History Exam 1- 1302 Flashcards
African American response to freedom after the Civil War
Former slaves organized independent gatherings and religious services, were allowed to own dogs, guns, and liquor, and departed plantations for improved employment, reuniting with family, or seeking personal freedom.
Affect emancipation had on the structure of black family
Increasing the presence of black men, fostering gender segregation, prompting women to shift from field labor to domestic roles, leading to increased family time
Affect emancipation had on planters
Southern planters seek Planter families faced changes by losing their life savings
For the first time, some of them had to do physical labor.
Freedmen’s Bureau
made notable achievements in improving African-American education and health care.
Key item ex-slaves believed would improve their conditions
land
Sharecropping
was preferred by African-Americans to gang labor (cause less supervision)
System where landless farmers worked land in exchange for a share of the crops
Crop-lien system
Credit system allowing farmers to obtain supplies by agreeing to turn over a portion of their crops
kept many sharecroppers in a state of constant debt and poverty.
The area where laborers were brought from after the British abolition of slavery
Indian subcontinent, particularly India
Reasons President Johnson’s Reconstruction plan failed
prominent ex-confederates and pre-civil war elite came into power
Black Codes
allowed the arrest on vagrancy charges of former slaves who failed to sign yearly labor contracts
Biggest goal of Radical Republicans
equal rights for all, regardless of race.
Civil Rights Bill of 1866
Defined the rights of American citizens without regard to race.
No longer could states create laws like the black codes that discriminated between white and black citizens.
A state cannot deprive a citizen of the right to make contracts, bring lawsuits, or enjoy equal protection of one’s person and property
14th Amendment
All persons born in the U.S. were citizens, except Native Americans
Reconstruction Act
In March 1867, over Johnson’s veto, Congress adopted the Reconstruction Act.
It: created new state governments and provided for black male suffrage in the South.
15th Amendment
(think of voting)
Couldn’t prevent voting cause of race.
Things that were not based on race:
Property qualifications, literacy tests, poll taxes, amendment not apply to women.
“Waving the bloody shirt”
Republicans identified their opponents with secession and reason it was called “waving the bloody shirt”
Hiram Revels
in 1870 became the 1st black senator in American history
Blanche Bruce
The 2nd black senator, Blanche Bruce, a former slave, was elected in 1875.
“Carpetbaggers”
Northerners (many former union soldiers) who went to South to:
pursue opportunity to combine personal economic advancement with a role in helping to substitute
assist the former slaves (teachers & Freedmen’s Bureau)
“Scalawags”
Southern republicans, non-slaveholding white farmers
Enforcement Act
made to: stop terrorist societies
it: expanded the National authority during reconstruction
Liberal Republican movement’s causes
North commitment to reconstruction waned,
in republican party replaced alongside politicians the idea of equal rights for blacks,
and northeners felt south should deal with its own problems w/ out gov. interference.
“Redeemers”
goal was to “redeem” the South by removing Republicans from power and restoring white supremacy.
The issue with the election of 1876
(disputed electoral votes)
Disputed electoral votes led to a compromise that effectively ended Reconstruction
