Chapter 4 section 4

Andrew Johnson

Andrew Johnson, announced his own plan. Johnson's plan differed little from Lincoln's. The major difference was that Johnson tried to break the planters' power by excluding high-ranking Confederates and wealthy Southern landown- ers from taking the oath needed for voting privileges.

Carpetbagger

Carpetbaggers were Northerners who moved to the South after the war. This negative name came from the misconception that they arrived with so few belongings that they car- ried everything in small traveling bags made of carpeting.

Fifteenth amendment

Fifteenth Amendment, which states that no one can be kept from voting because of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." The Fifteenth Amendment, which was ratified by the states in 1870, was an important victory for the Radicals.

Fourteenth amendment

Fourteenth Amendment, which prevented states from denying rights and privileges to any U.S. citizen, now defined as "all persons born or naturalized in the United States." This definition was expressly intended to overrule and nullify the Dred Scott decision.

Sharecropping

In the system of sharecropping, landowners divided their land and assigned each head of household a few acres, along with seed and tools.

Hiram revels

Out of 125 Southerners elected to the U.S. Congress during con- gressional Reconstruction, only 16 were African Americans. Among these was Hiram Revels, the first African- American senator. African Americans also served in political offices on the state and local levels.

Scalawag

Scalawags were white Southerners who joined the Republican Party. Many were small farmers who wanted to improve their economic position and did not want the former wealthy planters to regain power.

Ku klux klan

The Klan's goals were to destroy the Republican Party, to throw out the Reconstruction governments, to aid the planter class, and to prevent African Americans from exercising their political rights.

Radical republicans.

The Radicals, led by Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts and Representative Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, wanted to destroy the political power of former slaveholders.

Reconstruction

period during which the United States began to rebuild after the Civil War, lasted from 1865 to 1877.

Freedmens bureau

which had been established by Congress to provide food, clothing, hospitals, legal protection, and education for former slaves and poor whites in the South in 1865.