OpenStax US History - Chapter 16

Black Codes

laws some southern states designed to maintain white supremacy by keeping freed people impoverished and in debt.

Carpetbagger

a term used for northerners working in the South during Reconstruction; it implied that these were opportunists who came south for economic or political gain.

Compromise of 1877

the agreement between Republicans and Democrats, after the contested election of 1876, in which Rutherford B. Hayes was awarded the presidency in exchange for withdrawing the last of the federal troops from the South.

Crop-Lien System

a loan system in which store owners extended credit to farmers for the purchase of goods in exchange for a portion of their future crops.

Freedmen's Bureau

the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, which was created in 1865 to ease blacks' transition from slavery to freedom.

Ironclad Oath

an oath that the Wade-Davis Bill required a majority of voters and government officials in Confederate states to take; it involved swearing that they had never supported the Confederacy.

Ku Klux Klan

a white vigilante organization that engaged in terroristic violence with the aim of stopping Reconstruction.

Radical Republicans

northern Republicans who contested Lincoln's treatment of Confederate states and proposed harsher punishment.

Reconstruction

the twelve-year period after the Civil War in which the rebel Southern states were integrated back into the Union.

Redeemers

a term used for southern whites committed to rolling back the gains of Reconstruction.

Scalawags

a pejorative term used for southern whites who supported Reconstruction.

Sharecroppig

a crop-lien system in which people paid rent on land they farmed (but did not own) with the crops they grew.

Ten Percent Plan

Lincoln's Reconstruction plan, which required only 10 percent of the 1860 voters in Confederate states to take an oath of allegiance to the Union.

Union Leagues

fraternal groups loyal to the Union and the Republican Party that became political and civic centers for blacks in former Confederate states.

What was Lincoln's primary goal immediately following the Civil War?A. punishing the rebel states

B. improving the lives of former slaves

C. reunifying the country

D. paying off the debts of the war

C. reunifying the country

In 1864 and 1865, Radical Republicans were most concerned with __________?

A. securing civil rights for freed slaves

B. barring ex-Confederates from political office

C. seeking restitution from Confederate states

D. preventing Andrew Johnson's ascent to the presidency

A. securing civil rights for freed slaves

What was the purpose of the Thirteenth Amendment? How was it different from the Emancipation Proclamation?

The Thirteenth Amendment officially and permanently banned the institution of slavery in the United States. The Emancipation Proclamation had freed only those slaves in rebellious states, leaving many slaves—most notably, those in the border states—in bondage; furthermore, it did not alter or prohibit the institution of slavery in general.

Which of the following was not one of the functions of the Freedmen's Bureau?

A. collecting taxes

B. reuniting families

C. establishing schools

D. helping workers secure labor contracts

A. collecting taxes

Which person or group was most responsible for the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment?

A. President Johnson

B. northern voters

C. southern voters

D. Radical Republicans in Congress

D. Radical Republicans in Congress

What was the goal of the black codes?

To maintain white supremacy by keeping freed people impoverished and in debt

Under Radical Reconstruction, which of the following did former Confederate states not need to do in order to rejoin the Union?

A. pass the Fourteenth Amendment

B. pass the Fifteenth Amendment

C. revise their state constitution

D. allow all freed men over the age of 21 to vote

B. pass the Fifteenth Amendment

The House of Representatives impeached Andrew Johnson over __________.

A. the Civil Rights Act

B. the Fourteenth Amendment

C. the Military Reconstruction Act

D. the Tenure of Office Act

D. the Tenure of Office Act

What were the benefits and drawbacks of the Fifteenth Amendment?

Failed to address loopholes such as literacy tests and poll taxes which prevented blacks from voting, however, it did provide the right of all men to vote

Which of the following is not one of the methods the Ku Klux Klan and other terrorist groups used to intimidate blacks and white sympathizers?

A. burning public schools

B. petitioning Congress

C. murdering freedmen who tried to vote

D. threatening, beating, and killing those who disagreed with them

B. petitioning Congress

Which of the following was the term southerners used for a white southerner who tried to overturn the changes of Reconstruction?

A. scalawag

B. carpetbagger

C. redeemer

D. white knight

C. redeemer

Why was it difficult for southern free blacks to gain economic independence after the Civil War?

Black codes and groups such as the Klu Klux Klan