Chapter 12 - Reconstruction

US v. Reese

the Supreme Court ruled in favor of officials who prevented African Americans from voting arguing that the 15th amendment did not guarantee anyone suffrage but listed the grounds which states could not deny it

40 Acres and a Mule

Benefits promised to freed slaves by Sherman during the Civil War; benefits given until Andrew Johnson allowed original Southern landowners to take back land and evict slaves

Redemption and home rule

The return of southern Democrats to power and control in their own states and end of congressional Reconstruction

Scalawag

White southerners who joined the Republican Party after the civil war were called this by other white southerners who felt that being a Republican meant being a traitor to the South

Compromise of 1877

Compromise between the democratic and republican parties, in which the democratic party accepted republican presidential candidate Rutherford B. Hayes, in return for three conditions: 1. Removal of Union troops from southern states 2. A conservative southern cabinet member 3. Money for infrastructure development in the South This marks the end of Reconstruction and the abandonment of African Americans by the federal government until the mid 20th century.

Credit Mobilier Scandal

Credit Mobilier occurred under president Grant's administration in early 1870s. Vice President and top republicans were found guilty for skimming off large profits from railroad's government contract of a construction company.

Who is Samuel Tilden?

He was the Democratic party member who lost in the 1876 presidential election to Rutherford B. Hayes. Tilden got more votes but neither candidate had a majority in the electoral college. The elecdtion was resolved through the Compromise of 1877.

Who is Hiram Revels?

He was the first African American Senator, ever. Represented Mississippi. His election was made possible by the presence of Union troops in that state during the Congressional Reconstruction period.

panic of 1873

a series of financial crisises that caused a five year depression which was caused by the biggest bankers too big of investment in railroads. this panic included a temporary stock market crash, small bank closings, and 89 railroads closing

Congressional Reconstruction

radical and moderate republican's angered response to presidential reconstruction -> they succeeded in overriding jonhson's vetos

Presidential Reconstruction

president Johnson's plan to unite the US consisted of each Confederate state needing to withdraw its secession, swear allegiance to the Union, annul Confederate war debts, and ratify the Thirteenth Amendment in order to be readmitted into the Union

Freedmen's Bureau

Federal agency that aided freed slaves by reuniting families, promoted economic reconstruction, and tried to help blacks find jobs

Amnesty Act (1872)

Federal law that allowed former Confederates the right to vote and hold public office, who would vote predominantly Democrat<--this weakened Reconstruction and hastened the return to power in the South of white supremacists.

Black Codes

Discriminatory laws in southern states that limited blacks' rights; banned by the Civil Rights Act of 1866

Ku Klux Klan

Initially a social club for Confederate vets that turned into a violent white supremacist terrorist organization dedicated to keeping Blacks from exercising their new rights

carpetbagger

Northerners who moved to the south after the civil war were called this by white southerners because they were seen as taking advantage of the poverty in the South

13th Amendment

Outlaws slavery and involuntary servitude except in government prisons

Tenant farming

Sharecroppers rent land from owners and keep all of their harvest; usually forced to buy supplies on credit from unfair merchants; produce too little harvest to buy own land in long term

15th Amendment

States that nobody can be kept from voting due to "race, color, or previous condition of servitude", meaning that blacks could vote

Sharecropping

Landowners give each worker a few acres of land, seeds, and tools, in exchange, the worker gives the owner part of the crop at harvest

Andrew Johnson

Lincoln's former VP, Southern Democrat, used Lincoln's lenient reconstruction plan and removed the requirement for wealthy Southerners to swear allegiance

14th Amendment

Made all "born or naturalized" in the US citizens thereof and gave all equal protection under the law. "Equal protection clause"

Ulysses S. Grant

Major Union general in the Civil War; elected President, with many newly enfranchised blacks voting for him

Rutherford B. Hayes

Republican who ran against Tilden in the 1876 election and was inaugurated in exchange for the conditions of the Compromise of 1877

Reconstruction Act (1867)

Radicals and moderates joining and refusing to accept stare govts formed under the lincoln and Johnson plans (except Tennessee) The act divided the other ten former Confederate states into five military districts, each headed by a Union general. New state constitutions had to be drafted, and In order for a state to reenter the Union, its constitution had to ensure African-American men the vote, and the state had to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment.

Radical Republican

member of Congress during Reconstruction who wanted to ensure that freedmen received the right to vote