Reconstruction Era Key Terms (VOCABULARY Flashcards)

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, figures, and concepts from the lecture notes on Presidential and Radical Reconstruction.

Reconstruction (1865-1877)

The period after the Civil War when the United States tried to reintegrate the South, redefine freedom for formerly enslaved people, and rebuild the region.

Presidential Reconstruction

Lincoln and Johnson’s lenient approach to reintegrating the South, requiring loyalty oaths, rejecting secession, and accepting emancipation.

Radical Reconstruction

Congress-led plan with stricter requirements, federal oversight, and civil rights protections for freedpeople.

Ten Percent Plan (Ten Percent Plan)

Lincoln’s plan: a state could be readmitted when 10% of 1860 voters took a loyalty oath and accepted emancipation.

Black Codes

Laws in Southern states that restricted freedoms and rights of Black people to preserve white supremacy.

Freedmen’s Bureau

A federal agency that assisted formerly enslaved people with education, housing, legal rights, and labor contracts.

Civil Rights Act (1866)

Law that defined citizenship and protected civil rights, countering Black Codes.

13th Amendment (1865)

Abolished slavery in the United States.

14th Amendment (1868)

Defined citizenship, guaranteed equal protection under the law, and due process.

15th Amendment (1870)

Prohibited denying the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

Johnson clashed with Congress; impeached, but not removed by the Senate; highlighted tensions over Reconstruction.

Tenure of Office Act

Law restricting the President’s ability to remove certain officeholders without Senate approval, used against Johnson.

First Reconstruction Act (1867)

Congress imposed military rule on former Confederate states, required new state constitutions, and enfranchised Black men.

Redeemer Governments / White Supremacist Backlash

Post-Reconstruction white Democratic governments that reclaimed power, often via violence and voter suppression.

Compromise of 1877

Informal deal ending Reconstruction; federal troops withdrawn in exchange for resolving the 1876 election.

Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

White supremacist organization using violence to intimidate Black voters and suppress rights.

Panic of 1873

Major economic crisis that reduced Northern support for Reconstruction and shifted attention to economic woes.

Civil Rights Act of 1875

Last major Reconstruction civil rights law; guaranteed equal access to public accommodations but later struck down.

Sharecropping

Agricultural system where freedpeople farmed land owned by others, often tied to debt and dependence.

Poll taxes

Fees to vote used to disenfranchise Black voters and poor whites in the postwar era.

Literacy tests

Assessments used to restrict voting rights, frequently biased against Black voters.

Grandfather clauses

Legal provisions allowing voting rights based on ancestors’ prior voting, which largely exempted whites and disenfranchised Black voters.