Civil War and Reconstruction Study Guide

Describe the 13^th, 14^th & 15^th Amendments?

13th- The 13th amendment forbade chattel slavery across the United states and in every territory under its control, except as a criminal punishment.

14th- The 14th amendment granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, including formerly enslaved people and providing all citizens with equal protection under the law.

15th- 15th amendment states that the rights of the citizens of the united states to vote shall not be denied on the account of race, color. 

Describe Johnson’s presidency. Why was President Johnson Impeached?  Was he convicted?  Why or why not?

Andrew Johnson was the 17th president of the United States. He oversaw the reconstruction era and he  clashed with the Republican-controlled Congress over Reconstruction policies, leading to his impeachment.

Violating the Tenure of Office Act by attempting to replace Edwin Stanton, the secretary of war, while Congress was not in session and other alleged abuses of presidential power.

No, President Andrew Johnson was not convicted in his impeachment trial by the Senate. Although the House of Representatives impeached him in 1868, he was acquitted by a margin of one vote in the Senate, allowing him to remain in office and finish his term. 

Describe the 10% Plan?  Who proposed it? Describe 4 points? Did it truly go into effect?  Why or why not?

The 10% Plan was a lenient Reconstruction strategy proposed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, aimed at quickly readmitting the Confederate states to the Union. 

Four Points of the 10% Plan-

10% Loyalty Oath: A Southern state could form a new government and be readmitted to the Union once 10% of its voters from the 1860 presidential election took an oath of allegiance to the U.S. and pledged to abide by emancipation.

Full Pardons: The plan offered a full pardon and restoration of property (except for enslaved people) to most Confederates who took the oath of loyalty.

Exclusions from Pardon: High-ranking Confederate military and government officials were not eligible for the general pardon and had to seek special presidential pardons.

New State Constitutions: Once the 10% threshold was met, the state could elect delegates to draft a new state constitution that abolished slavery and then hold elections to send representatives to Congress. 

The 10% Plan did not truly go into effect as a comprehensive national Reconstruction policy. 

Congressional Opposition: The plan faced significant opposition from Radical Republicans in Congress who believed it was too lenient and did not go far enough to protect the rights of freed slaves.

  What were the black codes?  What did they prohibit African Americans from doing in the South?  Name at least four restrictions. 

The Black Codes were a series of restrictive laws passed by Southern states immediately after the Civil War (1865 and 1866) to limit the freedom of African Americans and ensure their availability as a cheap labor force, effectively seeking to restore the pre-emancipation social and economic hierarchy. 

Vagrancy Laws and Forced Labor

Employment and Labor Contracts

Restriction on Property and Rights

Apprenticeship Laws

Which reconstruction plan that went into effect placed the South under military districts?   What other components are there? What right did this plan also give to African Americans? 

The Reconstruction plan that placed the South under military districts was the Military Reconstruction Act of 1867, which was the primary legislation of the Congressional (or Radical) Reconstruction era.

What other components are there? 

The ten states were divided into five districts The state governments that had been formed under President Johnson's lenient plan were dissolved and declared invalid.

What right did this plan also give to African Americans? 

• Right to Vote, Right to Hold Office, Equal Protection: The Southern states were required to ratify the 14th Amendment

What was established to help African Americans in the South?  What did it try to do?  (give 3 examples-3 points)  Was it successful?  Why or why not?  

The federal government established the Freedmen's Bureau, in March 1865 to help millions of formerly enslaved African Americans and impoverished whites in the South in the aftermath of the Civil War. 

• Provided essential relief and medical care: The Bureau distributed millions of rations of food

• Established an education system: The Bureau's most successful endeavor was in education, where it helped establish over 3,000 schools

• Offers legal and employment assistance: Agents oversaw labor contracts between freed people and white planters to ensure fair wages and conditions

Successes: The Bureau's greatest success was the creation of a foundation for public education for African Americans, which became a lasting legacy.

Failures: Most confiscated Confederate land was eventually restored to its original white owners, leaving African Americans without an economic base and forcing many into a cycle of debt peonage like sharecropping.

What was Johnson’s reconstruction plan called? Describe the components?   

It was often referred to as the "Presidential Restoration" or simply Johnson's Plan for Reconstruction. It was based largely on Lincoln's previous approach but was implemented without any input from Congress.

Components of Johnson's Reconstruction Plan

• Pardon for Most Confederates: Johnson offered a general pardon to most former Confederates who took an oath of loyalty to the United States and agreed to uphold the abolition of slavery.

• Exclusions from General Amnesty: The primary difference from Lincoln's plan was that Johnson specifically excluded high-ranking Confederate civil and military leaders, and wealthy landowners

• Appointment of Provisional Governors: Johnson appointed provisional governors for the Southern states that did not yet have recognized governments.

• State Conventions: The governors were instructed to call state conventions to create new constitutions.

Who were the Ku Klux Klan and the White League?   What did they do to enforce their ideologies?

The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and the White League were white supremacist terrorist organizations that emerged during the Reconstruction era with the goal of restoring white dominance and destroying the political power of African Americans and the Republican Party in the South. 

Enforcement Methods: The KKK primarily used nocturnal raids and terror tactics to achieve its goals.

Why was the Compromise of 1877 made? Describe it? What was the key and final outcome of this Compromise?

The Compromise of 1877 was made to resolve the intensely disputed 1876 U.S. Presidential election between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, where multiple states submitted contested electoral returns, leading to a political crisis. 

The Compromise was an informal, unwritten deal negotiated between allies of the Republican and Democratic parties. Its main components were: 

• Hayes becomes President: Southern Democrats agreed to not block the congressional vote that awarded all the contested electoral votes to Rutherford B. Hayes, securing his victory.

• Withdrawal of Federal Troops: In exchange, Republicans agreed to withdraw all remaining U.S. federal troops from the South (specifically from Louisiana and South Carolina).

• "Home Rule" for the South: The removal of troops allowed white Southern Democrats to regain full, unchallenged political control over state governments (often referred to as "home rule").

The key and final outcome of the Compromise of 1877 was the official end of the Reconstruction era in the South. 

Was Reconstruction a success or failure?  Why? Give at least 4 examples.

Reconstruction is generally viewed as a failure in achieving its long-term goals of true racial equality and the full integration of African Americans into Southern society. While it had initial successes, these were short-lived and ultimately reversed.

• Failure of Political Enforcement: The Compromise of 1877 resulted in the withdrawal of federal troops, removing the enforcement mechanism for civil rights and allowing Southern Democrats to regain control and suppress Black rights without federal interference.

• Widespread Disenfranchisement: White supremacist groups (like the KKK) and discriminatory state laws (like poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses) effectively stripped African Americans of the right to vote that they had gained during the Reconstruction amendments, eliminating their political voice.

• Economic Inequality and Sharecropping: The failure to redistribute land left most African Americans economically dependent on white landowners through the exploitative sharecropping and debt peonage systems, which resembled slavery in practice.

• Rise of Jim Crow and Segregation: The failure to protect African Americans led directly to the implementation of the Black Codes and later the comprehensive Jim Crow laws, which established a century of legal racial segregation and discrimination, effectively nullifying the 14th and 15th Amendments.

What were the advantages and disadvantages of the Union and the Confederacy during the Civil War?

Union (North)

Advantages:

• Larger Population: The Union had a significantly larger population (roughly 22 million people compared to the Confederacy's 9 million, of whom about 3.5 million were enslaved) providing a much larger pool of soldiers and workers.

Disadvantages:

• Offensive War: The Union had to invade and conquer a vast territory to force the Confederacy back into the Union, requiring longer supply lines and higher casualty rates to hold ground.

Confederacy (South)

Advantages:

• Strong Military Leadership: The Confederacy produced several excellent military commanders, notably Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, whose strategic skills were superior to many early Union generals.

Disadvantages:

• Smaller Population: The limited white population size made sustaining troop numbers difficult, especially as casualties mounted and desertions increased.

Who were carpetbaggers? Scalawags?

Carpetbaggers were a derogatory term used by Southerners for Northerners who moved to the South after the Civil War. Many sought to profit from the Reconstruction era's opportunities, acting as investors, teachers, or Freedmen's Bureau agents.

Scalawags were a derogatory term used by white Southern Democrats for white Southerners who supported the Republican Party and the Reconstruction efforts, often aligning with carpetbaggers and African Americans for political power or economic opportunity.