APUSH Chapter 23

Freedmen’s Bureau

A US federal gov. agency that aided freed slaves during the Reconstruction era from 1865-1869. The Bureau was created by the Freedmen’s Bureau Bill and was initiated by Abraham Lincoln. Congress passed the bill for helping former slaves with food, housing, oversight, education, health care, and employment contracts with private landowners. Disbanded in 1871 under Ulysses S. Grant.

Ten Percent Plan

Abraham Lincoln’s plan for reinstatement of Southern states, called the 10% Reconstruction Plan. The plan decreed that Southern states could e re-admitted to the Union after 10% of the 1860 vote count from the state had taken an oath of allegiance to the US and to abide by Emancipation. This was the first step to re-admission for former Confederate states, and was meant to shorten the war by offering a moderate peace plan.

Andrew Johnson

(1808-1875) The 17th President of the US from 1865-1869, he succeeded Abraham Lincoln in the presidency. Johnson presided over the Reconstruction era, and his policies failed to promote the rights of Freedmen. He was much disliked by Republicans. He was impeached by the House of Representatives but the impeachment failed in the Senate by 1 vote. He was the first president to be impeached. The House of Representatives charged him with violating the Tenure of Office Act, when he wanted to remove his Secretary of War w/o senate approval.

Wade Davis Plan

Proposed in 1864, the Wade-Davis Bill was another plan for Reconstruction, and was proposed by two radical Reps. The Bill proposed that a state needed to have a majority of people take the Ironclad Oath, which was said the oath taker never supported the Confederacy in the past. The Bill passed both houses of Congress, but was pocket vetoed by Lincoln.

Black Codes

Put in place after the Civil War, the Codes haad the effect of limiting human rights and civil liberties of Blacks. Southern States passed the Codes to control labor, migration, and other activities of newly-freed Black Slaves. The Codes varied from state to state. The Codes continued to assume the inferiority of freed slaves and secure cheap labor.

Sharecropping

A system of agriculture where a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crop produced on land. After the Civil War, sharecropping was a widespread response to the economic upheaval caused by the emancipation of slaves and disenfranchisement of poor whites. Sharecroopping helped to maintain the status quo between Blacks and Whites.

Scalawags

The term "Scalawags" was a derogatory name used by Southerners as a name for Southern whites who supported Reconstruction. Scalawags took advantage of Reconstruction Laws of 1867. Black freedmen and Northerners teamed up with Scalawags to take control of local and state govs.

Carpetbaggers

A pejoritive term used by Southerners against Northerners who moved to the South during the Reconstruction era, between 1865 and 1877. The term suggested oportunism and exploitation by outsiders. In conjunction with Republicans, they are said to have politically manipulated and controlled former Confederate states for varying periods for their own financial and power gains.

Klu Klux Klan

A far-right white-supremacist hate-group originating in the South in the 1860s. They were a nativist group, and thus hated minorities. The KKK formed in 1865 was made up of former CSA soldiers. They aimed to intimidate Black voters and run Republicans out of office. They helped to put segregationist White Dems. in power in all Southern states by 1877.

Thirteenth Amendment

Officially abolished slavery amd involuntary servitude. Adopted in 1865, it was one of the first Reconstruction Amendments. Many saw the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 as a temporary war measure. The proclamation was a use of war powers, and thus did not officially abolish slavery.

Fourteenth Amendment

Adopted in 1868 as one of the Reconstruction Amendments, The 14th Amendment provided for a citizenship clause, which overruled the ruling of the Dred Scott case that held that Blacks could not be citizens. There was also a Due Process Clause where a person could not be deprived of life, liberty, or property and an Equal Protection Clause, where each state had to provide equal protection to all people within its jurisdiction.

Fifteenth Amendment

Adopted in 1870 as a Reconstruction Amendment, the 15th Amendment prohibited any government in the US from denying a citizen the right to vote based on "race, color, or previous condition of servitude".

Radical Republicans

Starting from about 1854, the radical Reps. lasted until the end of Reconstruction in 1877. The Radical Republicans strongly opposed slavery and strongly distrusted ex-Confederates. They demanded harsh policies for Reconstruction. The Radical Reps. opposed fellow parties and other Republicans. Radicals wanted uncompensated abolition of slavery and civil rights for freedmen. They initiated Reconstruction Acts and limited political and voting rights for ex-Confederates. Vigorously opposed by the Democratic Party.

Moderate Republicans

The Moderate saw Reconstruction as a practical matter of restoring states into the Union and keeping the former Confederates out of government. They favored states’ rights and opposed direct federal involvement in peoples’ lives. Lincoln was a Moderate Republican. Less extreme than the radicals in planning and views.