Reconstruction: America's "Unfinished Revolution"?

These flashcards cover the key terms, significant people, and legal amendments associated with the Reconstruction era as outlined in the Chapter 2 lecture notes.

Reconstruction

The period after the Civil War during which Southern states were readmitted to the Union, emancipated freedmen were incorporated into public life, and war-torn economies were rebuilt.

Thirteenth Amendment

A constitutional amendment passed in 1865 that prohibited slavery throughout the United States.

Fourteenth Amendment

A constitutional amendment that guaranteed all citizens "equal protection of the laws" and "due process," preventing states from denying rights to African Americans or other minorities.

Fifteenth Amendment

A constitutional amendment ratified in 1870 that prohibited states from denying any citizen the right to vote on the basis of race or previous "servitude" (slavery).

Freedman

A term used for the four million people suddenly emancipated from slavery following the Civil War.

Freedmen's Bureau

A federal agency established by Congress in March 1865 to help former slaves adjust to freedom by setting up schools and providing other assistance.

Andrew Johnson

The successor to President Lincoln who initially feuded with Radical Republicans over his lenient pardons of former Confederates and his opposition to the Civil Rights Act.

Presidential Reconstruction

The early phase of Reconstruction characterized by Andrew Johnson's lenient policy of issuing thousands of individual pardons to former Confederate leaders.

Radical Republicans

A group of Northern Republicans who believed the South should be punished and that African Americans should be granted full political and civil equality.

"Black Codes"

Laws passed by Southern state legislatures based on older slave codes that limited the civil rights and freedom of movement of freedmen, often forcing them to remain as plantation workers.

Civil Rights Act

A federal law passed by Republicans in Congress that granted freedmen civil rights and overturned the Black Codes; it later became the basis for the Fourteenth Amendment.

Congressional Reconstruction

The Reconstruction program led by Radical Republicans that divided the South into five districts occupied by the Union army and granted freedmen the right to vote.

Due Process

A legal requirement guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment that ensures the state must respect all legal rights owed to a person.

Equal Protection

A clause in the Fourteenth Amendment requiring that states treat all citizens the same under the law regardless of race.

Impeachment

The formal process of accusing a public official of wrongdoing; President Andrew Johnson was the first President to face this process in 1868.

Carpetbagger

A derogatory term applied by Southern newspapers to Northerners who moved to the South during Reconstruction for business or idealistic reasons.

Scalawag

A term for Southern whites who supported the Reconstruction policies of the Republican Party.

Hiram Rhodes Revels

A Protestant minister who, in 1870, became the first African American elected to Congress, serving as a Senator from Mississippi.

"New South"

A vision for a modernized Southern economy that included diversified farming and the development of railroads, cotton mills, and steel furnaces.

Sharecropping

An economic system where a landowner provides a cabin, tools, and land to a farmer in exchange for a large share of the resulting crop.

Debt peonage

A system where freedmen were tied to a landowner's property because they owed money for cash loans or the use of tools, preventing them from leaving until the debt was paid.

Ku Klux Klan

A secret society that terrorized African Americans to prevent them from exercising their political and social rights.

Literacy tests

Exams used by Southern states to determine if a person could read before being allowed to vote, often designed to be more difficult for black citizens.

Poll taxes

Special registration fees required for voting that were burdensome to the poor and used to discourage African Americans from participating in elections.

"Grandfather clauses"

Laws that exempted people from literacy tests or poll taxes if their ancestors were qualified to vote in 1867, effectively exempting poor whites but not poor blacks.

Solid South

A term describing the tendency of white Southerners to consistently vote for the Democratic Party for nearly 100 years following Reconstruction.

"Jim Crow" laws

A series of segregation laws passed by white state legislatures in the South that separated "white" and "colored" people in public places.

Segregation

The enforced separation of different racial groups in daily life, such as in schools, restaurants, and transportation.

Plessy vs. Ferguson

An 1896 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the "separate but equal" doctrine.

Ten-Percent Plan

President Lincoln's proposal to readmit a state once ten percent of its voters pledged allegiance to the Union and accepted the Emancipation Proclamation.

Wade-Davis Bill

A stringent Reconstruction bill passed by Congress in July 1864 that Lincoln refused to sign.

Tenure of Office Act

A law passed by Congress limiting the President's power to dismiss cabinet members, the violation of which led to the impeachment of Andrew Johnson.

Compromise of 1877

An agreement that settled the disputed 1876 Presidential election by giving Rutherford B. Hayes the presidency in exchange for the withdrawal of Northern troops from the South.

Nadir

A term referring to the low point in American race relations, specifically the period of segregation and white supremacy following Reconstruction.

Jonathan C. Gibbs

An African-American preacher and Dartmouth graduate who served as Florida's Secretary of State during Reconstruction.

Josiah T. Walls

The first black Floridian elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served three terms.

Turpentine camps

Establishments in the pine forests of Florida where a unique form of debt peonage exploited African-American workers until the 1940s.