Chapter 16 US History I
Name the 3 groups in the Republican coalition in the south after 1867.
1. businessmen who wanted government aid for private enterprise (carpetbaggers from the north or former Whig planters or businessmen called scalawags) 2. Poor white farmers (mostly from the upland areas where Unionist sentiment had been strong) 3. newly enfranchised blacks
Redeemers
A loose coalition of prewar Democrats, Confederate veterans, and Whigs who took over southern state governments in the 1870s, supposedly "redeeming" them from the corruption of Reconstruction. They shared a commitment to white supremacy and laissez-faire economics.
What political party did ex-slaves associate with after the war?
Republican
What was the top priority for most ex-slaves after the war?
education for their children
Ku Klux Klan
A secret society first organized in Tennessee in 1866. The original Klan's goals were to disfranchise African Americans, stop Reconstruction, and restore the prewar social order of the South. The Ku Klux Klan re-formed in the twentieth century to promote white supremacy and combat aliens, Catholics, and Jews.
Sharecropping
After the Civil War, the southern states adopted a sharecropping system as a compromise between former slaves who wanted land of their own and former slave owners who needed labor. The landowners provided land, tools, and seed to a farming family, who in turn provided labor. The resulting crop was divided between them, with the farmers receiving a "share" of one-third to one-half of the crop.
Freedmen's Bureau (1865-1872)
Agency set up by Congress to provide freedmen with shelter, food, and medicinal aid and to help them set up schools and find work. The Bureau was dissolved in 1872.
Impeachment
An action by the House of Representatives to accuse the president, vice president, or other civil officers of the United States of committing "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors."
Who was the only senator from a Confederate state who remained loyal to the Union?
Andrew Johnson
Compromise of 1877
Compromise struck during the contested presidential election of 1876, in which Democrats accepted the election of Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican) in exchange for the withdrawal of federal troops from the South and the end of Reconstruction
Wade-Davis Bill (1864)
Congress passed this to counter Lincoln's Ten Percent Plan for Reconstruction. It required that a majority of a former Confederate state's white male population take a loyalty oath and promise permanent freedom to African Americans. President Lincoln pocket vetoed the bill.
Radical Republicans
Congressional Republicans who insisted on black suffrage and federal protection of civil rights of African Americans.
Force Acts of 1870 and 1871
Designed to protect black voters in the South from the Ku Klux Klan, these laws placed state elections under federal jurisdiction and imposed fines on and punished those guilty of interfering with any citizen exercising his right to vote.
Describe the candidates and results of the presidential election of 1876.
Hayes (Republican; winner); Tilden (Democrat); Cooper (Greenback)
"Why did Andrew Johnson object to slavery?"
He only objected to the fact that slaveholding was the privilege of a wealthy minority- he wanted to destroy the power of the wealthy planter class
Fifteenth Amendment (1870)
It prohibits the denial or abridgment of the right to vote by the federal or state governments on the basis of race, color, or prior condition as a slave. It was intended to guarantee African Americans the right to vote in the South.
Fourteenth Amendment (1868)
It provided citizenship to ex-slaves after the Civil War and constitutionally protected equal rights under the law for all citizens. Radical Republicans used it to enact a congressional Reconstruction policy in the former Confederate states.
Explain the origins and results of the Impeachment crisis of 1868.
Johnson tried to stop radical Reconstruction by the Republicans so they tried to impeach him. It was unsuccessful, but Johnson then enforced the Reconstruction Acts and at least the Radicals had neutralized his opposition to their program.
Black Codes (1865-1866)
Laws passed by southern states immediately after the Civil War to maintain white supremacy by restricting the rights of the newly freed slaves
Tenure of Office Act (1867)
Radical attempt to further diminish Andrew Johnson's authority by providing that the president could not remove any civilian official without Senate approval; Johnson violated the law by removing Edwin Stanton as secretary of war, and the House of Representatives impeached him over his actions.
Thirteenth Amendment (1865)
Ratified in 1865, it prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude
Ten Percent Plan
Reconstruction plan proposed by President Abraham Lincoln as a quick way to readmit the former Confederate States. It called for pardon of all southerners except Confederate leaders, and readmission to the Union for any state after 10 percent of its voters signed a loyalty oath and the state abolished slavery.
Which Act nullified the Black Codes?
The Civil Rights Act of 1866
"What conditions did Andrew Johnson set for readmission to the Union?"
The Confederate states would be required to uphold the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery; swear loyalty to the Union; and pay off their war debt. Then they could re-write their state constitutions, hold elections, and begin sending representatives to Washington.
Radical Reconstruction
The Reconstruction Acts of 1867 divided the South into five military districts. They required the states to guarantee black male suffrage and to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment as a condition of their readmission to the Union.
How did Republicans respond when the South refused to ratify the 14thAmendment?
The Republicans passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867, which set the conditions the Southern states had to accept before they could be readmitted to the union, including ratification of the 14th Amendment.
Explain some of the challenges that complicated Reconstruction?
The constitution provided no firm guidelines; how far should the federal government go to secure freedom an d civil rights for the 4 million former slaves?;
What was the percentage of the South's per capita wealth in 1865 after the war to the percentage in 1860 before the war?
The per capita wealth in 1865 was about half of what it had been in 1860
How did southern states respond to Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction plan?
They approved it grudgingly or with qulifications. All the Constitutions limited suffrage to whites and they passed Black Codes restricting freedom of former slaves and they also elected prominent ex-Confederates to Congress in 1865
Who was the founder of the Ku Klux Klan?
a group of former Confederate soldiers and Nathan Bedford Forrest was the first grand wizard
specie
coined money, usually gold or silver, used to back paper money
"What did the First Reconstruction Act of 1867 do?"
reorganized the south into five military districts
Jim Crow Laws
segregation laws enacted by southern states after Reconstruction