Studied by 3 people
Created by Hass
Freedmen's Bureau
1865 - Agency set up to aid former slaves in adjusting themselves to freedom. It furnished food and clothing to needy blacks and helped them get jobs. It's MOST SUCCESSFULE efforts were in establishing schools for African Americans of all ages.
Civil rights
the rights of full citizenship and equality under the law
tenant farming
system of farming in which a person rents land to farm from a planter
14th Amendment
Passed 1866; Ratified in 1868. This post-Civil War amendment declared that 1) all persons born or naturalized in the U.S. were entitled equal rights and protection of the laws (life, liberty) regardless of their race AND were citizens at state and national levels. Effectively repealed the 3/5 Compromise. Also, 3) denied former confederate officials from holding national or state office, and 4) Repudiate (reject) confederate debts.
carpetbagger
Northerners who went to the South during Reconstruction in hopes of profiting. They were resented by many Southerners as outsiders and opportunists profiting from their misery. Part of the radical government, they passed much needed reforms.
black codes
Laws passed in the south just after the Civil War during the first months of Andrew Johnson's administration aimed at controlling Freedmen and enabling plantation owners to exploit african american workers as a labor force and keep them excluded politically and controlled economically.
sharecropping
a system of farming in which landowners provided land, tools and supplies to grow crops and workers (usually freedpeople and poor whites) provided the labor in exchange for half of the crop (minus any debts incurred during the year); left sharecroppers in a state of debt and thus unable to leave
Reconstruction
period after the Civil War (1865-1877) when the southern states were reorganized and reintegrated into the Union on condition of ending slavery and recognizing former slaves' citizenship. Ends in with the Compromise of 1877 setting a dispute over the 1876 Presidential Election.
Ku Klux Klan
secret society created by white southerners in 1866 that used terror and violence to keep former slaves from obtaining their civil rights.
Enforcement Acts
1870-71 Three acts passed by Congress allowing the government to use military force to stop violence against former slaves by the KKK. One penalized anyone who restricted another's right to vote; the second Act required all elections to be monitored by Federal officials and marshals; the third Act allowed the suspension of habeas corpus for Klansmen.
15th Amendment
Ratified 1870. Last of the three "Reconstruction Amendments". Provided that no (state) government shall prevent a citizen from voting based on the citizen's race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Specifically omitted women.
scalawag
a white Southerner who supported Republican Reconstruction policies after the Civil War in order to get an advantage over former Confederates
poll tax
A tax a person is required to pay before he or she is allowed to vote. Poll taxes were used in many southern states after the Reconstruction period to restrict African-American citizens' right to vote. Outlawed by the 24th Amendment in 1964.
grandfather clause
Law that excused a voter from a literacy test if his father or grandfather had been eligible to vote on January 1, 1867-- Allowed illiterate whites to vote.
segregation
a system used in the South during the Jim Crow era (1880s-1960s) that separated the races in schools, public buildings, hospitals, hotels, and other public accommodations. Held to be constitutional in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896.
Jim Crow
Segregation system put into place after Reconstruction ended. Laws written to separate blacks and whites in public areas in the 1880s-1960s meant African Americans had unequal opportunities in housing, work, education, and government.
Plessy v. Ferguson
1896 Supreme Court decision which legalized state ordered segregation so long as the facilities for blacks and whites were equal-- the doctrine was then called "separate but equal" giving Constitutional support for the increased spread of segregation laws.
Redeemers
Southern Democratic politicians who sought to wrest control from Republican regimes in the South after Reconstruction. Their goal was to take political power away from Republicans and freed slaves, carpetbaggers, and other people who supported Reconstruction. Generally favored economic diversification (increased industry) in the South but not social or political.
Jim Crow Laws
Any of the laws legalizing racial segregation of blacks and whites that were enacted in Southern states beginning in the 1880s and enforced through the 1950's. Grow rampantly after the Plessy v. Fergusson.
Radical Republicans
A small group of people in 1865 who supported black suffrage. They were led by Senator Charles Sumner and Congressman Thaddeus Stevens. They supported the abolition of slavery and a demanding reconstruction policy during the war and after.
Ten Percent Plan
A plan created by President Lincoln before his assassination, and carried out by the successor, Andrew Johnson, stating that a state could be readmitted to the Union if ten percent of the former Confederates in the state who had voted in the 1860 election vowed loyalty to the union.
Wade-Davis Bill
1864 Proposed far more demanding and stringent terms for reconstruction in response to Lincoln's 10% plan; required 50% of the voters of a state to take the loyalty oath and permitted only non-confederates to vote for a new state constitution; Lincoln refused to sign the bill, pocket vetoing it after Congress adjourned. Supported by Radical Republicans who supported a more harsh punishing reconstruction.
Restoration
Reconstruction (lenient) plan implemented by Andrew Johnson when congress was out of session during Johnson's first months as President after Lincoln's assassination; 1) amnesty to those who pledge allegiance to the Union; 2) high ranking S leaders apply for pardon to the Pres.; 3) provisional governors appointed to S states by Johnson;. Resulted in several Southern states being made ready for re-admittance but were refused by a Radical Republic led Congress because they felt there was too little in civil rights reform and punishment for the South
Andrew Johnson
17th President of the United States, A Southerner form Tennessee, as V.P. when Lincoln was killed, he became president. He opposed radical Republicans who passed Reconstruction Acts over his veto. The first U.S. president to be impeached, he survived the Senate removal by only one vote. He was a very weak president.
13th Amendment
1865. Amendement passed in the final months of Lincoln's life in office abolishing and continually prohibiting slavery. With limited exception, such as those guilty of comitting a crime, it also prevents indentured servitude.
The New South
Phrase used to describe the Southern US between 1880 and 1890after the Civil War. Vision of NEW INDUSTRIAL South was conceived by New Democrats. OLD DEMOCRATS opposed this rebirth., Many white southern leaders wanted the South to become more industrialized (textile mills neaer to cotton fields), like the North, to "out-Yankee the Yankees". Railroad devel. increased substantially in the post-Reconstruction years , South changed width of its tracks to correspond w/north.
Reconstruction Acts
1867 - Pushed through congress over Johnson's veto, it gave radical Republicans complete military control over the South and divided the South into five military zones (except Tennessee), each headed by a general with absolute power over his district; it required them to draft new constitutions upholding the Fourteenth Amendment AND military controlled elections in which all voters were accounted for prior to elections to ensure freedmen were allowed to vote.
The Solid South
Term which refers to the political party which dominated the South after the Emancipation and Reconstruction which ended in 1877 and had been imposed by the Northern Republicans. In response, the South voted overwhelmingly for Democrats from 1877 after Republican Reconstruction ended through the 1960's.
Civil Rights Cases
Name attached to five cases brought under the Civil Rights Act of 1875. In 1883, the Supreme Court decided that discrimination in a variety of public accommodations, including theaters, hotels, and railroads, could not be prohibited by the act because such discrimination was private discrimination and not state discrimination; this discrimination was also according to the 14th Amendment only prohibited by the states and federal government - USHERED IN A WAVE OF EXPANDED SEGREGATION - JIM CROW!
Civil Rights Act of 1866
Passed by Congress on 9th April 1866 over the veto of President Andrew Johnson. The act declared that all persons born in the United States were now citizens, without regard to race, color, or previous condition. Meant to overturn Dred Scott Decission and block "black codes"
literacy tests
Method used to deny African-Americans the vote in the South that tested a person's ability to read and write - they were done very unfairly so even though most African-Americans could read and write by the 1950's they still failed; largely because of the difficult of the questions or documents required to read.
integration
The act of uniting or bringing together, especially people of different races. Some Republican led Southern legislatures attempted to integrate schools but failed due to a lack of willingness or ability to enforce the measures and threats of violence by groups like the KKK.
Amnesty Act
Passed in 1872 during President Grant' (R) first term in office, this law reinstates voting rights to all white southerners & ex-confederates and so set the stage for them to regain control of the south and resist reconstruction within state legislatures and Congress.
Compromise of 1877
Compromise in the U.S. House of Representatives over the disputed electoral votes in the Election of 1876; enables Rpublican Hayes to take office in return for the end of Reconstruction;possibly averted another move toward Southern warfare. Ended Reconstruction. Republicans promise 1) Remove military from South, 2) States protection of Freedmen Civil Liberties, 3) Federal money for railroad construction and levees on Mississippi river
Crop Lien System
Merchants extended credit to tenants (farmers living on and farming another's land) based on their future crops, but high interest rates and the uncertainties of farming often led to inescapable debts.
Debt Peonage
A system that bound laborers into slavery in order to work off a debt to the employer; -similar to tenant farming - work on someone's land who pays for the worker, worker must pay for goods and supplies from the landlord (usually in debt)
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