Chapter 15 Flashcards
Reconstruction
13th Amendment
Legally abolishes slavery “except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted”
- 4 million people free from slavery
Andrew Johnson
Only senator from Confederate state that chose to retain Senate seat
- hoped for a new class of southerners to replace wealthy in leadership positions
- reconstruction required southern govs to void secession, repudiate confederate debts, ratify 13th amendment
Presidential Reconstruction -> Congressional reconstruction
Black Codes
Prevented African Americans from voting, serving on juries, excluding legal testimoney from Blacks against whites
- WHITE SUPREMACY
- denied fundamental rights
- regulate Black behavior and impose social and economic control
- criminalized Black people’s leisure, limited mobility, and locked many into exploitative farming contracts
Vagrancy Laws
A black code that required **Black ppl to carry proof of employment and imposed fines of violaters. **
- created system of “slavery by another name” due to becoming indentured if fines not paid
- enabled law enforcement to justify the arrest of innocent Black men and women, and arrests leading to forced,uncompensated labor
Rights Act of 1866
First attempt to secure (limited) citizenship rights for African Americans
- federal attempt to constitutionally define all American-born residents (except Natives) as citizens
- prohibited curtailment of citiziens “fundamental rights”
14th Amendment
Guarnteed citizenship to all people born in the United States and equal protection of the law
- required states to ratify 14th amendment and write new constituions enfranchising African Americans, and abolish black codes
- state laws not denying discrimination against particular groups of ppl
- signaled fed gov’s willingness to enforce bill of rights over authority of states
- helped woman suffrage
Ulysses S. Grant
Guy in Union who defeated the Confederates, ending Confederate military operations
- promised to override new terms of Reconstruction
won Presidency due to Black support in south
Special Field Order No. 15
Promising to redistribute Confederate land to freed people
- Georgia and South Carolina set aside as a homestead for freedpeople
- Did not fully take effect
The Freedman’s Bureau
Adminster a range of policies to assit freed people in finding a new living, access to education, day-to-day necessities
- redistribute land to formerly enslaved people abandoned and confiscated by fed gov.
- assist freed people in securing rights and livelihoods
Sharecroppers
**Planters breaking up large farms into smaller plots tended by single families in exhcange for portion of crop **
- led to cycles of debt keeping families bound to land
