Reconstruction Era

Reconstruction

Process of rebuilding the South after the Civil War

Lincoln's Plan

Pardons all Confederates who swore allegiance to the U.S. unless they harmed POWs. Southern states could form a state government if 10% of people swore an oath to the Constitution

Wade Davis Bill

Radical Reconstruction plan that called for 50% of the people in states to swear they NEVER supported the CSA and upheld the Constitution

Pocket Veto

The President doesn't say no to a law, he just "forgets about it" and it expires

Andrew Johnson

Tennessee Senator who becomes Lincoln's 2nd U.P. and successor. Only Senator loyal to the South

Johnson's Plan

Any Southern state had to ratify the 13th Amendment (no slavery) to come back into the Union. All members of the CSA would receive a Presidential pardon for their crimes.

Freedmen's Bureau

Gave food, clothing, education, and basic necessities to all freed slaves in the South. Vetoed by Johnson in 1866, overridden by Congress.

General Oliver O. Howard

Head of the Freedmen's Bureau

Black Codes

Southern laws meant to restrict freed slaves' access to Southern life and services including: voting, testifying against whites, carrying weapons.

Civil Rights Act of 1866

Granted freedmen all the rights and benefits of U.S. citizens and that federal troops would enforce these rights (helped enforce the Thirteenth Amendment). Vetoed by Johnson, but overrode by Congress

Thaddeus Stevens

Radical Republican leader who rejected Johnson's Reconstruction plans and refused to seat any of the new Congress

Radical Republicans

Championed civil rights for African Americans

13th Amendment

Abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States, except as punishment for a crime

14th Amendment

Provides citizenship, due process, and equal protection under the law to ALL people of the U.S.

1st Reconstruction Act(s) (Radical Reconstruction)

All southern states except Tennessee were divided into 5 military districts each controlled by a general who drafted a new state Constitution that gave African Americans the right to vote

Hiram Revels & Blanche K. Bruce

First 2 African American members of Congress; elected from the South

Tenure of Office Act

The President must get 2/3rds of the Senate to approve before he removes any member of his Cabinet or a military commander

Election of 1868

Republican Grant defeats NY Democrat Horatio Seymour

Impeach

Charging a public official of a crime done while in office

15th Amendment

No American could be denied the right to vote because of "race, color, or previous conditions of servitude"

Carpetbaggers

Northerners who went to the South to profit from available land and Reconstruction

Sharecropper

A tenant farmer who gives a part of each crop as rent

Scalawags

Southern Republicans who supported Reconstruction/Reconciliation with the North

Ku Klux Klan

Radical Southern group opposed to equal rights. Claimed to be ghosts of past Confederates

Force Acts

Meant to curtail KKK violence, gave President Grant the power to declare martial law in any Southern state with Klan activity

Amnesty Acts

Allowed Confederate officials back into the governments of the South and allowed them to vote in elections

Redemption

Refers to the White southerners taking back control of their governments in the South after Congressional Reconstruction ended forever

Poll Taxes, Literacy Tests, Grandfather Clause

Methods by which Southern governments from keeping African Americans from voting