Reconstruction Era: Key Figures, Laws, and Policies in Post-Civil War America

Reconstruction

The time after the Civil War (1865-1877) when the South was rebuilt and former Confederate states were brought back into the Union.

Radical Republicans

A group of Republicans in Congress who wanted to punish the South after the Civil War and give full rights to freed African Americans.

Wade-Davis Bill

A Reconstruction plan that required most white men in Southern states to swear loyalty before being readmitted; Lincoln refused to sign it.

Freedmen's Bureau

A government agency that helped freed slaves and poor whites with food, education, and jobs after the Civil War.

Andrew Johnson

The U.S. president after Lincoln's assassination who clashed with Congress over Reconstruction and was almost removed from office.

Black Codes

Laws passed in the South to limit the rights of African Americans and keep them working on farms.

Sharecropping

A system where poor farmers, often freed slaves, worked land owned by others in exchange for a share of the crops.

14th Amendment

Gave citizenship to all people born in the U.S. and promised equal protection under the law.

Impeach

To formally charge a government official, like the president, with wrongdoing.

15th Amendment

Gave African American men the right to vote.

Scalawag

A white Southerner who supported Reconstruction and worked with the North.

Carpetbagger

A Northerner who moved South after the Civil War, often to make money or gain power.

Plessy v. Ferguson

A Supreme Court case (1896) that said segregation was legal if facilities were 'separate but equal.'

Rutherford B. Hayes

The president who ended Reconstruction in 1877 by removing federal troops from the South.

Jim Crow Laws

Laws that enforced segregation of Black and white people in schools, transportation, and public places.

Enforcement Acts

Laws passed to protect African Americans' right to vote and stop groups like the Ku Klux Klan.

Tenant Farming

A system where farmers rented land and grew crops, but had more independence than sharecroppers.

Literacy Test

A test people had to take to prove they could read before being allowed to vote, often used to stop African Americans from voting.

13th Amendment

Abolished slavery in the United States.

Poll Tax

A fee people had to pay to vote, used to keep poor African Americans from voting.

W.E.B. Du Bois

An African American leader and writer who pushed for full civil rights and helped start the NAACP.

Grandfather Clause

A law saying men could only vote if their grandfather had been able to vote, which blocked many African Americans.

Redeemers

Southern leaders who wanted to bring back white rule and take control from Republicans during and after Reconstruction.

Booker T. Washington

An African American leader who believed in gaining rights slowly through education and hard work.

Ida B. Wells

An African American journalist who fought against lynching and worked for civil rights.