Reconstruction Era: Key Laws, Amendments, and Political Figures

ten percent plan

Lincoln's plan that allowed a Southern state to form its own government afetr ten percent of its voters swore an oath of loyalty to the United States

wade-davis bill

1864 Proposed far more demanding and stringent terms for reconstruction; required 50% of the voters of a state to take the loyalty oath and permitted only non-confederates to vote for a new state constitution; Lincoln refused to sign the bill, pocket vetoing it after Congress adjourned.

black codes

Southern laws designed to restrict the rights of the newly freed black slaves

freedmens bureau

1865 - Agency set up to aid former slaves in adjusting themselves to freedom. It furnished food and clothing to needy blacks and helped them get jobs

civil rights act of 1866

Passed by Congress on 9th April 1866 over the veto of President Andrew Johnson. The act declared that all persons born in the United States were now citizens, without regard to race, color, or previous condition.

fourteenth amendment

made "all persons born or naturalized in the United States" citizens of the country

radical republicans

After the Civil War, a group that believed the South should be harshly punished and thought that Lincoln was sometimes too compassionate towards the South.

reconstruction act of 1867

This Act was passed by Congress which was vetoed by President Johnson. This Act invalidated the state govn'ts formed under the Lincoln & Johnson plans and all the legal decisions made by those govn'ts.

15th amendment

Citizens cannot be denied the right to vote because of race, color , or precious condition of servitude

american woman suffrage association

A women's suffrage organization led by Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, and others who remained loyal to the Republican Party, despite its failure to include women's voting rights in the Reconstruction Amendments. Stressing the urgency of voting rights for African American men, AWSA leaders held out hope that once Reconstruction had been settled, it would be women's turn.

national woman suffrage association (NWSA)

Was a group that worked for the constitutional amendment to give woman the right to vote (Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton)

minor vs happersett

A Supreme Court decision in 1875 that ruled that suffrage rights were not inherent in citizenship and had not been granted by the Fourteenth Amendment, as some women's rights advocates argued. Women were citizens, the Court ruled, but state legislatures could deny women the vote if they wished.

crop-lien laws

Nineteenth-century laws that enforced lenders' rights to a portion of harvested crops as repayment for debts. Once they owed money to a country store, sharecroppers were trapped in debt and became targets for unfair pricing.

convict leasing

Notorious system, begun during Reconstruction, whereby southern state officials allowed private companies to hire out prisoners to labor under brutal conditions in mines and other industries.

civil rights act of 1875

A law that required "full and equal" access to jury service and to transportation and public accommodations, irrespective of race.

classical liberalism

The political ideology of individual liberty, private property, a competitive market economy, free trade, and limited government. The idea being that the less government does, the better, particularly in reference to economic policies such as tariffs and incentives for industrial development. Attacking corruption and defending private property, late-nineteenth-century liberals generally called for elite governance and questioned the advisability of full democratic participation.

credit mobilier

1872, This was a fraudulent construction company created to take the profits of the Union Pacific Railroad. Using government funds for the railroad, the Union Pacific directors gave padded construction contracts to Congress members

kkk

Ku Klux Klan--Against Blacks, Jews, Catholics. Used terror to control them

enforcement laws

Acts passed in Congress in 1870 and signed by President U. S. Grant that were designed to protect freedmen's rights under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Authorizing federal prosecutions, military intervention, and martial law to suppress terrorist activity, the Enforcement Laws largely succeeded in shutting down Klan activities.

slaughterhouse cases

A series of post-Civil War Supreme Court cases containing the first judicial pronouncements on the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. The Court held that these amendments had been adopted solely to protect the rights of freed blacks, and could not be extended to guarantee the civil rights of other citizens against deprivations of due process by state governments. These rulings were disapproved by later decisions.

civil rights cases

A series of 1883 Supreme Court decisions that struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1875, rolling back key Reconstruction laws and paving the way for later decisions that sanctioned segregation.

andrew johnson

17th President of the United States, A Southerner form Tennessee, as V.P. when Lincoln was killed, he became president. He opposed radical Republicans who passed Reconstruction Acts over his veto. The first U.S. president to be impeached, he survived the Senate removal by only one vote. He was a very weak president.

charles summer

Massachusetts Senator in 1856, his strong abolitionist convictions caused him to antagonize the South and the Lecompton Constitution in a speech called "The Crime Against Kansas".

thaddeus stevens

Man behind the 14th Amendment, which ends slavery. Stevens and President Johnson were absolutely opposed to each other. Known as a Radical Republican

ulysses s. grant

an American general and the eighteenth President of the United States (1869-1877). He achieved international fame as the leading Union general in the American Civil War.

victoria woodhull

Radical feminist propagandist whose eloquent attacks on conventional social morality shocked many Americans in the 1870s, 1st female candidate for president

robert smalls

Slave who worked for the Confederates as a planter pilot. Stole a vessel and loaded it with family and took it to the Union. Important politician and established a Republican party in South Carolina.

blanche k. bruce

US politician who represented MS as a Republican in the Senate from 1875 to 1881; of mixed race; 1st elected black Senator to serve a full term; next African American to serve on a Senate seat (Edward E. Brook) served in 1966, nearly 90 years later

nathan bedford forrest

General Forrest may have been one of the most respected cavalrymen of the Civil War, but his legend is marred by his racism. Before the Civil War, Forrest was a slave trader, and after the war he became one of the first Grand Wizards of the Ku Klux Klan.