Reconstruction, Chapter 15

Civil Rights Act of 1866

Congress passed this in April 1866 and it declared blacks to be citizens of the United States and gave the federal government power to intervene in state affairs to protect the right of citizens. Johnson vetoed this bill but congress overrode him.

Schools in the South

1870s- comprehensive public school established by 1876, more than 50% of white children and 40% of black children were attending schools in the south.

Presidential Reconstruction

Andrew Johnson attempted to carry out Lincoln's plan for the political Reconstruction of the 11 former states of the Confederacy.

President Andrew Johnson

Vice President at the time that Lincoln died, but became president when Lincoln was assassinated. he offered some form of amnesty to Southerners if they took the oath of allegiance. appointed a provisional governor in each state and had governors appoint delegates to form a constitutional convention.

Ku Klux Klan

a secret society created by white southerners in 1866 that used terror and violence to keep African Americans from obtaining their civil rights.

Freedmen's Bureau

agency of the army directed by Oliver O. Howard. distributed food to slaves, established schools, staffed by missionaries and teachers sent by Freedmen's Aid Societies and other private church groups in the North. not a permanent solution.

Redemptionism

black people and white people who preserved black rights were prosecuted by groups like the Ku Klux Klan.

Black Codes

created in 1865 and 1866 by state legislatures in the South. allowed local officials to apprehend unemployed blacks, fine them for vagrancy, and hire them out to private employers to satisfy the fine. some of these limited Blacks to taking only jobs that were previously done by slaves.

Scalawags

derogatory term given to Southern white Republicans by Critics. alongside "carpetbaggers". mostly former Whigs who had never felt comfortable in the Democratic Party or farmers who lived in remote areas where there had been little or no slavery.

Carpetbaggers

derogatory term given to Southern white Republicans by Critics. alongside "scalawags". mostly white men from the North who were usually veterans of the Union army who looked on the South as a more promising frontier than the West and had settled there at war's end as hopeful planters , businessmen, or professionals.

First Reconstruction Act

divided the South into military districts, granted local voting rights to African Americans, and barred former Confederate leaders from holding office.

15th Amendment

forbade the states and the federal government to deny suffrage to any citizen on account of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." ratification by the states was completed in 1870.

Radical Republicans

led by Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner. wanted to disenfranchise large numbers of Southern whites, protect black civil rights, confiscate the property of wealthy whites who aided the confederacy, and distribute the land among the freedmen.

Congressman Thaddeus Stevens

led the Radical Republicans with Charles Sumner. he was from Pennsylvania.

Senator Charles Sumner

led the Radical Republicans with Thaddeus Stevens. he was from Massachusetts.

Sharecropping

most farmers worked their own plots of land and paid their landlords either a fixed rent or a share of their crop.

Radical Reconstruction

period beginning in 1867, when the Republicans, who had control in both houses of Congress, took charge of Reconstruction. the Radical Republicans passed four Reconstruction Acts in 1868: (1) ratify the Fourteenth Amendment; (2) write new state constitutions that guarantee freedmen the right to vote; (3) form new governments to be elected by all male citizens including African Americans.

14th Amendment

proposed by the Joint Committee on Reconstruction in April 1866 and was approved by congress in early summer. offered first constitutional definition of American Citizenship. imposed penalties on states that denied suffrage to any adult male inhabitants. also, prohibited former members of congress or other federal officials who aided the confederacy from holding office unless 2/3 of congress voted to pardon them.

President Ulysses S. Grant

ran for office in 1868 as a Republican because he believed that the they were more popular in the North. won presidency but didn't have a great start.

Tenure of Office Act and impeachment

the Tenure of Office Act was passed in 1867 by congressional Republican who wanted to stop Johnson from interfering with their plans. this forbade the president to remove civil officials, including members of his own cabinet, without the consent of the Senate. main job was to protect the job of Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, who was cooperating with the Radicals and impeachment is when a president gets voted out of office by congress.

"40 Acres and a Mule"

this slogan was created in 1864 and 1865 when the federal government settled nearly 10000 black families on abandoned plantation land often times receiving a single mule for their property. it was an attempt to give the black families a new start.

13th Amendment (1865)

was passed in 1865 and it abolished slavery (involuntary servitude). Congress has the power to enforce this via legislation.