APUSH Chapter 15

Ten Percent Plan

Lincoln's 1863 plan for Reconstruction, which specified that a Southern state could be readmitted to the Union once 10% of its voters swore an oath of allegiance to the Union

Wade-Davis Bill

A stricter Reconstruction plan proposed by Congress in 1864 that required an oath of allegiance by a majority of each state's white male citizens, and permanently excluded former Confederate officials from political life

Black Codes

Laws passed by Southern states immediately after the Civil War that restricted the rights and freedom of formerly enslaved people, often forcing them into labor contracts

Freedmen’s Bureau

A federal agency established in 1865 to aid formerly enslaved people (freedmen) and poor whites in the South during the Reconstruction era, providing food, housing, medical aid, schools, and legal assistance

Civil Rights Act of 1866

The first major U.S. law to affirm that all citizens are equally protected by the law, guaranteeing citizenship to African Americans and granting them the right to make contracts, sue, and own property

Fourteenth Amendment

Ratified in 1868, it granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States and guaranteed them equal protection under the law and due process

Reconstruction Act of 1867

Congressional legislation that divided the former Confederate states into five military districts, requiring them to grant suffrage to African American men and ratify the Fourteenth Amendment before readmission to the Union

Fifteenth Amendment

Ratified in 1870, it guaranteed the right to vote regardless of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude" (though loopholes were later found by Southern states to restrict Black voters)

American Woman Suffrage Association

A women's suffrage organization formed in 1869 that focused solely on securing the vote for women and generally supported the Fifteenth Amendment despite its exclusion of women

National Woman Suffrage Association

A women's suffrage organization formed in 1869 by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton that opposed the Fifteenth Amendment because it did not include female suffrage, and advocated for a constitutional amendment for women's voting rights

Minor vs. Happersett

An 1875 Supreme Court decision that ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment did not grant women the right to vote, stating that suffrage was not an inherent privilege of citizenship

Sharecropping

A system of agriculture that emerged after the Civil War in which a landowner allowed a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on their portion of land, often trapping former slaves and poor whites in a cycle of debt

Union League

A network of political clubs established in the North during the Civil War and spreading into the South during Reconstruction, which mobilized support for the Republican Party and helped organize African American voters

Scalawags

A derogatory term used by former Confederates to describe Southern white Republicans, often poor farmers, who supported Reconstruction and the Republican Party

Carpetbaggers

A derogatory term for Northern whites who moved to the South after the Civil War, often viewed by Southerners as self-serving opportunists seeking to exploit the region

Convict leasing

A system of penal labor practiced in the South from the 1870s onward in which state and local governments leased prisoners to private industries, often under brutal conditions, as a replacement for enslaved labor

Civil Rights Act of 1875

The last major piece of Reconstruction-era federal legislation, which sought to guarantee African Americans equal treatment in public accommodations, public transportation, and to prohibit exclusion from jury service

Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company

A private bank chartered by Congress in 1865 to encourage thrift and investment among former slaves, but it was mismanaged and failed in 1874, causing financial ruin for thousands of African Americans

Classical liberalism

A political ideology prevalent in the late 19th century that advocated for limited government, rule of law, constitutional guarantees of individual liberty, and a free market

Laissez faire

A doctrine or economic philosophy opposing governmental interference in economic affairs beyond the minimum necessary for the maintenance of peace and property rights

Crédit Mobilier

A major scandal of the Grant administration where high-ranking Republican officials, including the Vice President, were implicated in illicit stock manipulation and bribery related to the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad

“Redemption”

The term used by white Democrats in the South to describe their takeover of state governments from Republicans in the 1870s, which effectively marked the end of Reconstruction in those states

Ku Klux Klan

The most infamous and violent of the secret white supremacist terrorist organizations that arose during Reconstruction to intimidate and prevent African Americans and white Republicans from exercising their political rights

Enforcement Laws

A series of acts passed by Congress in 1870 and 1871 (also known as the Ku Klux Klan Acts) that authorized the federal government to use military force and legal action to suppress the KKK and protect African American civil rights

Slaughter-House Cases

A series of 1873 Supreme Court decisions that significantly limited the power of the Fourteenth Amendment, ruling that most rights of citizens remained under state control and not federal protection

U.S. vs. Cruikshank

An 1876 Supreme Court decision that severely weakened the Enforcement Laws, ruling that the Fourteenth Amendment only prohibited state actions, not the actions of individual citizens or private organizations like the KKK

Civil Rights Cases

A set of 1883 Supreme Court decisions that struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1875, ruling that Congress could not prohibit discrimination by private individuals or businesses, further weakening Reconstruction-era protections

Andrew Johnson

The 17th President of the United States (1865–1869); a Southern Democrat who clashed bitterly with Radical Republicans in Congress over the direction of Reconstruction

Charles Sumner

A Radical Republican senator from Massachusetts who was a leading abolitionist and a fierce advocate for civil rights for African Americans during and after the Civil War

Thaddeus Stevens

A powerful Radical Republican member of the House of Representatives from Pennsylvania who was a key figure in pushing for harsher Reconstruction policies and land redistribution in the South

Ulysses S. Grant

The commanding general of the Union armies during the Civil War and the 18th President of the United States (1869–1877), whose administration was plagued by scandals

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

A leading figure in the early women's rights movement; co-founder of the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) who bitterly opposed the Fifteenth Amendment

Robert Smalls

An African American former slave who became a Civil War hero by delivering a Confederate ship to the Union; later served as a state legislator and U.S. Congressman from South Carolina

Blanche K. Bruce

An African American Republican who served a full term as a U.S. Senator from Mississippi (1875–1881), one of only two Black Senators during Reconstruction

Nathan Bedford Forrest

A former Confederate cavalry general and the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan

John Wilkes Booth

The Southern actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865

Trumbull’s Bill

An informal name for the Civil Rights Act of 1866, introduced by Illinois Senator Lyman Trumbull

Radical Republicans

A faction of the Republican Party during and after the Civil War, led by men like Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner, who strongly opposed slavery, distrusted Confederates, and demanded harsh policies for Reconstruction and full civil rights for African Americans

The Tenure of Office Act

A federal law passed in 1867 that restricted the power of the President to remove certain office-holders without the approval of the Senate; Andrew Johnson's violation of this act led to his impeachment

Edwin M. Stanton

President Lincoln's and later President Johnson's Secretary of War; his attempted removal by Johnson in violation of the Tenure of Office Act triggered Johnson's impeachment

Southern Homestead Act of 1866

A law that set aside public lands in the Southern states for homesteaders, intended to help former slaves and poor whites acquire land, but it had limited success due to poor land quality and lack of capital for farmers

Peonage

A system where an employer compels a worker to pay off a debt with work; also known as debt slavery, it was a common practice in the post-Civil War South often enforced via Black Codes and convict leasing

The Prostrate State

The popular title of a book written by James S. Pike, a Republican journalist, that attacked Reconstruction in South Carolina as corrupt and incompetent, contributing to Northern disillusionment with Reconstruction

The Whiskey Ring

A major scandal during the Grant administration involving a network of liquor distillers and government officials who conspired to defraud the government of millions of dollars in excise taxes

Home Rule

The Democratic Party's political slogan in the South following "Redemption," referring to the restoration of local white rule and the end of federal intervention and Republican governanc