Reconstruction: North and South

Question 1

When was the assassination of Abraham Lincoln

Answer 1

April 1865

Question 2

Who became president after Abe Lincoln?

Answer 2

Vice President Andrew Johnson

Question 3

Ardent

Answer 3

adj. having, expressive of, or characterized by intense feeling; passionate; fervent:
“an ardent vow; ardent love”

Question 4

Two reasons why Lincoln invited Johnson to be his running mate in 1864

Answer 4

• Johnson was an ardent Unionist who blamed the slaveholding planter elite for secession and the Civil War
• Johnson was the only souther senator who refuse to embrace the Confederacy in 1861

Question 5

Radical Republican’s beliefs

Answer 5

• Believed blacks were entitled to the same political rights and opportunities as whites.
• Believed the Confederate leaders should be punished for their roles in the Civil War.
• Believed extraordinary times called for direct intervention in State affairs and laws designed to protect the emancipated blacks.
• Believed that blacks must be given a chance to compete in a free-labor economy.

Question 6

What was the Freedmen’s Bureau and when was it created?

Answer 6

Created in March 1865, with the goal to:

• provide former slaves with emergency supplies
• help them find employment
• help them procure land
• help them pursue educational opportunities

Question 7

“Lily white” state government

Answer 7

government opposed to the inclusion of blacks, especially in political or social life.

Question 8

When did Reconstruction officially end?

Answer 8

In 1877, with the withdrawal of the last federal troops from the South.

Question 9

The Late Convention of Colored Men

Answer 9

1865 by the New York Times
Former slaves requested assistance and security from the Federal Government after they were freed.
- The freedmen believed they were entitled to protection because they helped espouse the cause of the Confederacy in time of war.
- They asked for not only military protection, but also for the Constitution to prohibit the States from making any distinction between citizens on account of race or color.

Question 10

Reconstruction

Answer 10

rebuilding of the South after the Civil War

Question 11

Ten Percent Plan

Answer 11

The plan that allowed a southern state to be readmitted into the Union once 10 percent of its voters (from the voter rolls for the election of 1860) swore an oath of allegiance to the Union.

• Lincoln wanted to end the war quickly and therefore this bill was lenient in order to attempt to get the south to surrender quickly.
• All southerners (except high-ranking Confederate army officers and government officials) would be granted a full pardon.
• Guaranteed southerners protection of their private property - though not their slaves.

Question 12

Presidential Reconstruction

Answer 12

While Congress was in recess Johnson began implementing his plans to quickly restore the Union, which became known as the Presidential Reconstruction.

• He returned confiscated property to white southerners
• Issued hundreds of pardons to former confederate officers and government officials.
• He undefined the Freedman’s Bureau by ordering it to return all confiscated lands to white landowners
• He appointed governors to supervise the drafting of new state constitutions and agreed to readmit each state provided it ratified the Thirteenth Amendment.
• He declared Reconstruction over at the end of 1865, hoping that it would be complete by the time Congress reconvened a few months later.

Question 13

Thirteenth Amendment

Answer 13

Abolished slavery in the United States and provides that, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”.

Question 14

The Joint Committee of Reconstruction

Answer 14

Established by Congress in late 1865 to challenge Johnson’s Presidential Reconstruction and devise stricter requirements for readmitting southern states.

Question 15

The Civil Rights Act of 1866

Answer 15

The act guaranteed citizenship to all Americans regardless of race (except in an unfortunate irony, Native Americans) and secured former slaves the right to own property, sue, testify in court, and sign legal contracts

• President Johnson vetoed this, but Radical Republicans managed to secure enough votes to override it.
• It was the first piece of congressional legislation to override state laws and protect civil liberties

Question 16

Dred Scott v. Sanford

Answer 16

Ruled by Supreme Court in 1857

• Stated blacks were not citizens, effectively legalizing slavery
• The Civil Rights Act of 1866 reversed this ruling.

Question 17

The Fourteenth Amendment

Answer 17

• Granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States”
• Forbids states from denying any person “life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” or to “deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of its laws”
• Republicans in Congress specified southern states had to ratify this amendment before they could reenter the Union.

Question 18

“Swing Around the Circle”

Answer 18

• President Johnson was accused of turning a blind eye to the violence that ensued all over the South.
• In response, he travelled throughout the country in which he infamously gave speeches that put the blame on Radical Republicans in Congress and lambasted Republicans, pro-war Democrats, and blacks.
• His course rhetoric hurt the Democratic Party’s credibility and persuaded many northerners to vote Republican in the congressional elections of 1866.

Question 19

Radical Reconstruction

Answer 19

1866- 1877

- Radical Republicans gained almost complete control over policy making in Congress, both House and Senate.

Question 20

The First Reconstruction Act

Answer 20

• Also known as: Military Reconstruction Act, or simply the Reconstruction Act.
• This bill reduced the secessionist states to little more than conquered territory, dividing them into 5 military districts, each governed by a Union general.
• Congress declared martial law in the territories, dispatching troops to keep the peace and protect former slaves

Question 21

The Second Reconstruction Act

Answer 21

• Used to further safeguard voting rights, which placed Union troops in charge of voter registration.

Question 22

lambaste

Answer 22

verb (used with object)

1. to beat or whip severely
2. to reprimand or berate harshly; censure; excoriate

Question 23

martial law

Answer 23

the law temporarily imposed upon an area by state or national forces when civil authority has broken down

Question 24

Radical Reconstruction’s Effects on Blacks

Answer 24

• While Radicals in Congress successfully passed rights legislation, southerners all but ignored these laws.
• The newly formed southern governments established public schools, but they were still segregated and did not receive enough funding.
• Black literacy rates improved, but marginally at best.

Question 25

Tenure of Office Act

Answer 25

• Forbid the removal (without congressional consent) to all office holders whose appointment provided congressional approval.
• Republicans were specifically aiming to keep Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton in office, because Stanton was the Republicans conduit for controlling the U.S. military.
• Johnson ignored the act, fired Stanton (while Congress was in recess) and replaced him with Union general Ulysses S. Grant.
• Congress ordered Johnson to reinstate Stanton when it reconvened in 1868. Johnson refused but Grant resigned, and Congress put Stanton back in office.

Question 26

Johnson’s Impeachment

Answer 26

• Was the first president to be impeached.
• Impeached with a vote of 126 - 47 for violating the Tenure of Office Act.
• The Republicans fell one vote shy of convicting Johnson.

Question 27

The Politics of Johnson’s Impeachment

Answer 27

• If Congress had removed a president form office simply on the basis of a power struggle between the president and congress, they might have endangered the system of a separation of powers - an integral part of the U.S. government
• Johnson had not violated the Constitution and was not guilty of committing “high crimes and misdemeanors”

Question 28

The Fifteenth Amendment

Answer 28

Granted African American men the right to vote by declaring that the “right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or precious condition of servitude.”

Question 29

Black Voters

Answer 29

• By the beginning of 1868, more than 700,000 blacks had registered to vote. Not surprisingly, virtually all of them declared themselves as Republicans, associating the Democratic Party with secession and slavery.
• 14 black politicians were elected to the U.S. House and 2 to the Mississippi State Senate.
• These new state governments funded the creation of roads, hospitals, prisons, and free public schools.

Question 30

Scalawag

Answer 30

White southerner who supported the Republicans during Reconstruction

Question 31

Carpetbagger

Answer 31

uncomplimentary nick-name for a northerner who went to the South after the Civil War

Question 32

Sharecropper

Answer 32

person who rents a plot of land from another person and farms it in exchange for a share of the crop
- kept blacks or poor whites indebted to white landowners

Question 33

Black Codes

Answer 33

• In reaction to the Civil Rights Act of 1866, every southern legislature passed laws to restrict opportunities for blacks.
• Ranged widely in severity and outlawed everything from interracial marriage to loitering public areas.
• Mississippi were arguably the worst, stripping blacks the right to serve on juries, testify against whites, and outlawing free speech.

Question 34

The Election of 1868

Answer 34

Republicans: nominated Ulysses S. Grant
- was a successful Union general
- was popular in the North
- served as a reminder Republicans won the war
Democrats: nominated Horatio Seymour
- former governor of NY
- opposed emancipation
- supported states’ rights
- wanted to regain control of Reconstruction from Congress
Grant received 214 electoral votes to Seymour’s 80, but only won the popular vote by 300,000