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Lincoln's Reconstruction
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Wade Davis Bill
Required 50% of the number of 1860 voters to take an “iron clad” oath of allegiance (swearing they had never voluntarily aided the rebellion and required a state constitutional convention before electing state officials and put in place safety nets for freedmen’s liberties. -
Freedman's Bureau
Served to issue emergency food, clothes, and shelter for the homeless victims of the war. Charged with establishing an extensive education program for the freed slaves.
Southerners referred to this as “white carpet baggers”. -
Great Constitutional Revolution
Coined by Republican leader Carl Schurz---referred to the amendments to the Constitution and the federal government because of Reconstruction
Carl Schurz wrote an analyzation of conditions in the south in 1865. -
Black Codes
Laws passed by southern states after the civil war. Intended to restrict African Americans freedom, leaving them just to work in labor economy under low wages. -
Ku Klux Klan
Hate organization that supported the idea of white supremacy and further encouraged the idea of black codes as well as suppressing rights for African Americans.
Originally organized as a social club for confederate veterans in Tennessee, the group was extremely violent and terrorized people of color. -
13th Amendment
Executed slavery and involuntary servitude from the United States except for under criminal punishment. -
President Lincoln's Death
On the evening of April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor and Confederate sympathizer, assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. The assassination took place five days after Robert E. Lee surrendered his army in Virginia. -
Civil Rights Bill
The act declared that all persons born in the United States were now citizens, without regard to race, color, or previous condition.
Was passed over the veto of Andrew Jackson, as citizens they could make and enforce contracts, sue and be sued, give evidence in court, and inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real and personal property. Persons who denied these rights to former slaves were guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction faced a fine. -
14th Amendment
Defined equal national citizenship regardless of color, reduced state representation in Congress in relation to number of denied franchised voters and denied former confederates the right to hold office. -
Scalawags
Any white Southerner who supported the federal plan of Reconstruction after the Civil War, or who joined with the black freedmen and the carpetbaggers in support of Republican Party policies. -
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Presidential (Johnson)
Johnson wants to eliminate confederates from politics in fear that southerners would take control post war, he also denied former slaves to be involved in politics and allowed “black codes” that enforced strict rules on African Americans. -
Reconstruction Act
Laid out the process of readmitting southern states into the union.
The bills were largely written by the radical republicans, it created five military districts in the seceded states (ratifying the 14th amendment). All voter were to be registered and that included the freed man, new documents were to be provided for black male suffrage. And states were required to ratify the 14th amendment before being included in the union. -
Impeachment of President Johnson
Two attempts, the first was by the House Judiciary committee producing a bill of impeachment. The bill failed and the next attempt was a court of impeachment constituted in the Senate to hear the charges, Johnson was acquitted of impeachment due to the 2/3rds vote being missed by one. He was then never removed from office. -
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Congressional/Military Reconstruction
Republican dominated in the elections of 1866 seeking to establish legal, social, and political rights for african americans in the south. The plan was to build military districts and implement black politicians to ensure the programs continued. -
15th Amendment
Prohibited denial of vote to anyone because of race, color, or previous servitude but still did not give women the right to vote. Ratification at the State level was required for re-admittance to the Union. -
Sharecropping
A form of farming that allowed families to rent out small plots of land from a landowner, in return the land owner would get a portion of the crops from the family at the end of the year
This was typically done by former slaves in the south. -
Enforcement Acts
Three bills passed by the United States Congress between 1870 and 1871. They were criminal codes which protected African-Americans' right to vote, to hold office, to serve on juries, and receive equal protection of laws. -
Radical Republicans
The main goal was to prevent the leaders of the confederacy from returning to power, they wanted the federal government to help the African Americans to achieve political equality. -
Slaughterhouse cases
First US interpretation of the 14 amendment that had been enacted recently, the cases held that the Fourteenth Amendment protects the privileges or immunities of citizenship of the United States, not privileges and immensities of citizenship of a state. -
Civil Rights Act
Federal law enacted in response to civil rights violations to African Americans to protect citizen and legal rights to provide equal treatment. -
Compromise of 1877
Informal deal that settled the presidential election of 1876, resulting in the US government pulling final troops out of the south and ending the reconstruction era.
