Reconstruction, Redefining Freedom, and Key Historical Terms

Core Historical Terms

  • Juneteenth / Juneteeth: The holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, marked by the historical arrival of emancipation news in Galveston, Tx.

  • Sharecropping: An economic system of agriculture that emerged post-slavery.

  • Radical Reconstruction: The period of Reconstruction led by Congress aiming to redefine legal, civil, and voting rights for former slaves.

  • The Fifteenth Amendment: Constitutional amendment passed to protect and establish voting rights regardless of race.

  • The Ku Klux Klan: A white supremacist group formed during the Reconstruction era to resist political and economic gains for African Americans.

  • Manifest Destiny: The 19th-century doctrine asserting the inevitability and justification of territorial expansion across the continent.

  • Homestead Act: Legislation granting public land to settlers to promote western expansion and landownership.

  • Chinese Exclusion Act: Federal law restricting immigration of Chinese laborers to the United States.

Destruction of Slavery

  • Emancipation Proclamation: Initiated the destruction of slavery during the Civil War.

    • Characterized by slow implemation (EP) across various regions of the South.

  • The Thirteenth Amendment: The constitutional amendment that formally abolished slavery throughout the United States.

  • Galveston, Tx: The location where emancipation was finally enforced, giving birth to the celebration of Juneteenth.

Redefining Freedom During Reconstruction

  • The Meaning of Freedom:

    • Fundamentally captured by the core phrase: "To reap the fruit of our own labor".

  • Pillars of Redefining Freedom:

    • Economic Independence: Achieving autonomy away from forced slave labor.

    • Escaping Injustices of Slavery: Removing systemic cruelties and oppression inherent to chattel slavery.

    • Citizenship: Securing official political and legal recognition as citizens of the United States.

    • Suffrage (Sufferage): Gaining the right to vote and participate in democratic governance.

    • Century of Landownership: Establishing land ownership as a foundational long-term security for families.

The Making of Reconstruction

  • The Ten Percent Plan: President Abraham Lincoln's initial proposal for reintegrating Southern states back into the Union.

  • Wade-Davis Bill: Congressional response and alternative proposal to Lincoln's plan:

    • Aronclad Oath (Ironclad Oath): Mandatory oath requiring citizens to swear they had never voluntarily supported the Confederacy.

    • Pocket Veto: Mechanism used by Abraham Lincoln to prevent the Wade-Davis Bill from becoming law.

  • Lincolns Death: The assassination of President Lincoln, causing a major political shift in the execution of Reconstruction.

  • Andrew Johnson: President who assumed office following Lincoln's death.

    • Issued the proclamation of Amnesty and reconstruction to set executive terms for Southern restoration.