reconstruction flash cards

General Sherman’s Special Order No. 15

40 Acres and a Mule plan that gave freed African Americans land after the Civil War; later reversed.

Lee Surrenders to Grant

Ended the Civil War in 1865; Grant offered generous terms and did not imprison Confederate soldiers.

Freedmen’s Bureau

Federal agency that helped freed slaves with food, housing, education, and jobs.

13th Amendment

Abolished slavery in the United States.

Andrew Johnson

President after Lincoln; opposed harsh Reconstruction and supported Southern states’ rights.

Presidential Reconstruction

Johnson’s plan to quickly restore the South with few protections for African Americans.

Black Codes

Southern laws that limited the freedom of African Americans and forced them into labor.

Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

White supremacist group that used violence to oppose Reconstruction and Black civil rights.

Veto

Power of the president to reject a law passed by Congress.

Override Vetoes

When Congress passes a law despite a presidential veto with a 2/3 vote.

Sharecropping

System where farmers worked land owned by others in exchange for part of the crop; led to debt.