chapter 15 - Reconstructing a nation 1865-77

Which amendment to the Constitution officially ended slavery, or "involuntary servitude," in the United States?

Thirteenth Amendment.

Why was there a shortage of agricultural workers in the South during Reconstruction?

Thousands of emancipated blacks left the South to pursue opportunities in the North.

Why did Congress create the Freedmen's Bureau in 1865?

To assist in the distribution of confiscated land to former slaves.

What was the intent of the Dawes Severalty Act?

To break up reservations into separate plots for Indian families.

What was the principal goal of terrorist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan?

To restore white supremacy in the South.

What was the purpose of the Homestead Act?

To settle the West with independent small farmers.

President Lincoln's plan for Reconstruction required 10 percent of what group to swear future loyalty to the United States?

Voting population of a state in 1860.

How many voters would have had to swear allegiance to the Union under the Wade-Davis Bill?

A majority.

What did the Republican Party's nomination of Ulysses Grant for president in 1868 signify?

A retreat of the Republican Party from radicalism.

What criticism did radical Republicans have of the Freedmen's Bureau?

Agents sided with landowners against the interests of freed people too often.

What group finally decided the presidential race in 1876 in favor of the Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes?

An appointed electoral commission composed of a majority of Republicans

Northerners who came south in the aftermath of the Civil War to introduce reforms or capitalize on opportunities were known as

Carpetbaggers.

Black Codes

Confined black freedoms with laws that singled out blacks for unequal treatment.

What first symbolized the transfer of initiative in Reconstruction from the executive to the legislative branch?

Congress overriding President Johnson's veto of the Civil Rights Act and the extension of the Freedmen's Bureau.

During Reconstruction, southern governments

Extended access to free public schools to African Americans

According to the Banks Plan,

Former slaves signed year-long contracts and earned a small percentage of the crop, or $3 per month.

Most blacks who held elected office in southern states during Reconstruction

Had been free in the prewar period.

Why did President Andrew Johnson say he vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1866?

He doubted whether blacks were qualified for citizenship.

How did President Lincoln dispose of the Wade-Davis Bill?

He used the pocket veto

What was accomplished by the Second Reconstruction Act passed in July 1867?

It ensured black suffrage by placing the army in charge of voter registration.

What did the Reconstruction of Act of March 2, 1867, provide?

It established former Confederate states as territories and divided them into military districts.

What was the first accomplishment of the Fourteenth Amendment?

It overruled the Dred Scott case defining citizenship.

Other than getting laborers to work their land, how did the sharecrop system benefit landowners?

It reduced their risk when cotton prices were low.

How did sharecropping help shape the social system of the postwar South?

It tied the southern economy to agriculture, particularly cotton.

Why did supporters of women's suffrage oppose ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment?

It would subject elite, educated women to the rule of base and illiterate males, especially immigrants and blacks.

The reservation system was intended to

Prevent outbreaks of violence between Indians and white settlers. Create centralized locations across the West where Native peoples could work in factories. Pay the Indians for their land. "each statement is correct"

Southerners who collaborated with northerners after the Civil War were known as

Scalawags.

What labor system for former slaves developed soon after plantation owners reclaimed their land after the Civil War?

Sharecrop system.

Although the Freedmen's Bureau mostly dealt with labor relations, these often spilled over into matters of

civil rights

Why did radicals call for the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson?

Johnson violated the Tenure of Office Act

What effect did reports of violence against freed people have on Congress?

Moderate Republicans were radicalized.

The Fifteenth Amendment

Prohibited disfranchisement on account of race, color, or creed.

Those who advocated a harsh peace for the South and citizenship for former slaves were called what?

Radical Republicans.

What is meant by the term "redemption"?

Restoration of local, white control in former Confederate states.

What prompted moderate Republicans to grow increasingly more radical during Reconstruction?

The violence aimed at freed people.