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Radical republicans
Radical republicans wanted slavery to be completely eradicated, they also did not want any confederate people to run the country or have any power. As the name suggests the views of radical republicans was very radical for the time, this made getting support for their ideas very hard. -
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Lincoln's Reconstruction plan
Lincoln’s Plan was to offer Amnesty to all southerners that took an oath of loyalty to the United states. After 10 percent of a southern state took an oath of loyalty it could join the union. Lincoln wanted to bring southerners back into the union to create a united country rather than punishing them and splitting the country further in two. The radical republicans did not like it at all and they tried to resist it. Radical republicans did not want confederacy to rise to power again. -
Wade-Davis Bill (1864)
White males in a former confederate state had to take an oath of allegiance to the union. It was passed by congress but Lincoln blocked it with a pocket veto, he blocked it because he believed it would just alienate whites in the south. -
Special Field Order 15
An order given by General Sherman to take about 400,000 acres of land, split it up, and give 40 acres and a mule to formerly enslaved African Americans . It was a success and nearly 18,000 African American families received land. -
Freedmen’s bureau
The Freedmen’s Bureau was created after the civil war to help the newly freed slaves succeed. Most of the newly released slaves could not even read, this made it very hard to succeed in the economy after the war. The freedmen’s bureau also protected freed slaves, many slave owners did not like that they needed to free their slaves so they would keep them or hurt them. The freedmen’s bureau was used a lot by the federal government to reinforce the newly made laws. -
President Lincoln’s Death
President Lincoln was killed while watching a play at the Ford’s theater in Washington D.C. The person who killed him was John Wilkes Booth was a southerner and a confederate sympathizer that believed that Lincoln would destroy the constitution and the south. It was a huge event, it was the first time that a president had been assassinated. -
Civil Rights Bill of 1866
The Civil Rights Bill of 1866 was the first time congress legislated apon civil rights. Was the first time African Americans were seen as equal under the law. Although equal in law America was still very segregated and really not equal at all. This bill was successful as it was a start of a bigger movement but it was unsuccessful because it did not really do what it meant to. -
Black codes
the black codes were laws that restricted the freedom of African Americans, making them work hard low paying jobs. These laws were created by mostly southern states. The laws were created to counteract the 13th amendment and the emancipation proclamation. The black codes struggled a bit, some of them got repealed. -
Ku Klux Klan
A hate and terror organization that believes that whites are superior to all other races. This hate group would terrorize and kill African Americans. Sadly the group was successful and was strong for many years, the Klan is still around to this day but its popularity has dropped drastically. -
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President Johnson
President Johnson’s goal was to have more state governments, he appointed a governor to each state and did not give the states restrictions. -
Impeachment of president Johnson
After committing several acts of high crime president Johnson was impeached, this was the first time a president had been impeached so it caused a lot of commotion. -
Reconstruction Act
The reconstruction act began the process of allowing southern states back into the union. The reconstruction passed, there were some people on both sides that did not like it but the overall consensus was that it was a good thing. -
Scalawags
Southerners that agreed with the unions reconstruction plan and cooperated. These people were not popular in the southern states as they seemed like traitors. -
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Military
Enforced the 14th and 15th Amendment, made sure people where following the new rules. -
13th-15th Amendments
The focus of the 13th-15th amendments was to give everyone more rights, starting with the 13th abolishing slavery. The 14th allowed citizenship regardless of servitude. And the 15th allowed voting regardless of race. At the time many states did not follow or enforce these. -
“Great Constitutional Revolution” concept introduced by Carl Schurz
The shift of the constitution to being more about equality for all, and looking to a future where everyone can live equal. -
Sharecropping
An ex-slave would rent from a land owner in exchange for a portion of the crop, this was usually an unfair amount that would leave the ex-slaves in an endless cycle of repayment. This was around for a very long time and was a bad solution, it was nearly slavery all over again because of the labor intensive crops that were grown. -
Enforcement acts
An ex-slave would rent from a land owner in exchange for a portion of the crop, this was usually an unfair amount that would leave the ex-slaves in an endless cycle of repayment. This was around for a very long time and was a bad solution, it was nearly slavery all over again because of the labor intensive crops that were grown. -
Slaughter house cases
The slaughterhouse cases said that the rights of people were limited to those of the 14th amendment and could not be altered or changed by state government. This counteracted what president Johnson had done several years ago to give states more freedom. These cases at first were successful but over time they became less and less effective. -
Civil rights act of 1875
This act allowed people equal access to theaters, public schools, churches etc. regardless of their skin color. This act was very successful and is seen by some as one of the greatest achievements of -
bargain of 1877
The bargain of 1877 was the end of the reconstruction era, it pulled the troops out of the south. This ended the dispute over the recent presidential election.
