Give Me Liberty! Chapter 15 Key Terms

civil rights bill of 1866

civil rights bill of 1866

designed to destroy black codes by giving blacks full citizenship; johnson vetoed it, but congress overturned that

fourteenth amendment

A constitutional amendment giving full rights of citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the United States, except for American Indians.

reconstruction act

an 1867 law that threw out the southern state governments that had refused to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment

waving the bloody shirt

This was a campaign tactic used by post-Civil War Republicans to remind northern voters that the Confederates were Democrats. The device was used to divert attention away from the competence of candidates and from serious issues. It was also used to appeal to black voters in the South.

fifteenth amendment

1870 constitutional amendment that guaranteed voting rights regardless of race or previous condition of servitude

woman suffrage

A woman's right to vote, an issue raised for the first time at the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848.

the freedmens bureau

This is a reconstruction agency that was established in order to protect the legal rights of former slaves. It also assisted the former slaves with education, jobs, health care, and landowning.

sharecropping

A system used on southern farms after the Civil War in which farmers worked land owned by someone else in return for a small portion of the crops.

crop-lien system

System that allowed farmers to get more credit. They used harvested crops to pay back their loans.

black codes

Laws denying most legal rights to newly freed slaves; passed by southern states following the Civil War

carpetbaggers

A northerner who went to the South immediately after the Civil War; especially one who tried to gain political advantage or other advantages from the disorganized situation in southern states

scalawags

A derogatory term for Southerners who were working with the North to buy up land from desperate Southerners

ku klux klan

A secret society created by white southerners in 1866 that used terror and violence to keep African Americans from obtaining their civil rights.

enforcement acts

(1870-1871) Congress in response to the KKK and others, passed these acts to protect black voters. It created penalties on person who interfered with any citizen's right to vote. Outlaws the activities of the KKK

colfax massacre

whites armed with rifles hostaged and killed republicans who refused to step down from their offices. The white league shot 103 people who ran out of the court house...100 black and 3 white.

civil rights act of 1875

1964; banned discrimination in public acomodations, prohibited discrimination in any federally assisted program, outlawed discrimination in most employment; enlarged federal powers to protect voting rights and to speed school desegregation; this and the voting rights act helped to give African-Americans equality on paper, and more federally-protected power so that social equality was a more realistic goal

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.

redeemers

Largely former slave owners who were the bitterest opponents of the Republican program in the South. Staged a major counterrevolution to "redeem" the south by taking back southern state governments. Their foundation rested on the idea of racism and white supremacy. Redeemer governments waged and agressive assault on African Americans.

bargain of 1877

Unwritten deal that settled the 1876 presidential election between republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden. Hayes could be president if certain criteria was met.