Topic 9 - The Reconstruction Era

13 amendment

Constitutional amendment that banned slavery in the United States

14th Amendment

Constitutional amendment that granted citizenship to all persons born in the United States

15th Amendment

Constitutional amendment that gave African Americans the right to vote in all states

Jim Crow Laws

Laws that separated people of different races in public places in the South

Carpetbagger

A nickname for a Northerner who went south during Reconstruction in the hope of getting rich

Ku Klux Klan

secret society organized in the South after the Civil War to reassert white supremacy by means of violence

Grandfather clause

Excused a voter from a poll tax or literacy test if his father or grandfather had voted before 1867

Impeach

To formally charge a public official with misconduct in office

Johnson's Plan

Granted amnesty to most Southerners, appointed governors to Southern states, states had to denounce secession, abolish slavery, and ratify the 13th Amendment; this plan also opposed giving African Americans equal rights

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Lincoln's Plan

In each state, 10% of the voters must swear loyalty, then form a new government and adopt a constitution that bans slavery; this plan also offered amnesty to all white Southerners and gave educated African Americans the right to vote

Literacy test

an examination to see if a person can read and write; used in the past to restrict voting rights

Black Codes

Laws passed by Southern states to control freed men and women

Plessy v. Ferguson

Ruling by the Supreme Court that segregation was legal as long as facilities for African Americans and whites were equal

Poll tax

Fee paid by a voter in order to vote

Freedmen's Bureau

Helped African American adjust to freedom; provided food, clothing and medical services. Also helped freedmen acquire land and find work.

Reconstruction

Period after the Civil War when the South was rebuilt; also, the federal program to rebuild it

Radical Reconstruction

Divided the South into 5 military districts, guaranteed all African American men the right to vote, prevented former Confederate leaders from holding office

Scalawag

A nickname for a white southerner who supported Radical Republicans

Segregation

The separation of the races to keep them apart; in such situations as housing, schools, restrooms, drinking fountains, etc.

Sharecropper

A farmer that worked on land owned by another person; many freed slaves in the South became sharecroppers after the Civil War

amnesty

a government pardon

Radical Republicans

Members of Congress during Reconstruction who wanted to break the power of wealthy southern plantation owners and ensure that freedmen received the right to vote.

Reconstruction Act

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

Compromise of 1877

An agreement by Republican presidential candidate Rutherford B. Hayes to end Reconstruction in return for congressional Democrats accepting his inauguration as President after the disputed election of 1876