Reconstruction Flashcards
(17 cards)
Reconstruction
The period of rebuilding the south and readmitting southern states into the union.
Amnesty
Forgiveness of any crimes committed in front of a large group of people.
Abraham Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan
President Lincoln offered the first plan for bringing Southern states back into the Union in December 1863. Lincoln’s plan required voters in each Southern state to take an oath of loyalty to the Union. When 10% of the voters in a state had taken the oath, the state could form a new state government. The state would also be required to adopt a new constitution that banned slavery. Once a state had met these conditions, it could send representatives to Congress.
Why were radical republicans considered radical?
They were considered radical because they had a “radical” approach to Reconstruction. Radical leader Thaddeus Stevens said that Southern institutions “must be broken up and relaid, or all our blood and treasure have been spent in vain.” The Radicals were powerful.
Freedmen
An emancipated slave
Freedmen’s bureau
It provided food, clothing, and medical care to poor, it set up schools for the poor, some with teachers from the north, and it helped some people get their own land to farm or find work for fair pay.
John Wilkes Booth
The assassin of Abraham Lincoln. He was also a supporter of the confederacy who was upset when the union was reunited.
Andrew Johnson
Lincoln’s vice president. When Lincoln was killed, he became president.
Johnson’s Reconstruction plan
This plan did require that Southern states outlaw slavery before they could rejoin the Union. They also had to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution. These newly reformed states were now ready to rejoin the Union.
13th Ammendment
Passed by Congress in January 1865, this abolished slavery in the United States.
Black codes
Laws that were designed to help control the newly freed African Americans
Civil Rights Act of 1996
It passed a bill that gave the Freedmen’s Bureau new powers. The Bureau could now set up special courts to try persons charged with violating African Americans’ rights. African Americans could sit on the juries in these courts and judge accused white Southerners.
Two main goals of the Radical Republicans in their approach to Reconstruction
They wanted to counter the Supreme Court decision in the 1857 case Dred Scott v. Sandford. They also wanted to deal with the south in a creative way.
14th Ammendment
It gave citizenship to everyone born in the United States which included former slaves.
Radical Republicans’ Reconstruction Act of 1867
It was used to separate the south into 5 military districts with a general in charge of each of them. The 13 and 14th amendments were written.
Impeachment
To formally charge someone with wrongdoing.
Why did congress impeach Johnson?
He abused his power as commander in chief, had many conflicts with the Radical Republicans, and fired Stanton.
