Reconstruction Flashcards
What was The Lost Cause?
The myth that the South did not fight for slavery, but for state rights.
Lee was their hero.
Lincoln’s main goal in his second inaugural address
With malice toward none, and charity for all, he wanted to bind up the nation’s wounds.
When was Lincoln’s assassination, who was the assassin, and where was he assassinated?
April 14, 1865
John Wilkes Booth
Ford’s Theater in Washington D.C
Who was the 17th president and what was his plan?
-Andrew Johnson
-Quickly bring the South back into the union
- No provision for African-American rights or compensation
-forbade confiscating plantations for slaves
What were the Black Codes?
Southern state laws that restricted the freedom of African Americans
Race Riots of 1866
Southern white violence against African-Americans. It was already occurring summer 1865 and increased as time went on.
KKK
Klu Klux Klan
organized 1866
intimidated terrorized blacks
What did Radical Republicans want?
Full citizenship, compensation and equal rights for African-Americans.
Civil Rights Act
1866
response to black codes
“all persons born in the United States must get full and equal benefits of all laws”
14th amendment
1868
No state shall make or enforce laws interfering with citizens’ rights
Ways the USA Reconstructed the South
5 military districts 1867
New readmission requirements ensured Republican governments
Army temporarily reduced white violence
Carpetbaggers
Northerners who went south to work in Republican Reconstruction state governments
Scalawags
southern white republicans who opposed secession (pro-union)
Who was the 18th president?
Ulysses S. Grant
Why did Grant sign the Enforcement Acts (1870-1871)
To protect Southern Republicans
What turned the public against reconstruction by mid-1873?
Political and Economic factors
(major recession in 1873)
Who won Congress in 1874 and what did they do?
Democrats
they began to stop reconstruction funding
the northern public lost the desire to punish the south and the army gradually began to leave the South
What caused the compromise of 1877 and what did the compromise entail?
The disputed presidential election of 1876
republicans got Hayes as the 19th president
democrats got all remaining military forces withdrawn from the South and they resumed control in the South
Economic developments
Cotton farming became even more common
low prices kept the sector poor
mining was very important bc of coal and iron
Textiles
railroads
Social and political developments
white supremacy 1877-1967
Accelerated 1890s
African-Americans tried to assert equality and whites reacted angrily
effectively implemented throughout south by 1900
Economic suppression
Southern African-Americans usually poor and were mostly sharecroppers
What was a sharecropper
someone who farmed someone else’s land
they paid landlord big part of harvest
deep debt
political and social suppression
weakness in 14th and 15th amendments
the Government can’t abridge rights, but individuals can
government can deny vote for reasons not specified
Ways the Southern States began removing African-American votes
Poll tax
Literacy test (one wrong item = no vote)
Grandfather clause (if dad/grandpa could vote in 1867 you can vote)
Factors influencing settlement
mining
ranching
farming
conflict with Native Americans
1862 Railroad Act
2 railroad companies would build the Transcontinental Railroad (finished in 1869)
Effects of the attracted 1000s of people west by mining
Increased populations (territories became states really quick)
Most western states were founded partly because of mining
boomtowns (supported mining)
Rowdy and lawless
- vigilante justice: law enforcement by normal citizens
Ranching
1866 - first major cattle drive
cowboys drove cattle to railroad towns for sale
ended by sheep and farmers competing for land
barbed wire
Harsh winters 1866-1867
1862 Homestead Act
person could claim up to 160 acres for a small fee if lived on and “improved it”
Populated plains despite difficulties
new inventions crucial
- John Deere Steel Plow easier
- cultivation of prairie sod
- McCormick Reaper faster harvests
John Wesley Powell
surveyed the Southwest 1890-1894
Previous methods of distributing farmland untenable
Only large-scale artificial irrigation centered around rivers would work
Fed. Government should build dams
Mormon Pioneers
Church of Jesus Christ/Latter-Day Saints began desert irrigation attempts
- eventually created well-organized series of small dams and canals
- but needed bigger dams and system of reservoirs (still had water shortages)
- Too expensive for entire church
Powell
- based on his recommendations to Congress on their cooperative work
Fed. gov’t assumed water burden with 1902 Newlands Act
Closing the Frontier
1889 Oklahoma Land Rush
1890 census bureau reported no true frontier left in US
Conflict with Native Americans
Westward expansion took Native American land and broke previous treaties
Native Americans were often forced to relocate
Sand Creek Massacre
1864 – Chief Black Kettle (Cheyenne) brought his people to Fort Lyon, CO in a designated area
Attacked by CO militia and U.S. soldiers. despite being peaceful
Up to 600 Native Americans were killed
Red Cloud’s War
1866 Lakota Sioux fought to prevent building forts on trail to Montana gold mines
Fetterman’s Massacre: 80 soldiers wiped out by Native Americans
Army abandoned posts 1868
Battle of Little Bighorn
1876 - Lakota Sioux Reservation
Custer sent w// the 7th cavalry to stop them
- attacked largest group of Native Americans ever assembled on plains
All U.S. soldiers killed
- started exterminating bison — destroy Native American way of life
Wounded Knee Massacre
Ghost Dance
- Native American religious movement celebrating future with no white settlers and buffalo returning
-The government banned ritual dance, but Lakota Sioux continued practicing
One Lakota band fled and caught by fed. soldiers at Wounded Knee creek
-American soldiers killed up to 300 Lakota men, women, and children
1887 Dawes Act
“assimilate” Native Americans
- Divide reservations and make them farmers
- Boarding schools to assimilate children early (Carlisle)
-These efforts were mostly unsuccessful
Social: Segregation
Separating people by race
- specified by Jim Crow laws
separated everything from whole buildings to water fountains
Plessy vs Ferguson
1896 Supreme Court case: separate but equal doctrine
Lynching
To kill someone for alleged offense without trial
Occurred throughout the South
African American response to lynching
they became extremely careful
Booker T. Washington
promoted compromise
wait to seek civil rights
Ida B. Wells
antilynching crusader
W.E.B. Du Bois
wanted an immediate struggle for civil rights
