Reconstruction Period

Reconstrcution

The period of rebuilding the South after the Civil War was called

Reconstruction Amendments

13th, 14th, and 15th amendments

13th Amendment

Abolished slavery in the United States.

14th Amendment

Declares that all persons born in the U.S. are citizens and are guaranteed equal protection of the laws

15th Amendment

Citizens cannot be denied the right to vote because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude

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.

Black Codes

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

Andrew Johnson

17th president of the United States came to office after Lincoln's assassination and opposed the Radical Republicans; he was impeached

Radical Republicans

The political party that favored harsh punishment of the Southern states after the Civil War

Civil Rights Act of 1866

Federal law that established guarantees of civil rights for all citizens

Ulysses S. Grant

An American general and the eighteenth President of the United States (1869-1877).

Election of 1876

Race between Republican Rutherford B Hayes and Democrat Samuel Tilden.

Compromise of 1877

Compromise that enables Hayes to take office in return for the end of Reconstruction

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Legalized segregation in publicly owned facilities on the basis of "separate but equal."

Segregation

Separation of people based on racial, ethnic, or other differences

Jim Crow Laws

Laws designed to enforce segregation of blacks from whites

Freedmen's Bureau

An agency set up to aid former slaves in adjusting themselves to freedom. Provided things such as food, housing, and education, etc.

Disenfranchisement

Condition of being deprived of the right to vote

Poll Tax

A requirement that citizens pay a tax in order to register to vote

Grandfather Clause

Allowed people to vote if their father or grandfather had voted before Reconstruction

Literacy Test

An exam given to people to prove they could read and write before being allowed to register to vote (often rigged so they didn't pass).

KKK

Stands for the Ku Klux Klan and started right after the Civil War in 1866. They masked themselves, burned black churches and schools, and terrorized black people.

White League

The organization was established to restore political power to the pre-Civil War White Democrats

Scalawag

A white Southerner who supported the Republicans during Reconstruction

Carpetbaggers

A northerner who went to the South immediately after the Civil War to gain political power