Reconstruction Vocabulary Information:

Students can use the following site to create study flash cards:

http://quizlet.com

Below are the terms as provided to students:

Reconstruction Terms

FREEDMEN-  Ex-slaves, men and women had been slaves prior to 1865.

RECONSTRUCTION- 1865-1877 era that included rebuilding the South, readmitting southern states back into the Union and including freedmen into American society.

WADE DAVIS BILL- A plan to re-admit southern states back into the Union that called for:

1.    A majority of white male voters to take a loyalty oath to the U.S.

2.    Confederates could not vote or hold office

Lincoln refused to sign it.

FREEDMEN’S BUREAU- A government agency that was set-up to help former slaves.  It provided food, clothing, and education.

TEN PERCENT PLAN- Lincoln’s plan for Reconstruction (1863).  This plan was lenient toward the South.  Once 10% of the voters of a state pledged loyalty to the Union that sate could reenter.  His plan also offered amnesty (a pardon) to those Confederates who swore loyalty to the Union.

CIVIL WAR AMENDMENTS:

         13^th Amendment-  (1863) Abolished slavery in the U.S.

         14^th Amendment-   (1868)  Protected the rights of African-Americans        

        as CITIZENS in the U.S.

15^th Amendment- (1870) Protected the right of African-American men                                            to vote in the U.S.

RADICAL REPUBLICANS- A group of Republicans who wanted to control Reconstruction and wanted to punish the South.

BLACK CODES- Laws that severely limited the rights of freedmen. (i.e. could not serve on jury, own gun, vote or assemble)

RADICAL RECONSTRUCTION- When Radicals took power of Reconstruction they dismissed Johnson’s Plan (1867) It called for a writing of new state constitutions, ratification of the 14^th Amendment, AA’s must be able to vote and the South was divided into 5 military districts controlled and monitored by US generals.

SCALAWAGS- White Southern Republicans.

CARPETBAGGERS- Northerners who went to the South to participate in Reconstruction governments.  Some went for the rich land where some went to simply help the freedmen.

KKK- (Ku Klux Klan) A terrorist group formed during this period.  The KKK used violence and intimidation to keep African Americans and white Republicans out of office.  They believed the South should remain a white man’s world.

SHARECROPPERS- Freedmen and poor whites who went and worked on plantations as they rented, farmed and plotted land.  Sharecroppers remained poor as they barely made enough to survive.  They had to pay back the plantation owner most of their crop and profit.

POLL TAX- Required voters to pay a fee to vote.  Attempt at keeping AA’s from voting.

LITERACY TEST- Voters needed to read and answer questions on a passage before voting.

GRANDFATHER CLAUSE- Said that if your father or grandfather did voted prior to 1867 then you did not have to take a literacy test.  Ensured that white men could vote.

SEGREGATION- Legal separation of the races.

JIM CROW LAWS- Laws that separated the races in the South.  (Laws separated restaurants, bathrooms, streetcars, hospitals, schools etc..)

PLESSY V FERGUSON- (1896) Supreme Court ruled in a decision that segregation was legal as it held up “SEPARATE BUT EQUAL” As long as facilities were equal states could separate the races.  This decision was held up until 1954.