Reconstruction and Post-Civil War Amendments

Reconstruction

to rebuild

Freedman

former slaves, now free

Freedmen's Bureau

established by Congress to assist freedmen adjust to freedom

Ten-Percent Plan

once ten-percent of a state's voters pledged allegiance to the Union and accepted the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln planned to readmit that state back into the Union

Thirteenth Amendment

prohibits slavery throughout the United States, now freeing every single slave

Civil Rights Act

prohibited discrimination based on race, made all persons born in the United States citizens, including freedmen, and guaranteed them the same rights as white citizens

Equal Protection

the government cannot discriminate in an unreasonable and unjustifiable manner against any person or group based on differences that are irrelevant to a legitimate governmental objective

Fifteenth Amendment

granted universal men's suffrage

Yield

how much crop they can produce in the same amount of land

Segregation

separation; in this context, based on race

Nadir

low point

"Jim Crow" laws

laws that allowed and encouraged segregation

Plessy v. Ferguson

court case, decided by the Supreme Court, that deemed "Jim Crow" separate but equal laws as unconstitutional

Poll Taxes

special registration fees for voting.

"Grandfather Clauses"

allowed people who were eligible to vote before 1867, their descendants, and relatives to vote without passing a literacy test or paying a poll tax. This exempted "poor whites" from the above requirements.

"Solid South"

southern whites who lived in states in the South consistently voted for the Democratic party in response to their resent for the Republican Reconstruction. Even though a majority of the citizens were black, they could not vote.

Presidential Reconstruction

Johnson's Reconstruction policy prioritizing reconciliation of Northern and Southern whites over equality for African Americans

Andrew Johnson

Reconstruction-era president; Southern sympathizer

"Black Codes"

prevented freedmen from voting, serving on juries, testifying in court against whites, holding office, or serving in militias.

Congressional Reconstruction

the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Fourteenth Amendment; the efforts of Congress to reconstruct

Radical Republicans

smaller group of Republicans who believed that the South should be punished and that African Americans should be granted full political and civil equality

Fourteenth Amendment

defines citizenship for all, prevents discrimination based on race

Due Process

the government cannot deprive any person of life, liberty or property without a fair trial, hearing, or other lawful procedure

Impeachment

trial to remove from public office

Suffrage

right to vote

Carpetbaggers

poor Northern whites who rose to power in Southern state governments and came to help the freedmen; term of abuse, "could fit all their belongings into a few bags made of carpet"

Scalawags

Southern whites who supported Reconstruction

Hiram Rhodes Revels

first African American congressperson

Sharecropping

system in which a farmer cultivates land, giving the landowner a portion of his crop as rent

Tenant farmer

renting farmland from landowner, provided their own tools to cultivate

Debt peonage

sharecroppers could NOT leave their land until the debt to the landowner was paid

New South

the end of slavery as a good thing because it encouraged Southern states to develop a more diversified economy through growing many different types of crops and carrying out their own manufacturing

Ku Klux Klan

terror group that targeted blacks who tried to participate in their government

Lynching

public hanging by a local mob of an accused person without a trial

Literacy Tests

determines if someone can read.