Ch. 16 L.3

The first African American senator to serve a full term

Blanche K. Bruce

True or False: In the system of sharecropping, farmers owned their own land

False: In the sharecropping system, landowners rented land to sharecroppers, or farmers. Sharecroppers gave a percentage of their crops to the landowner. Landowners often demanded an unfairly large percentage, which left sharecroppers with almost nothing to support themselves.

True or False: Reconstruction governments built schools for whites only

False: Reconstruction government created public schools for both races. Soon about 50 percent of white children and 40 percent of African American children Attended school in the South. Many northerners came to the South to teach.

True or False: Most African Americans had no trouble buying land in the South

False: Some African American bought land with the help of the Freedman's Bank. Formerly enslaved people who were involved in alternative forms of relationship, such as same-gender relationships, however, faced discrimination when seeking assistance from the Bureau. The federal government sought to enforce traditional family relationships upon the freed African Americans.

The first African American elected to the United States Senate:

Hiram Revels

Carpetbaggers:

-From the North -Named after cheap suitcases made of carpet fabric (a.k.a what white Southerners might have thought untrustworthy newcomers might carry -many were reformers -some were dishonest people looking to take advantage of the South's difficulties, but most were not. Many sincerely wanted to help rebuild the South.

Scalawags:

-From the South -Name means "scoundrel" -often pro-Union business leaders and farmers who had not owned enslaved people -supported the Republican party

African American higher education

Northerners set up academies in the South, these academies grew into a network of colleges and universities for African Americans.

What was the Ku Klux Klan?

The Ku Klux Klan was a secret society that used fear and violence to deny rights to freed men and women. They disguised themselves in white sheets and hoods, and threatened, beat, and killed thousands of African Americans and the white that supported them. They also burned African American homes, schools and churches. Many Democrats, planters, and other white Southerners supported the Klan, some saw violence as the only way to oppose Republican rule.

What roles were African Americans able to play in government during Reconstruction?

They played important roles as voters and elected officials. In some states, their votes helped produce victories for Republican candidates including African American candidates. For a short time, African Americans held the majority in the lower house of the South Carolina legislature. They worked to revise state constitutions and pass laws to support public education and civil rights. At the national level, 16 African Americans were in the House of Representatives and 2 served in the Senate between 1869 and 1880.

True or False: Landowners often took an unfair percentage of crops from their sharecroppers.

True

True or False: Schools that are integrated have both African American and white students

True