Semester 2: Test 1 Flashcards
Reconstruction
Lincoln had planned for an easy reconstruction (10%) loyalty but the radical republicans took over after his death and wanted a 51% loyalty vote.
Andrew Johnson
Lincoln’s Vice president, took office after Lincoln’s vice president. Wanted to continue Lincoln’s plan of reconstruction but failed to do so. Known as a Lame Duck president because he could never veto a bill without it being overridden. Charged with Tenure of Office but on vote short of impeachment.
Impeachment
Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body formally levels charges against a high official of government.
Tenure of Office Act
A United States Federal Law in force from 1867 to 1877 that was put in place to restrict the ruling of the president. It forbade the president from civil officials including the members of his own cabinet without consent from the Senate. It was innacted on March 3, 1867 over the veto of President Johnson.
Wade-Davis Bill
It was passed by Congress in July 1864. It authorized the president to appoint a provincial governor for each conquered state. When a majority of the white males of the territory pledged allegiance to the Union, the governor could summon a state constitutional convention. The delegates were to be elected by those that would swear by oath (Ironclad Oath) that they had never borne arms against the United States. The new state constitutions must abolish slavery, disenfranchise confederate military and civil leaders, and repudiate debts accumulated by the state governments during the war. Then the state would be readmitted to the Union.
Lincoln’s plan for reconstruction
Lincoln was fighting for preservation of the Union and not slavery so his reconstruction plan was not hard on the southern states. His plan which was announced in 1863 offered amnesty to the white southerners except the high officials of the confederacy who would have to pledge loyalty to the government and accept the end of slavery. He only required a 10% loyalty vote from each state to be readmitted to the Union. He also hoped to extend suffrage to African Americans who owned property, could vote, and had served in the Union army.
Radical Republicans
Wanted a harsher plan for reconstruction than Lincoln. Set up military districts from the conquered lands in the south. Ruled by Marshall law.
Freedman’s Bureau
A government agency set up to help freed slaves. It provided housing and schooling. However; the agency was not the most effective because there re was some corruption. The money did not always get used for the true purpose it was made for. High administrative costs kept the organization from being effecent.
Carpetbaggers
White men from the north also served as republican leaders in the south. Critics of reconstruction referred to them as “carpetbaggers” This depicts a penniless adventurer who arrived with most of their possessions in a carpet bag. Carpet baggers took advantage of southerners negatively affected by the war. For example, a carpetbagger might offer to buy a widow’s house for a cheap price and then sell it for a more expensive price.
Scallywags
(southern republicans) Southern people who were the equivalent of carpetbaggers, they took advantage of people who were negatively affected by the war.
Sharecropping
A form of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on their portion of land. Most freedmen and a growing minority of white people during reconstruction did not own their own land. Most of these people became tenants for rich people working their own plots of land and paying them with a share of the crops.
Jim Crow Laws
A way to keep freedmen less equal to white people.
Black codes
A way to keep freedmen less equal to white people. The same as it was before the Civil War. A list of laws created by southern state legislatures. The Black codes stated that freedmen could not loiter around and must have a job. They would be fined for vagrancy and hire them out to private employers to satisfy the fine. Some Black Codes forbade black people to own or lease farms or to take any other jobs other than domestic servants or plantation workers.
Purchase of Alaska
Bought from Russia in 1867. Secretary Seward accepted the offer from Russia to buy it for 7.2 million dollars. Many American’s considered Alaska a frozen wasteland and not worth buying. They called it Seward’s Folly
Westward expansion
Reconstruction was an age of westward expansion. Oregon was an ideal location because it had very good conditions for farming.
Lynchings
(of a mob) kill (someone), especially by hanging, for an alleged offense with or without a legal trial.
The worst such violence- lynching of blacks by white mobs, either because the victims were accused of crimes or because they had seemed somehow to violate their expected station- reached appalling levels, In the nation as a whole in the 1890’s, there was an average of 187 lynchings each year, more than 80 percent of them in the South.
Wagon Train
a group of settlers moving in wagons in a line. There safety in numbers. Indian attacks served as a threat and the wagons could circle up and provide a shield from arrows. A guide would also be in the front so it was easier to travel in a line
Oregon Trail
People going west in wagons. Oregon was ideal for farming but people were not always going to Oregon. People wanted to go west because there were more opportunities. Southerners were still recovering and moving west would give them a fresh start. More farming land was also a factor for moving west. Settlers who moved west lived in side houses because there wasn’t any other ways to build a house. There were no trees to build houses from. They lived as farmers
Chinese labor
Was used to build the Transcontinental Railroad because they were hard workers and worked for cheap.
Transcontinental Railroad
The first transcontinental railroad was finished in 1869. The railroads met in Promontory Utah and connected by a golden spike.
Homestead Act
This act of 1862 permitted settlers to buy plots of 160 acres for a small fee if the occupied the land they purchased for five years and improved it. It was intended as a progressive measure. It would be a form of government relief to people who otherwise might have no prospects.
Year of the greasy grass
What the natives called the Battle of Little Big Horn and the year of 1876 because there were so many bodies on the ground that it made the grass look greasy
Battle of Little Bighorn
1876, Battle in which General Custer was in charge. He wanted to attack the natives but he was warned to wait for reinforcements because there were many natives ready to fight. However, he did not wait and the battle was gruesome because of this. There may be only one survivor of this battle.
George Armstrong Custer
was the general that led the Battle of Big Horn. He was sent out west to take care of the problem of the native Americans. He was warned to wait for reenforcements before attacking the natives but he refused to believe that his troops were outnumbered. The battle was brutal and there was only one survivor.
Sitting Bull
Sitting Bull was a Hunkpapa Lakota leader who led his people during years of resistance to United States government policies. He was killed by Indian agency police on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation during an attempt to arrest him, at a time when authorities feared that he would join the Ghost Dance movement.
Geronimo
A native American leader of the apache
Ulysses S. Grant
prominent Union army leader during the Civil War and 18th president of the United States. He used “waving the bloody shirt” tactic to win votes. His administration was wracked with scandal however he still manages to get reelected in
