American History Reconstruction Notes

Reconstruction

Program implemented by fed. Gov. to repair damage to the south caused by the Civil War and restore the southern states to the union

13th amendment

Abolished slavery

14th amendment

Birthright citizenship

15th amendment

Guaranteed voting rights regardless of race

Ku klux klan origin

Began in the south after the civil war

Ku klux klan goals

To harass and terrorize African Americans, promote white supremacy

Freedmen

Slaves who obtained freedom after the civil war

Election of 1876 results

The southern democratic candidate won the popular vote but the northern republican candidate won the electoral college, some feared another civil war would begin

Compromise of 1877

North agreed to pull union troops from the south if the south agreed to elect Rutherford B Hayes as president

What were the causes of failures of reconstruction?

KKK being formed and the compromise of 1877

What were the results of the failures of reconstruction?

Institutionalized racism

After reconstruction’s failure, what political party became prominent in the south

Populist party

Examples of institutionalized racism

Jim Crow Laws, Miscegenation Laws, Poll Tax, Literacy Tests

What was Plessy V Ferguson?

Homer Plessy sat in a whites only train car, argued it was his constitutional right via 14th amendment

What did the Supreme Court rule in Plessy V Ferguson

Separate but equal

Exodusters

African Americans who migrated west after the civil war to escape the KKK and potentially own land

What were the three ways Americans settled the west?

Cowboys, Homestead Act, Transcontinental Railroad

Define the Homestead Act

Law passed that gave settlers 160 acres of land if they cultivated in for five consecutive years

What was a Sooner?

Someone who claimed their land sooner than they were supposed to in the land giveaway in Oklahoma

Cowboy

A man who drove longhorn steer and cattle from Texas to new cities to be slaughtered and distributed to the rest of the nation

Transcontinental Railroad

Railroad that connected the east to the west and ended the practice of traveling across the country by wagon

Hardships for Great Plains settlers

Tornados and harsh weather, lack of building materials, tough land to work, isolation

Barbed wire

Cheap fencing invention that protected crops, established boundaries, kept livestock in enclosed spaces and ended the cowboy lifestyle

Why did homesteading farmers have a difficult time once they arrived on their land?

Scarcity of materials, tough dry land, financial debt, high cost

Who were the primary supporters of the populist party?

Farmers

What reforms did populists party propose that became part of the progressive movement?

Regulations, eight hour workdays

Modern day populism

The belief that will of ordinary citizens should prevail over the privileged elite

The Plains Wars

Conflicts between the US and Native Americans

George Custer

General killed in the battle of Little Bighorn

How did the Native American victory harm native Americans in the long run?

2500 federal troops went west after them

Ghost dance movement

Religious ceremony by Indians to remove non-Indians restore buffalo, and return life to their dead tribal ancestors

What were the effects of wounded knee?

Federal army killed more than 250 Native Americans, ended the wars

Reservation system

Moved Native Americans to land reserved by the US Army, where they would be fed

Assimilating

Adopting the culture and language of another group of people

Dawes Act

US government divided reservations into smaller groups of land for Native Americans, similar to the Homestead act

Indian residential schools

Schools for Native American children where they were forcefully assimilated

Carlisle industrial Indian school

First school for Native Americans outside of a reservation

Where did most native Americans live in the mid 1800’s?

The Great Plains

What did the government do to speed up the assimilation of native Americans? (Dawes Act)

They gave them 160 acre plots to farm similarly to the Homestead Act

What did the Coinage Act of 1873 do?

Reversed the effects of the US dollar being backed by silver and gold

What was the spoils system?

When politicians reward loyal party members with government jobs and power

What race were 90% of transcontinental railroad workers?

Chinese

What did the KKK want to establish after the civil war?

White Supremacy

What was Manifest Destiny?

White settlers thought it was their “god given” right to settle the land in the west.