Reconstruction Era Flashcards

Lincoln's Ten-Percent Plan

A lenient Reconstruction plan requiring 10% of voters to swear loyalty to the Union and form a government that abolished slavery.

Andrew Johnson's Plan

A lenient plan requiring a majority of voters to swear loyalty and states to ratify the 13th Amendment before rejoining the Union.

Wade-Davis Bill

A strict 1864 bill requiring a majority loyalty oath and barring ex-Confederates from politics; vetoed by Lincoln.

13th Amendment

The constitutional amendment that banned slavery in the United States.

14th Amendment

Defined citizenship and guaranteed all citizens "equal protection of the laws" and "due process."

15th Amendment

Stated that no citizen can be denied the right to vote based on race, color, or previous servitude.

Radical Republicans

Congressional group who believed in equal rights for blacks and punishment for Confederate leaders.

Black Codes

Laws in the South designed to restrict Freedmen's freedom and ensure a cheap labor supply.

Military Reconstruction Act

1867 law that divided the South into 5 military districts to enforce Reconstruction.

Freedmen's Bureau

A federal agency created to help Freedmen with food, education, and other necessities after the Civil War.

40 Acres and a Mule

A failed proposal by Radical Republicans to break up plantations and give land to Freedmen.

Sharecropping

An agricultural system where families rented land and paid with a share of the crop, often trapping them in debt.

Scalawags

A derogatory term for white Southerners who supported Republican Reconstruction.

Carpetbaggers

A derogatory term for Northerners who moved to the South after the Civil War.

Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

A secret terrorist organization that used violence and intimidation to oppose Reconstruction and suppress black votes.

Hiram Rhodes Revels

The first African American U.S. Senator, who took Jefferson Davis's former seat from Mississippi.

Blanche K. Bruce

The first African American senator to serve a full term in the U.S. Senate.

President Ulysses S. Grant

Republican president elected in 1868 with the help of African American voters; his administration was known for corruption.

Andrew Johnson Impeachment

The 1868 impeachment of the president by the House for opposing Congressional Reconstruction.

Effects of Civil War on the South

Included destroyed land and cities, a ruined economy, worthless Confederate money, and 4 million freed slaves.

Amnesty Act of 1872

A law that restored voting rights and political power to most former Confederates, weakening Radical Reconstruction.

Election of 1876

The disputed presidential election between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel Tilden.

Compromise of 1877

A deal where Democrats accepted Hayes as president in return for the removal of all federal troops from the South, ending Reconstruction.

Poll Tax

A fee required to vote, used to prevent poor African Americans from voting.

Literacy Test

A test requiring voters to read and interpret the Constitution, used disingenuously to disenfranchise African American voters.

Grandfather Clause

A law allowing people to vote without a literacy test if their ancestors could vote before 1867, which excluded African Americans.

Jim Crow Laws

State and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States.

Plessy v. Ferguson

The 1896 Supreme Court case that established the "separate but equal" doctrine, legalizing segregation.