Reconstruction Era Flashcards
What is the 13th amendment?
Abolished American slavery - except in prisons
What is the 14th amendment?
Defines citizenship; guarantees all citizens
“equal protection of the laws”
What is the 15th amendment?
Guarantees that right to vote cannot be denied
on basis of race
Who were the freedman?
People who did not have food, housing, jobs and medical supplies.
Who was President Andrew Johnson?
He was the man who became the president after President Lincoln was assassinated
(shot and killed).
○ He was a southerner.
What was Johnson’s Presidential Plan for Reconstruction?
Remember - the President is the executive branch of the government.
○ Reconstruction - building the nation again by bringing the South back into the
Union/America, this time without slavery.
○ The Presidential Plan pardoned the Confederate leaders.
○ It required that only 10% of voters in each southern state promise loyalty to the
Union (America).
○ It instructed each state to form a new government and constitution.
○ It ratified (approved) the 13th Amendment which abolished slavery.
○ The Presidential Plan was racist because it gave more power to the white
Southerners while doing little to protect the Freedmen.
○ The Presidential Plan led to the creation of the Black Codes.
What were the black codes?
These racist laws were called Black Codes.The Black Codes made it difficult for
African-Americans because they stopped or made it difficult for freed people to
vote, travel without a pass, change jobs, etc.
Who were the Radical Republicans?
They were a group of senators and representatives (Congress) who consisted
primarily of Black southerners and White northerners.
○ Radical Republicans included Black senators elected by newly freed
African-Americans.
What was the Radical Republicans’ Congressional Plan for Reconstruction?
Remember - Congress is the legislative branch of the government that makes
the laws.
■ Reconstruction - building the nation again by bringing the South back into
the Union/America.
■ Former Confederate leaders are not allowed to vote or hold office
■ Union army was sent to the South to prevent an all white government
■ New state constitutions will be made by both black and white Americans
■ Southern states must approve the 14th Amendment (citizenship)
■ Southern states formally approve the 15th Amendment (vote)
What was the Freedmen’s Bureau?
The Freedmen’s Bureau was created by Congress to help Southern Black and White
citizens in need after the South was destroyed at the end of the Civil War.
○ The Freedmen’s Bureau helped African-Americans in the following ways:
■ Provided education, reuniting families, marriage, medication and legal advice
& protection (basic needs).
■ Gave them food, clothing and shelter
■ Schools: Freedman’s School and Colleges
■ Medicine: Hospitals
■ Made them feel a little bit more equal, but not completely.
■ Advance them in life and set them up for the future with jobs and job
contracts.
Who were sharecroppers?
After the Civil War, freed men and women had no money, no land, and very few
skills. Many of them became sharecroppers which was similar to slavery in ways.
○ Sometimes they worked on the same plantations owned by their former
slaveholders.
○ Sharecroppers farmed on land they rented from a landlord, in exchange for a
share of the crop they produced.
○ Because sharecroppers needed to borrow money for necessities like tools and food,
they seldom were able to make or save any money and usually went into debt.
Who were the carpetbaggers?
Carpetbaggers were Northerners who went to work in the South after the Civil War.
What is the Ku Klux Klan?
he Ku Klux Klan is an organization formed in 1865 during Reconstruction, right
after the Civil War, that terrorized Black people in the South.
○ The goals of the Ku Klux Klan are:
■ Protecting White women
■ Maintaining White supremacy
■ Honoring the achievements of their fathers and the Confederacy,
■ Protecting the rights and privileges of White people
○ The Ku Klux Klan terrorized Black people in the following ways:
■ Violent attacks on men, women, and children
■ Hanging / lynching
■ Fire/Burning crosses and burning down homes
■ Murder
What is the compromise of 1877?
In 1876 there was a presidential election between Mr. Tilden and Rutherfor Hayes
○ Mr. Tilden was a Democrat which meant he supported and wanted to help White
Southerners keep power and terrorize freedmen in the South.
○ Mr. Hayes was a Republican which meant he at first wanted to help the freedmen
and have political power in the South shared between White and Black men.
○ The election was very close because of voter intimidation in the South.
■ Voter intimidation - this is when people are threatened and attacked to
either stop them for voting or their votes are changed to another person.
■ Some voter intimidation strategies used were: poll taxes, literacy tests, and
using the “Grandfather Clause”.
■ The South threatened to secede (leave the country and start another Civil
War) if Hayes won the election.
■ So when Hayes did win, he agreed to remove the US army stationed in the
South.
■ He compromised because he did not want another war. However, this
compromise sacrificed the safety and well-being of about 30 million Black
Americans.
■ When the Union Army left, the South made sure the southern government
was all white by preventing Freedmen from voting using voter intimidation.
■ The South then created Jim Crow Laws which ended Reconstruction and
kept Black and White people separate and unequal
What was the 10% plan?
-10% voters
swear loyalty
to Union.
-Must abolish
slavery.
-Amnesty to
government
Officials who
swear loyalty
