Chapter 15 Flashcards
End of the Civil War
Spring of 1865
How many casualties did the Civil War claim
700,000
Date of the ratification to the 13th amendment
December 6, 1865
Federal governments major challenges in reconstructing the south
- property value collapse
- value of the confederate dollar going to 0
- wiped out the markets for slavery, cotton, and tobacco
- deciding how to govern the southern states
- deciding the status of the slaves
Lincoln’s Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction
-Former Rebel States could form a government when 10 percent of voters in 1860 pledged an oath of allegiance to the constitution and a presidential pardon.
Radical Republicans
- Abolitionist congressman whom wanted swift emancipation of slaves and punishment for Rebels, as well as tight control of former confederate states.
- Thought we should replace the planer elite with small farmers and middle class republicans both black and white to replace the southern government.
Wade-Davis Bill
(Henry Davis of Maryland and Benjamin Wade of Ohio.)
Required that a majority of white male citizens declare their allegiance to the union before a Confederate state could be re-admitted. Was vetoed by President Lincoln.
The Freedmen’s Bureau
Provided assistance to suffering “freedmen and their wives and children”, protect the legal rights of former slaves and to assist with their education, jobs, health care, and land ownership. This marked the first time the government directly aided the people rather than the states.
Assassination of Lincoln
April 14, 1865
Johnson’s Restoration Plan
Each state had to ratify the 13th amendment before it could be readmitted, it could appoint a unionist as governer, encouraged giving a few blacks voting right (no state did) and disqualifying wealthy ex-confederates the right to vote.
Black Codes
Laws passed in southern states that restricted the rights of former slaves. Such as, blacks marriages were recognized, but they could not vote or serve on juries. They could own property but not farmland in Mississippi or city property in South Carolina. Had to be apprenticed by a white male if over the age of 18 or be thrown in jail.
13th Amendment
Ended Slavery
14th Amendment
Government was talking responsibility for protecting the civil rights of American’s, including former slaves. July 28, 1868.
Congressional Reconstruction
Passage of 3 Laws:
*Military Reconstruction Act - Abolished all of the new governments in the rebel states, in their place congress established military control over them (Except Tennessee-Already ratified the 14th) and divided into five districts each commanded by a general who acted as governer.
- The Command of the Army Act - directed that all army orders from the president go through the army’s commanding general, Ulysses S. Grant.
- The Tenure of Office Act - required senate permission for the president to remove any federal official whose appointment the Senate had confirmed.
This reconstruction sought o ensure that freed slaves could participate in the creation of new state governments.
15th Amendment
Gave African Americans the right to vote. Passed on February 26 1869 and ratified on February 3 1870.
Sharecropping
White landowners provided land, seed, and tools to a poor black family in exchange for a share of the crop.
Carpetbaggers
Northerners who rushed to the south with their belongings in suitcases made of carpets. In hopes of grabbing some political power, help rebuild the regions devestated economy, or teachers/ministers/social workers wanting to help freed blacks and poor whites.
Scalawags
Southerners who had opposed secession but supported the Confederacy once the war started, and then became republicans after the war was over.
Ku Klux Klan
Formed in 1866 in Pulasi Tennessee, started out as a group of pranksters, but soon turned into a terrorist orginization targeting african americans as well as carpetbagger and scalawags.
Greenbacks
green paper money that is not backed by gold
Panic of 1873
25 railroads stopped paying their bills, which led to the major lendeing company to go bankrupt which resulted in an economic collapse. Causing the nation to print out more greenbacks.
Enforcement Acts (1870-1871)
Imposed penalties on anyone who interfered with any citizen’s right to vote. Dispatched federal election supervisors and marshals to monitor elections in southern districts where political terrorism flourished. Outlawed the main activities of the KKK.
Redeemers
Postwar white Democratic leaders in the south who supposedly saved the region from political, economic, and social domination by northerners and blacks.
The Compromise of 1877
The republicans promised that if Hayes were named president, he would remove the last federal troops from the South, letting the state Republican governments there collapse, marking the end of Reconstruction.
