Reconstructing The Union Flashcards
Lincoln’s 10% plan
The plan was known as the 10 percent plan because it allowed southern states a pathway to reconstruction once 10 percent of citizens agreed to swear an oath to the union and agree to abolish slavery
Proclamation of Amnesty
The proclamation had the effect of changing the legal status of more than 3,5 million enslaved African Americans in the secessionist confederate status from enslaved to free
Wade-Davis Bill (1864)
Would also have abolished slavery, but it required that 50 percent of a states White males take a loyalty oath to the United States (and swear they had never assisted the confederacy) to be readmitted to the Union. Only after taking this “Ironclad Oath” would they be able to participate in conventions to write new state constitutions.
Congress passed the wade Davis bill, but president Lincoln chose not to sign it, killing the bill with a pocket veto. Lincoln continued to advocate tolerance and speed in plans for the reconstruction of the union in opposition to congress
13th, 14th, 15th amendment
13th - outlawed slavery everywhere
14th - will make former slaves citizens (a person born in the United States is a citizen)
15th - states couldn’t deny right to vote based on “race, color, or previous conditions of servitude”
Andrew Johnson
The 17th US president, assumed office after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson, was the first American president to be impeached. A democrat, he championed populist measures and supported states rights. During the US civil war, Johnson was the only southern senator to remain loyal to the union. Six weeks after Johnson was inaugurated as US vice president, Lincoln was murdered. As president, Johnson took a moderate approach to restore the south to the union and clashed with radical republicans. He was impeached by congress, but he was not removed from office. He did not run for a second presidential term.
John Wilkes booth conspiracy
Originally, Booth and his small group of conspirators had plotted to kidnap Lincoln to aid the confederate cause. They later decided to murder him, as well as Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William H. Seward. Booth shot president Lincoln once in the back of the head, Lincoln’s death the next morning completed Booths piece of the plot.
Freedman’s Bureau (1865)
The freedmen’s Bureau, formally known as the Bureau of Refugees, Freedman and abandoned Lands, was established in 1865 by congress to help millions of former Black slaves and poor whites in the south in the aftermath of the civil war. The Freedmen’s Bureau provided food, housing and medical aid, establishing schools and offered legal assistance. It also attempted to settle former slaves on land confiscated or abandoned during the war. However, the bureau was prevented from fully carrying out its programs due to a shortage of funds and personnel, along with the politics of race and Reconstruction.
Black codes
Black codes were restrictive laws designed to limit the freedom of African Americans and ensure their availability as a cheap labor force after slavery was abolished during the Civil War. Though the Union victory had given some 4 million enslaved people their freedom, the question of freed black peoples status in the postwar south was still very much unresolved. Under black codes, many states required black people to sign yearly labor contracts; if they refused, they risked being arrested, fined and forced into unpaid labor. Outrage over black codes helped undermine support for president Andrew Johnson and the Republican Party
KKK
Founded in 1865, the Ku Klux Klan extended into almost every southern state by 1870 and became a vehicle for white southern resistance to the Republican Party’s Reconstruction-era policies aimed at establishing political and economic equality for black Americans. It’s members waged an underground campaign of intimidation and violence directed at white and black republican leaders. Though congress passed legislation designed to curb Klan terrorism, the organization saw its primary goal, the reestablishment of white supremacy, fulfilled through Democratic victories in state legislatures across the south in the 1870s.
After a period of decline, white Protestant nativist groups revived the Klan, burning crosses and staging rallies, parades and marches denouncing immigrants, Catholics, Jews, African Americans and organized labor. The civil rights movement of the 1960s also saw a surge of Ku Klux Klan activity, including bombings of black schools and churches and violence against black and white activists in the south
Emergence of Jim Crow Laws
Were a collection of state and local statutes that legalized racial segregation. Named after a black minstrel show character, the law, which existed for about 100 years, from the post-civil war era until 1968, were meant to marginalize African Americans by denying them the right to vote, hold jobs, get an education or other opportunities. Those who attempted to defy Jim Crow laws often faced arrest, fines, jail sentences, violence and death.
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
Was a landmark 1896 US Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine. The case stemmed from an 1892 incident in which African Americans train passenger Homer Plessy refused to sit in a car for black people. Rejecting Plessys argument that his constitutional right last were violated, the Supreme Court ruled that a law that “implies merely a legal distinction” between white people and Black people was not unconstitutional. As a result, restrictive Jim Crow legislation and separate public accommodations based on race became commonplace
