Sharecropping

• A farming system where farmers worked land they didn’t own and paid rent with a share of their crops.

Ku Klux Klan

• White supremacist group that used violence and intimidation to oppose Reconstruction and Black civil rights.

Force Acts (1870, 1871)

• Federal laws that allowed the government to use troops to stop KKK violence and protect Black voting rights.

Amnesty Act (1872)

• Law that restored political rights to most former Confederates.