C22 - The Ordeal of Reconstruction: 1865-1877 Flashcards
Wade Davis Bill
passed by Congress in 1864: Stated that 50 % of a state’s residents had to swear allegiance to the US in order for it to be readmitted to the Union.
Lincoln did not sign this bill.
It was a reaction to Lincoln’s own 10% bill, making it easy for southern states to be readmitted to the union.
Andrew Johnson
Became president after Lincoln was killed. Not qualified, especially during this critical time of Reconstruction. Wrong president at the wrong time.
sharecropping
technically free after the war, these blacks were still very poor and still worked just as hard on farms/plantations. Lacked equality under the law due to black codes.
“conquered provinces”
x
Thaddeus Stevens
Radical republican leader in the House who fiercely opposed slavery.
carpetbaggers
Derogatory term given by southerners to Northerners who moved south during the Reconstruction period.
Northerners may have been coming to help, but the South thought they were just being opportunistic.
Tenure of office act
1867: Denied the President the right to remove someone from the executive branch from power without consent of the Senate.
This law was later repealed.
Freedmen’s Bureau
Agency formed by Federal Government to help newly emancipated slaves with food, clothing, etc.
Civil Rights Act
Feb. 1866, passed by Congress after President Johnson vetoed the bill to extend the life of the Freemen’s Bureau.
Jolhnson vetoed. Congress then overrode his veto with a 2/3 vote.
10 percent plan
Lincoln’s plan for readmission of States who had seceded. Said that 10 percent of a state’s citizens had to swear allegiance to the Union in order to be readmitted.
Ex parte Milligan
1866 Supreme Court ruling that said that military tribunals could not be used to try citizens, if civil courts were still operating.
William Seward
U.S. Secretary of State who negotiated treaty to purchase Alaska. 1867.
scalawags
Southern Whites who supported republicans and reconstruction after the Civil War.
Military Reconstruction act
March 1867 passed by congress.
Fourteenth Amendment
Principles of Civil Rights Act pushed through by Congress before more Southern Congressmen came to power who might thwart it.
moderate/radical Republican
Breaks in the Republican Party over how to handle reconstruction, readmitting states to the Union, etc. More moderate republicans tended to agree with lincoln’s 10 percent idea…an easy and simple readmission process.
Radical republicans through the South should be made to suffer first before being readmitted.
Fifteenth Amendment
- Guaranteed blacks the right to vote.
Oliver O. Howard
Former Army general, he was put in charge of the Freemen’s Bureau in 1865.
Black codes
Laws put in place in southern former slave states after the war. very unfair to blacks…basically resulted in many of them living like slaves again.
Charles Sumner
Radical leader in the Congress from 1865-1871. Fought hard to provide equal civil and voting rights to black Freemen.
Ku Klux Klan
Racist radical white-supremacist group.
Alexander Stephens
Former VP of the Confederacy, he was elected as a Congressman again after the War. He showed up at the Capitol, yet was still accused of treason against the US.
“swing around the circle”
August - Sept. 1866. President Johnson’s disastrous speaking tour.
“radical” regimes
x
Force acts
1870-1875 - 4 acts passed by Republicans in Congress to guarantee constitutional rights given to blacks in the 14th and 15th Amendments
“Seward’s Folly”
Name given by detractors to Secretary of State Seward’s purchase of Alaska from Russia for $7 million.
