Reconstruction Flashcards
Military Reconstruction Act of 1867
- Divides the South into 5 districts with Northern Generals in charge.
- All qualified voters could participate in state conventions to create new Constitutions.
- Cannot deny people’s rights (Equal rights)
- Must ratify the 14th Amendment.
Carpetbagger
Northern Republican who moved South after the Civil War to make money.
Impeachment of Johnson
Johnson was determined to fire Stanton, leading to his impeachment on the grounds of a Violation of the Tenure of Office Act by Radical Republicans. Congress brought the charges, which the Senate listened to with the Chief Justice acting as the Judge. The Radical Republicans needed 2/3 of the vote for Johnson to be convicted. They did not get his conviction, but he was impeached.
Freeman’s Bereau
Federal Agency set up to help former slaves and poor people provide education, clothing/food, and medical care. They also helped them find jobs and in some cases help them negotiate contracts. This was the first form of social welfare in the United States.
Johnson’s plan for Reconstruction
He believed the Confederates never left the Union, and no Reconstruction was needed. He called for:
A Proclamation of Amnesty, meaning that no Confederate officials or officers could be involved, and those who owned taxable property over $20,000 could not participate in the Convention.
Also, Johnson would name a Unionist Provisional Governor who would have the authority to call a convention. In order for this to happen:
1. Invalidate secession
2. Abolish slavery
3. repudiate all debt incurred to aid the Confederacy.
4. Each state must ratify the 13th amendment.
Sharecropping
Farm another’s land, and the person that would be “renting” would have to give a percentage of their crop to the owner as rent.
Ku Klux Klan
White southerners who resisted Reconstruction. In order to be part, one must be a White Anglosaxon Protestant of British descent. They used violence to get their message of “Intimidate Blacks and sympathetic whites so that they become submissive” across.
15th Amendment
Right to vote, and no one can take that right away. This called for all people, including male freed salves over 21 years old.
Tenure of Office Act
If you need Senate approval to hire, you need Senate approval to fire. Passed because Johnson wanted to fire Stanton, the Secretary of War.
Civil Rights Act
All citizens born in the United State were citizens entitled to full and equal benefits of all laws.
Radical Republicans’ plan for Reconstruction
They did not believe that the president led Reconstruction. They thought Congress did. They proposed the Wade-Davis Bill, which was somewhat punishing and made reenter to the Union difficult. It said that a majority of white males in a state had to declare their allegiance and state that they always remained loyal to the Union. Only these men could participate in the Constitutional Convention, and in order for a convention to happen, states had to:
- Abolish slavery
- Pay their own Confederate debts, meaning the federal government was not responsible for them.
- High ranking officials on the Confederacy would NEVER be cleared to become citizens again.
- Always remained loyal throughout the whole war.
Lincoln’s plan for Reconstruction
No persecution or “bloody work” - Don’t punish the south -
Form state governments, and when a number equal to 10% of those who voted in 1860 took an oath of allegiance to the Constitution, there could be a Constitutional Convention. The South must become part of the Union again, and to do so, they must support emancipation. This plan did not allow Confederate officials, military officers, Judges, Congressmen, or military officers who left the Union to vote.
14th Amendnment
Forbade any state from denying the rights “of life, or property without due process on the pursuit to happiness” and “deny any person…equal protection of the laws.”
It also called for state and federal citizenship for all people.
Black Codes
Laws that sought to limit the rights of AfricanAmericans and keep them as landless workers. The codes required African Americans to work in only a limited number of occupations, most often as servants or farm laborers. Some states prohibited African Americans from owning land.
Scalawag
Southern white who became a Republican after the war to make money.
