The Civil War and Reconstruction (1844-1877) Flashcards
Manifest Destiny
Belief of many Americans that told them to expand westward and extend its power in the Western Hhemisphere.
John O’Sullivan
Coined Manifest Destiny in a newspaper column in 1845.
Oregon Trail
2000 mile route from Missouri to the Pacific Northwest.
Santa Fe Trail
Missouri to New Mexico route.
California Trail
Branch from the Oregon Trail.
Donner Party
1846-47. It was a wagon train of 87 bound for California. They became snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Only 48 survived, with some resorting to cannibalism. It was used to highlight the dangerous of the Trails, but Historians note that death rates on these trails were only slightly higher than for Americans in general at the time.
Sutter’s Mill
Location of a strike of precious metals in the antebellum period.
Forty-Niners
Nickname for the large number of people who migrated to California in 1849.
Scientific Radicalism
Identify:
-“Savage Tribes”
The belief that races are fundamentally different, with Anglo-Saxons being the most superior. This was popular in the early 1800’s.
The Western expansion was seen as proof of Scientific Radicalism, with the superiority over the “Savage Tribes” of the west.
Morrill Land Grant Act
Promoted Secondary public education in the West during 1862. The federal government transferred substantial tracts of its lands to the states, and states could build public colleges on these lands or sell the land to fund educational facilities.
Pacific Railroad Act
1862 act that extended government bonds and tracts of land to companies engaged in building transcontinental railroads.
Homestead Act
- It provided free land in the West for settlers willing to farm it. It reflected the Republican’s free labor ideal.
Free Labor Ideal
Ideal of the Republican Party, which drove the Homestead Act.
Tokugawa Shogunate
Isolated Japan from Western Countries since the seventeenth century, but allowed limited trades with the Netherlands and China. It repeatedly resisted, sometimes by force, attempts by Americans and Europeans to establish business and diplomatic ties.
President Millard Fillmore (Japan Policy)
Gave a letter authorizing Commodore Perry’s journey.
Commodore Matthew C. Perry
Led a naval expedition to Japan and threatened Japan until they ended their isolationist policy.
James K Polk
Identify:
- Reason why he was a candidate
- Views on Texas Annexation
- Whig opponent
A compromise candidate, pushing aside John Tyler’s bid for re-election. The democrats were more expansionistic and more proslavery than the Whigs. In 1844, Polk defeated Henry Clay.
Tyler saw Polk’s election as a mandate for Texas annexation, so pushed it through congress. Texas joined as the fifteenth slave state.
Start of the Mexican-American War
Mexico claimed their border with Texas was at the Nueces River, while the US insisted it was at the Rio Grande. Skirmishes in this disputed area led to war in 1846.
General Zachary Taylor (Mexican-American War)
Led one prong of the invasion into Mexico, in the area of Mexico south of Texas.
General Winfield Scott (Mexican-American War)
Captured Mexico City to force the Mexican government to part with its northern provinces.
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
End of Mexican-American War. Mexico gave up claims to disputed Texas and sold California and New Mexico for 15 million.
Mexican Cession
Selling of California and New Mexico.
Gadsden Purchase
Identify:
- Incentive for the US
Acquired 5 years after the Mexican-American War, and added more area to the land obtained by the US following the war.
The US hoped to make a possible southern route for a transcontinental railroad.
Gold Rush in California on Indigenous Peoples
The Westward path often crossed Indigenous territory, resulting in the government controlling Indigenous land and putting Indigenous into reservations.
Indian Appropriations Act
1851 act that established reservations in present-day Oklahoma. In exchange, Indigenous people were promised a degree of autonomy.
Treaty of Fort Laramie
US representatives and 10K Plains Indigenous agreed to provide a corridor for the passage of wagon trains to the Far West. In exchange, the government promised that no further encroachment would occur. However, white settlers refused to honor this treaty.
Chief Little Crow
Dakota Indigenous that attacked white settlers who had settled on former Sioux lands. After the fighting, more than 300 Dakota Sioux men were sentenced to death. However, Lincoln commuted 264 of these.
Colorado War
Colorado militia and white settlers fought against Indigenous Peoples of Colorado Territory.
Southern Cheyenne, Arapaho, Brule and Oglala Sioux.
Indigenous groups who fought in the Colorado War.
Sand Creek Massacre
Settler family were killed in Colorado war. In retaliation, a Colorado militia killed between 150 to 500 Indigenous in a peaceful Cheyenne village. This was condemned as “brutal and cowardly”.
Colonel John M. Chivington
Led the Sand Creek massacre.
Yuki People of Round Valley
Targeted for labor, since California constitution only banned black slavery. Their population fell from 5000 to 300 in a decade.
Wilmot Proviso
Put forward by Northern Politicians in an attempt to ban slavery in territories gained in the Mexico-American War. It was passed in the House, but failed in the Senate.
Senator Lewis Cass and Zachary Taylor
Cass lost to Whig Taylor in 1848 election.
Free-Soil Party
In response to the lack of discussion on slavery by both the Whigs and Democrats, anti-slavery men in both parties formed the Free-Soil Party.
Popular Sovereignty
Identify:
- Problem with Idea
Idea proposed by Lewis Cass. It stated that the question of slavery should be left to the people of a territory. However, it left the timing on such a vote vague. The North wanted it early (as soon as a legislature was formed), since most small-time farmers came from the North. However, the South wanted it just before statehood, as it gave time for slavery to develop.
Congress did not immediately act on his idea.
Ostend Manifesto
American Diplomats sent by pro-south Franklin Pierce to secretly buy Cuba. Their goals, written in the Ostend Manifesto, was released to the press, which angered Northern Politicians.
Compromise of 1850
Identify:
- Leading politician
Worked out by a group of senators led by Henry Clay.
It admitted California as a free state, and added the Fugitive Slave Law. Other measures involved letting New Mexico and Utah decide on popular sovereignty, establishing a new boundary between Texas and New Mexico, and banning the slave trade (but not slavery) in Washington DC. All of these were put forward together, but it became clear that neither the North of the South was willing to accept this.
The Compromise was eventually split up, and each measure was passed.
Stephen Douglas
Proposed splitting up the Compromise of 1850 and voting on its measures separately. The measures all passed and was signed into law by Millard Fillmore.
Five Points (NYC)
Largest destination for Irish Immigrants. It was one of the most desperate urban slums.
Mulatto
Term for mixed blood between African-American and Irish as a result for their interactions in the Five Points neighborhood.
Nativism
Tried to regulate and weaken the drinking culture of immigrant communities, believing that new immigrants (mostly non-protestant) were not “proper”.
Know-Nothing Party
Nativist party that was anti-Catholic and anti-Irish. It achieved electoral success especially in the Northeast. Most eventually were folded into the Republican Party.
Population Growth in North vs. South
North, driven by the free-labor ideology, grew rapidly while the South’s free population growth was slow.
Fugitive Slave Act
Allowed slavers to come to the North to catch escaped slaves. This brought the brutality of the slave system to the streets of northern cities, alarming Northeners.
Personal Liberty Laws
Passed by many northern states that offered protection to fugitives.
Prigg v. Pennsylvania
Overturned the abduction conviction of Edward Prigg, a slave catcher, on the grounds that federal law (Constitution and Fugitive Slave Act) was superior to state law (Personal Liberty Laws).
Ableman v. Booth
Wisconsin Supreme Court had ruled that Sherman Booth, who had disrupted a slave catcher protected by the Fugitive Slave Act, was not guilty on the grounds that the Fugitive Slave Act was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court reversed this decision.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Antislavery novel that depicted the brutality of slavery. This gave slavery a human face, and enflamed slavery tensions. Southern supporters of slavery attempted to ban it.
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
John Brown
Raided a federal armory in Harper’s Ferry. He had ties to leading abolitionists, such as Frederick Douglass, and intended to distribute weapons to slaves. He believed this would initiate a slave rebellion. However, he was overwhelmed by Robert E. Lee and was tried and executed.
Necessary Evil
Slavery according to Southerners. They asserted that slavery was an evil, but asserted its end would have dire consequences.
George Fitzhugh
Inspired the “positive good” argument.
Aunt Phillis’s Cabin: or, Southern Life as It Is
Reflected “positive good” ideology in response to Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It depicted benign masters and happy slaves.
Minstrel Shows
Consisted of whites performing in blackface. It presented racist caricatures of African Americans. As tensions regarding slavery grew, these depictions became increasingly vicious.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Identify:
- Senator who introduced it
Called to divide the northern section of the Louisiana Purchase into two territories, Kansas and Nebraska. It mandated that the question of slavery was decided through popular sovereignty, despite the territories theoretical barring from adopting slavery by the Missouri Comrpomise.
Elections for Territorial Legislature in Kansas, 1855
More than 6000 votes were cast despite Kansas only having 1500 eligible voters due to pro-slavery Missourians coming over the border to vote. Anti-slavery Kansans chose their own shadow legislature, and each side wrote their own Constitution.
Topeka Constitution
Anti-slavery Kansas Constitution, not recognized by Franklin Pierce.
Lecompton Constitution
Pro-slavery Kansas Constitution, recognized by Franklin Pierce.
Sack of Lawrence
Pro-slavery settlers attacked an anti-slavery town who were populated by Massachusetts settlers. This attack was one of the starting incidents of Bleeding Kansas.
Bleeding Kansas
Open violence in Kansas Territory, on and off, occurring for a few years after John Brown’s killings.
Crimes Against Kansas
Anti-slavery speech that led to the beating of Charles Sumner.
Senator Andrew P. Butler
Singled out in “Crimes Against Kansas”.
Senator Charles Sumner
Beaten by Preston Brooks in the Senate chamber. He was left incapacitated for four years. Northerners saw the beating as a sign of southern barbarism, while southerners made Brooks a hero.
Preston Brooks
Beat Charles Sumner.
Dred Scott vs. Sandford
Landmark 1857 decision. It involved Dred Scott, whose owners and him had lived for a time in areas where slavery was banned. He argued that that this made him free. However, the Supreme Court ruled in several ways:
- Scott was still a slave and did not have the right to initiate a lawsuit
- Congress had overstepped its bounds in the Missouri Compromise, as it did not have the authority to declare the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase territory off-limits to slavery.
- No African Americans, not even free, were entitled to citizenship because they were “beings of an inferior order”
The Dred Scott decision argued that slavery was a national, rather than a sectional, institution and that Congress could do little to stop it.
Beings of an Inferior Order
Characterization of African Americans in Dred Scott v. Sandford ruling.
Cotton Whigs and Conscience Whigs
Cotton Whigs - Pro-slavery
Conscience Whigs - Anti-slavery
These two factions bitterly divided the Whig Party, allowing the emergence of regional parties.
Republican Party (Pre-Civil War)
Identify:
- 5 factions
- Central Ideology
Formed by:
- Know-Nothing Party
- Conscience Whigs
- Free-soilers
- Abolitionists
- Former Democrats
Central to the Republican Party was the free labor ideology, which formed the basis of its anti-slavery arguments. It was not abolitionist, but rather posited that slavery should not be allowed to spread to new territories.
Slogan of John C. Fremont
“Free soil, free labor, free men, Fremont”
Election of 1856
Marked the end of the Second Two-Party System. The Whig Party dissolved and the Know-Nothing Party was divided over slavery, so the Republican Party emerged as a major party.
James Buchanan, a Democrat, won the election. He was picked because he was a Northerner with Southern sympathies.
Election of 1860
The Democrats were bitterly divided into a Northern and Southern Wing. The Constitutional Union was a third faction.
Lincoln, the Republican candidate, ultimately won the election.
Northern Democrats (Election of 1860)
Rallied around Stephan Douglas and popular sovereignty, but only carried Missouri and part of New Jersey.
Southern Democrats (Election of 1860)
Strongly endorsed slavery and carried the Deep South.
Constitutional Union (Election of 1860)
Final faction of the democratic faction that avoided the slavery issue, instead focusing on maintaining the Union. It won the upper South.
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Douglas won the senate seat, but Lincoln’s orating skills impressed the public. Lincoln repeatedly pressed Douglas on the slavery issue, but Douglas only put forward popular sovereignty.
Lincoln on Slavery
Originally had advocated for the American Colonization Society. However, when he ran for president, he indicated he would not nor could not tamper with slavery where it already existed. Instead, he promised to block its expansion to new territories in the West. He won 40 percent of the popular vote, but carried the electoral vote.
Southern Secession
Identify:
- Lincoln’s views on secession
Occurred primarily due to Lincoln’s anti-slavery stance. Mississippi’s secession reasoning began with “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery”. Lincoln did not originally want a war.
Fort Sumter (Charleston, South Carolina)
Spark that ignited the civil war. Th e Confederates decided it would not tolerate the presence of the US flag over Fort Sumter, so Davis ordered the bombardment of the force.
Jefferson Davis
President of the Confederate States of America.
Border States
States that were slave states, but did not formally secede.
Industrialization during the Civil War
Since the Union required an enormous amount of war materials, industrialization happened rapidly.
Captains of Industry
Manufacturers who came to dominate the economy during the last decades of the nineteenth century who began their economic rise by supplying the Union.
Gilded Age
Last decades of the nineteenth century - dominated by Captains of Industry.
Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, J.P. Morgan, Phillip D. Armour
Captains of Industry.
Legal Tender Acts
3 acts in 1862 and 63 that allowed the government to issue paper currency. These were only backed by the faith of the people in the government.
Greenbacks
Paper currency issued during the Legal Tender Acts.
National Banking Acts
Created a national banking system, allowing existing banks to join the system and to issue US Treasury notes as currency. It attempted to provide a degree of stability to the banking and currency system in the US during a period without a central bank.
Bonds During the Civil War
First time government appealed to the public to purchase bonds.
Income Tax During the Civil War
Introduced during the war. However, rates were kept modest due to public opposition. It expired in 1872.
Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company
1895 decision that declared a new income tax unconstitutional.
Sixteenth Amendment
Allowed Congress to levy taxes.
Enrollment Act
1863 act that established a military draft in NYC. It was met with protest, mostly due to a stipulation that allowed men to pay 300 dollars to make them exempt, a sum that was beyond most working-class men.
New York City Draft Riots
Identify:
- Targets
Occurred after protests over the Enrollment Act turned into riots. One target was African-Americans, who were accused of taking jobs from whites.
Writ of Habeas Corpus During the Civil War
Suspended by Lincoln, authorizing the arrest without due process of rebels and traitors. He was responding to riots and threats of militia action in Maryland.
Habeas Corpus Suspension Act
1863 law that supported Lincoln’s suspension of the writ of habeas corpus.
Ex Parte Milligan
1866 Supreme Court decision that stated that the suspension of habeas corpus did not empower the president to try and convict citizens before military tribunals, unless civilian courts were not operating.
Strengths of the Union
Identify:
- 4 strengths
Strengths:
- Far greater Population
- Greater Military Capacity
- More Diverse Economy
- Extensive Railroad Network
This meant that the Union could resupply its troops and recruit reinforcements.
Strengths of the Confederacy
Identify:
- Two strengths
The Confederacy only needed to fight a defensive war, since it did not have to invade and conquer the North in order to declare victory. This meant that the Union was fighting an offensive war.
The Confederates also had the South’s rich military tradition, meaning it had able generals and a cohort of military men to draw from.
Anaconda Plan
Intended to prevent supplies from reaching the South and prevent the South from exporting.
Three-Part Strategy of the Union
- Anaconda Plan
- Divide Confederate Territory in half by taking the Mississippi River
- March to Richmond (the capital) and declare victory.
First Battle of Bull Run
Confederate forces routed advancing Union troops, shattering hopes for a quick and easy war. The Confederacy held the advantage on the battlefield for the remainder of 1861 and throughout 1862.
Ulysses S. Grant
Led the Union Army starting 1864, after a series of failed generals.
Second Battle of Bull Run
Major Union defeat.
Battle of Fredericksburg
Major Union defeat.
Battle of Antietam
- Repelled a Confederate invasion. Although it is considered a Union victory, a more aggressive Union general may have inflicted heavier damage.
Merrimac and Monitor
First battle between two ironclad ships. It ended in a draw, but it paved the way toward the future of naval battles worldwide.
Blockade Runners
Fast steam-powered ships that could evade the Union blockade. However, transporting cotton on such ships was too expensive on the world market.
King Cotton Diplomacy
Confederate States embargoed selling cotton to Great Britain until Britain recognized the Confederacy and aided its war effort. However, this failed, since the Union blockade prevented the Confederacy from changing direction and selling its surplus cotton on the world market.
Negotiations between Secretary of State William Seward and Minister to Great Britain Charles Francis Adams
Great Britain would stay on the side-lines unless it was virtually certain that the Confederacy would become an independent nation.
Battle of Gettysburg
1863 battle that marked the turning point of the war. After Gettysburg, the Confederacy was in retreat.
Battle of Vicksburg
Major Union Victory in 1863. The Union gained the Mississippi River, cutting the Confederacy in two.
March to the Sea
Sherman’s march from Atlanta to Charleston which shattered the South’s last hope of negotiated peace.
William Tecumseh Sherman
March to the Sea.
Appomattox Courthouse
1865 surrender of Confederate States, marking the end of the Civil War.
Reason why Lincoln focused on Emancipation
He wanted to keep Great Britain from siding with the Confederacy. The British may have aided the Confederacy to ensure the steady flow of cotton, but the British people would not condone perpetuating slavery.
Key groups who helped emancipation efforts
Identify:
- 4 groups
Abolitionists, Radical Republicans, Free Blacks, Slaves
Confiscation Acts
Identify:
- Lincoln’s views on it
1861 and 1862. The first declared that any slaves pressed into working for the Confederacy would be considered “confiscated property” and “contraband of war”. The second act allowed for the seizure of slaves owned by Confederate officials
Lincoln was reluctant to take action against slavery before secession, but did not veto the acts.
Contraband of War and Confiscated Property (Confiscation Acts)
Used to describe slaves pressed into working for the Confederacy.
Emancipation Proclamation
Identify:
- Reason for timing
- Timeframe of ratification, and location of last area to be ratified.
1862 proclamation that came after the Union had achieved victory at the Battle of Antietam. It ordered the freeing of all slaves in rebel-held territory, but did not free slaves in the loyal border states or in Union-held areas of the Confederate states. While this did not free any slaves immediately, it changed the goal and tenor of the war to include emancipation of slaves as well as the preservation of the Union.
The Emancipation Proclamation was enforced and completed a month after the formal end of the Civil War, when Union troops had advanced into the last Confederate State (Texas), since it was the most far flung.
Second Inaugural Address (Abraham Lincoln)
Addressed Lincoln’s belief that the Civil War was divine punishment for the sin of slavery.
“That every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be paid for by the sword”
“All Slaves are Free”
Announced by Union General Gordon Granger, signifying the completion of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Juneteenth
Anniversary of “all slaves are free” proclamation, holding large significance in the African-American Community.
Gettysburg Address
1863 speech by Lincoln. It framed the Civil War as a test of whether a nation conceived around the principles of liberty and equality can last.
“Four Score and Seven Years”
Part of the Gettysburg Address. It referenced the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
“Conceived in Liberty”
Part of the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln claimed that this was the United States.
“A New Birth of Freedom”
Part of the Gettysburg Address. He asserted that it was up to the living to bring the principles of liberty and equality into fruition, ensuring “a new birth of freedom”.
Thirteenth Amendment
- It freed remaining slaves (some areas, such as Kentucky and Delaware, still had slavery since they never fell under Confederate control). It enshrined in the Constitution that slavery was illegal.
Fourteenth Amendment
Identify:
- 4 clauses
- Asserted that all people born in the US are citizens (birthright citizenship), or jus soli.
- The “privileges and immunities” of citizens shall not be abridged by states.
- No citizens shall be deprived of “life, liberty, or property without due process of law”
- Limited political power of former officials in the Confederate Government by disqualifying from federal or state office any former government official who had taken an oath to support the Constitution, and then afterward “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the US.
“Privileges and Immunities”
Fourteenth Amendment stated that this would not be abridged by states.
“Engaged in Insurrection or Rebellion”
Fourteenth Amendment clause that essentially limited office-holding capability of former Confederate officials.
Southern States on Fourteenth Amendment
Southern states were bitterly opposed to it, but were forced to approve it before they could regain representation in Congress.
Fourteenth Amendment on Dred Scott Decision
Reversed the decision by putting African-Americans on an equal footing and guaranteeing equality before the law.
Fifteenth Amendment
Identify:
- Relation to Fourteenth Amendment and why this amendment was needed
- Fourteenth Amendment did not grant African Americans the right to vote. It addressed this issue by stating that for each male inhabitant who was denied the vote, the state would be forced to deduct a whole person from its population count. Republicans hoped this would apply strong pressure on the states not to disenfranchise African Americans. However, Southern states still resisted extending the vote to African-American men.
The Fifteenth Amendment officially gave African-American men voting rights. This was a key element of the ideology of radical Republicans.
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendment on Woman’s Suffrage
Woman’s rights movements were disappointed by the Fifteenth Amendment, since it explicitly used the word “male”, the first time this was used. Before the Fourteenth Amendment, there was an element of ambiguity (they argued that the Constitution implicitly allowed women the right to vote by not denying it to them).
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony on the Fifteenth Amendment
Refused to support it, since it explicitly did not extend the right to vote to women.
Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell on the Fifteenth Amendment
Identify:
- Their proposed solution
Were disappointed by its failure to allow women to vote, but argued that it was important to support Reconstruction and the Republican Party. They instead argued for women’s suffrage on a state-by-state basis.
National Woman Suffrage Association
Established in 1869 by Stanton and Anthony.
American Woman Suffrage Association
Established in 1869 by Stone and Blackwell.
National American Woman Suffrage Assocation
Merger of the NWSA and AWSA after they reconciled over their differing ideology over the Fifteenth amendment.
Ten Percent Plan
Proposed by Lincoln in 1863 during Reconstruction. It asserted that if 10 percent of the 1860 vote count in a southern state took an oath of allegiance to the US and promised to abide by emancipation, then the state could establish a new government and send representatives to Congress. This was a low bar.
Wade-Davis Bill
Would have established more stringent standards for southern states to meet than the ten percent plan. It would have required half the voters in a state to sign a loyalty oath and promise equal treatment before the law for former slaves. Lincoln vetoed it in 1864.
“With Malice Toward None; With Charity For All”
Part of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, consistent with Lincoln’s broader goal of ending the war as soon as possible.
Andrew Johnson
Vice president of Lincoln, who assumed presidency after Lincoln was assassinated. His native state, Tennessee, had seceded, but he did not vacate his Senate seat. Although he had broken with the South, he had no affinity toward the Republican Party nor to the emancipation and equality of African Americans. He continued pursuing the lenient and rapid approach to Reconstruction as Lincoln had.
Johnson on the South
Allowed many members of the old slave-owning class to return to power, which in turn allowed these men to try to replicate the conditions of the Old South.
“Won the War, but Lost the Peace”
Used by Northerners in Reconstruction, since the South looked so similar to prewar conditions.
Black Codes
Identify:
- First state to pass them
- Response of Congress
Passed by Southern States immediately after the Civil war that regulated the activities of African Americans and in many ways recreated the conditions of slavery. For example, some permitted African Americans from owning land or starting a businesses.
Central to the Black Codes was the broad and harsh set of vagrancy laws, which allowed for the arrest of freed people for minor infractions. Punishments and violations involved forcing African Americans to labor on a plantation for a period of time.
Mississippi was the first state to pass Black Codes in 1865, and all other 10 states of the Confederacy followed suit.
In response to this, a group of Republicans in Congress initiated a more sweeping Reconstruction program, implementing much of it by overriding Andrew Johnson’s vetoes.
Freedman’s Bureau and a Civil Rights Act
Identify:
- How it affected relationship between Congressional Republicans and Andrew Johnson
Designed to overturn Black Codes implemented by states, causing tension between Andrew Johnson and congressional Republicans.
Andrew Johnson on the Fourteenth Amendment
He urged Southerners to reject it, and saw it as further congressional interference in Reconstruction. He was confident his allies would prevail in the 1866 midterm elections and the Fourteenth Amendment could be defeated.
1866 Mid-Term Elections
Johnson tried to mobilize skeptical white voters against the Fourteenth Amendment. However, Republicans won a resounding victory.
Radical Reconstruction / Congressional Reconstruction
A period of sweeping Reconstruction measures by a Republican Congress following the 1866 mid-term elections. It showed the potential of a biracial democracy while also showing the limits of federal resolve and the strength of southern white opposition.
Reconstruction Acts of 1867
Pushed through by Republicans. It passed over Johnson’s veto and divided the south into 5 military districts. These areas could only rejoin the US if they guaranteed basic rights to African Americans. However, this was not fully carried out.
Thaddeus Stevens
Introduced a bill in 1867 that proposed to redistribute land so that each freedman could be granted forty acres. Since this ran against the basic Republican value of protecting private property, this bill failed.
Tenure of Office Act
Prohibited the president from firing cabinet members without Senate Approval.
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
Tenure of Office Act was passed to protect him, as he was an ally of Congressional Republicans.
Impeachment Trial of Andrew Johnson
Occurred in 1868 after Johnson fired Stanton in clear violation of the Tenure of Office Act. The senate narrowly found Johnson not guilty, but the whole procedure rendered Johnson powerless to stop Congress’s Reconstruction Plans.
Democrats in Reconstruction Period
Mostly served in state legislatures, often as the minority.
Scalawags
Used to describe Southern white Republicans by Democratic opponents.
Carpetbaggers
Used by southern democrats to label Northern Republicans who sought personal advancement in coming south, many motivated by a desire to assist former slaves in their adjustment to a free life.
Hiram Revels and Blanche K. Bruce
Two African-Americans elected the US Senate in the 1870’s.
Howard University and Morehouse College
Schools established in the Reconstruction Period for the education of freed African-American community.
Redeemers
Southern Conservative Democrats who aggressively sought to regain power, state by state. They were aided by white terrorist organizations that used violence to silence African Americans.
Colfax Massacre
Both a Democratic candidate and a Republican candidate claimed governorship of Louisiana. The state board supported the Democrat, while a federal judge supported the Republican.
The Republican candidate and many African Americans occupied a courthouse to protect from attack. However, a group of white insurgents, largely KKK members, killed over a hundred African Americans before taking over the building.
United States v. Cruikshank
1873 Decision that greatly weakened Reconstruction. It ruled that the Enforcement Act of 1870 was unconstitutional.
Enforcement Act of 1870
Enabled federal authorities to protect the constitutional rights of African Americans from vigilante justice.
Election of 1876
Disputed Election. Neither candidate had enough electoral votes to be declared the winner. A special electoral commission declared Hayes to be the winner, but Democrats threatened to block Haye’s inauguration.
This was the formal end of reconstruction.
Samuel J. Tilden
Democratic Candidate in 1876 election.
Rutherford B. Hayes
Republican Candidate in 1876 election.
South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida (1876 Election)
Democrats and Republicans both claimed victory in these states.
Compromise of 1877
Hayes won the presidency, but had to end Reconstruction, paving the rule by the Democratic Party in the South.
Forty Acres and a Mule
Desire of many African-American workers, who were often hired by plantations in a stark resemblance to slavery.
Sharecropping System
African Americans paid half their yearly crop for rent. This was a compromise; African-Americans did not have to work under the direct supervision of an overseer, and white plantation owners could acquire cotton.
This system left African-Americans with very little for basic necessities, perpetuating a cycle of debt, preventing land ownership and wealth.
Jim Crow Laws
Passed in Southern States following Reconstruction. Jim Crow was an insulting term for African Americans, and thus these laws were applied to African Americans. These laws segregated public facilities and relegated African Americans to second-class status. These first appeared in the South starting in 1881.
Fourteenth Amendment on Jim Crow Laws
Jim Crow Laws sidestepped the Fourteenth Amendment. However, the Supreme Court interpreted “privileges and immunities” in such a narrow way that it allowed for the implementation of Jim Crow Laws.
Slaughterhouse Cases
1873 decision that made a distinction between national citizenship and state citizenship. The Court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment only applied to the right to vote and the right to travel between states, but did not apply to rights derived from “state citizenship”. As a result, the Fourteenth Amendment could not prohibit Jim Crow laws.
Civil Rights Cases
1883 Decisions that further narrowed the Fourteenth Amendment. It struck down the 1875 Civil Rights Act, holding that the Fourteenth Amendment did not apply to privately owned “public accommodations”, such as restaurants and hotels.
Plessy v. Ferguson
1896 decision that asserted that racial segregation did not violate the equal protection provision of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Methods to Exclude African-Americans from Voting
Literacy tests and poll taxes limited their ability to vote.
Grandfather Clause
Used by poor whites to get around the literacy tests and poll taxes. It stipulated that a man had the right to vote if he or his father or grandfather had the right to vote before the Civil War.
Whites Only Primaries
Used by the Democratic Party to exclude African Americans from the only elections that really mattered in the solidly Democratic South.
Ku Klux Klan
Organized in 1866 that targeted African Americans for lynching, as local authorities looked the other way.
