APUSH Ch. 15 Terms

Lost Cause

White southerners looked back nostalgically at the pre-civil war south, honored southern generals as war heroes and built monuments to commemorate the dead. Whites wanted to protect whatever was left of their pre-war world.

Freedmen's Bureau

The first kind of primitive welfare agency used to provide food, clothing, medical care, and education to freedman and to white refugees.First to establish school for blacks to learn to read.

Lincoln's Reconstruction Plan

Former Confederate states would be readmitted to the Union if 10% of their citizens took a loyalty oath and the state agreed to ratify the 13th Amendment which outlawed slavery. Not put into effect because Lincoln was assassinated.

Wade-Davis Bill

Required 50% voters of a state to take a loyalty oath and permitted only non-Confederates to vote for a new state constitution. Lincoln refused to sign this bill.

John Wilkes Booth

He was an American stage actor who, as part of a conspiracy plot, assassinated Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865.

Black Codes

Prohibited blacks from either renting land or borrowing money to buy land, placed freedmen into a form of semibondage by forcing them, as "vagrants" to sign work contracts and prohibited blacks from testifying against whites in court

Civil Rights Act

First statutory definition of rights of American citizens: was to counteract black codes, would force southern courts to practice equality before the law by allowing federal judges to remove from state courts cases in which blacks were treated unfairly, and was pocket vetoed by Johnson.

13th Amendment

Abolition of slavery.

14th Amendment

Citizenship given to ex-slaves. Three-fifths clause abolished. Leading ex-Confederates denied office. Ex-Confederates forced to repudiate their debts and pay pensions to their own veterans, plus taxes for the pensions of Union veterans.

15th Amendment

Suffrage for black men.

Congressional Reconstruction

The second "round" of Reconstruction that began after the congressional elections of 1866 when the dominant Republicans in Congress unified and took a more radical stance (fearing that the Democrats would gain power). During this period of reconstruction, the southern states were occupied by the Union army and many steps to guarantee the rights of blacks were taken. The Radical Republicans also had Johnson impeached in 1867.

Tenure of Office Act

It was passed by Congress to prohibit the president from removing a federal official or military commander without the approval of the Senate; political move to protect Radical Republicans in Johnson's cabinet, such as secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who was in charge of southern military governments; Johnson dismissed Stanton and the House responded by impeaching Johnson, charging him with 11 "high crimes and misdemeanors"; first president to be impeached; was not convicted in the Senate in order to not set a precedent.

Command of the Army Act

Prohibited the president from issuing military orders except through the commanding general of the army (General Grant), who could not be relieved or assigned elsewhere without the consent of the Senate.

Impeachment of Johnson

President Andrew tried to remove Edwin Stanton as Secretary of War; Radical Republicans proclaimed that he had flouted the United States Constitution by directly violating the Tenure of Office Act and began removing him from office proceedings against him, The House of Representatives voted to remove Johnson in early 1868, two-thirds of the Senate had to vote to convict the president for him to be removed but failed to convict him by one vote

Scalawags

Local whites in the South who had resettled there and supported or entered Reconstruction governments; were ex-Whigs seeking to reenter politics; their beliefs accorded with the policies of congressional Reconstruction

Carpetbaggers

Northerners who were the opponents to the scalawags; were well-educated, middle-class professionals; many were former Union soldiers attracted by the South's climate and cheap land.

Civil Rights Act 1875

Passed legislation that guaranteed access to transportation and hotels for all blacks; repealed blacks codes and removed restrictions on workers; prohibited racial discrimination in jury selection; became a watered down bill that the Supreme Court eventually struck down.

Sharecropping

System of agriculture or agricultural production in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crop produced on the land.

Crop-Lien System

A way for farmers to get credit. After the crop was harvested they would use it to payback their loan.

Ulysses S. Grant

Became the first president after the Civil War; previously a Union General who defeated General Lee at Appomattox Court House, which ended the Civil War; during presidency several scams passed through Congress; the Panic of 1873 (over speculation) came about in his reign.

Horace Greeley

An American editor of a leading newspaper, a founder of the Republican party, reformer and politician. He helped support reform movements and anti-slavery efforts through his New York Tribune newspaper.

Credit Mobilier

The 1867-1868 scandal in which Union Pacific executives formed their own railroad construction company, then hired and overpaid themselves to build their own railroad.

Whiskey Ring

A group of officials were importing whiskey and using their offices to avoid paying the taxes on it, cheating the treasury out of millions of dollars.

Specie Resumption Act

Congress said that greenbacks were redeemable for gold, but no one wanted to redeem them for face gold value. Because paper money was much more convenient than gold, they remained in circulation.

Greenbacks

Name for Union paper money not backed by gold or silver. Value would fluctuate depending on status of the war.

Panic of 1873

Over-enterprising (railroads, mines, factories, grainfields) beyond that which the market could bear, bankers also made too many imprudent loans to fund those enterprises; when profits failed to materialize, loans went unpaid, and caused the bust; economic strain hard on blacks and debtors; also linked to controversies over soft v. hard money.

Seward's Folly

It was the purchase of Alaska from Russia. Although seen as a foolish purchase, this added more land and available resources to the U.S.

Treaty of Washington

Settled the Northern claims between the U.S. and Great Britain. Canada gave the U.S. permanent fishing rights to the St. Lawrence River.

KKK

This group was founded in Tennessee in 1866; its oftentimes violent actions during the Reconstruction era represented the resentments felt by many Southern whites towards the changing political, social, and economic conditions of the Reconstruction era.

Midnight Rides

Conveyed message to blacks that if they attempted to exercise their rights of citizenship they'd be harmed.

Red Shirts and White Leagues

This group's main goal was to bring white men together in the Democratice Party and to make white voting blocks in the south. They excluded blacks.

Ku Klux Klan Acts

Threatened southern states with federal military action unless they stopped terrorizing blacks and denying them the right to vote.

Social Darwinism

This was a belief held by many that stated that the rich were rich and the poor were poor due to natural selection in society. This was the basis of many people who promoted a laissez faire style of economy.

Election 1876

It was a close election and there were a few disputed states/ votes. In the end Tilden won, but not by enough majority so they came up with the Compromise of 1877 to solve the problem.

Compromise 1877

An agreement to settle the disputed presidential election of 1876. Democrats agreed to accept Republican Rutherford B. Hayes as president in return for the removal of federal troops from the South-- End of Reconstruction period.

Redeemers

Largely former slave owners who were the bitterest opponents of the Republican program in the South. Staged a major counterrevolution to "redeem" the south by taking back southern state governments. Their foundation rested on the idea of racism and white supremacy. Redeemer governments waged an aggressive assault on African Americans.

Readjusters

A group that became as a result of a break off from the Democratic Party in the South. They briefly gained power in Virginia over the issue of Reconstruction debt. They helped to create the Populist Party.

Henry Grady

He was the managing editor of Atlanta Constitution and a leading advocate of a "New South." He promoted industrial development with Atlanta as its center of growth.

Uncle Remus

A set of stories that portrayed slave society as harmonious and good for both parties, written by Joel Chandler Harris.

Minstrel Shows

A popular form of entertainment that made fun of blacks and portrayed them as incompetent and stupid.

Convict-Lease system

This was a system in which southern states leased gangs of convicted criminals to private interests as a cheap labor supply. The convicts were paid nothing, money went to the states, and jobs were taken away from the labor force.

Maggie Lena

The first black woman to become a bank president in the United States.

Booker T Washington

A former slave. Encouraged blacks to keep to themselves and focus on the daily tasks of survival, rather than leading a grand uprising. Believed that building a strong economic base was more critical at that time than planning an uprising or fighting for equal rights. He also stated in his famous "Atlanta Compromise" speech in 1895 that blacks had to accept segregation in the short term as they focused on economic gain to achieve political equality in the future. Served as important role models for later leaders of the civil rights movement.

Atlanta Compromise

A speech made by Washington in Georgia that outlined the philosophy that blacks should focus on economic gains, go to school, learn skills, and work their way up the ladder and that Southern whites should help out to create an unresentful people.

Plessy v Ferguson

The Supreme Court case that ruled that segregation was not discriminatory, so long as their accommodations were equal. This led to the idea of "separate but equal."

Cumming v County Board of Education

A 1899 U.S. Supreme Court Case that ruled that laws establishing separate schools for white Americans are valid even if no such comparable schools for black Americans exist.

Poll Tax

A tax of a fixed amount per person and payable as a requirement for the right to vote.

Literacy or Understanding tests

A test administered as a precondition for voting, often used to prevent African Americans from exercising their right to vote.

Grandfather clauses

This was a requirement to vote; it only allowed men to vote if their grandfathers had voted in the 1866 election.

Williams v Miss

The court case that declared it was constitutional for the use of poll taxes, literacy test, and residential requirements to discourage blacks and poor whites from voting, but got rid of the grandfather clause.