Reconstruction Flashcards
(45 cards)
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democrats got all remaining military forces withdrawn from the South and they resumed control in the South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)
