What branch of government is responsible for readmitting states that have seceded from the
Union?
the Constitution does not address this question
Describe Lincoln's Ten Percent Plan.
it specified that a state could return to the Union when 10% of its voters took an oath of loyalty to the Union
How was the Wade-Davis Bill of 1864 different from Lincoln's Ten Percent Plan?
it stipulated that new southern governments could be formed only by those who had not fought against the North in the Civil War
How did Abraham Lincoln respond to the Wade-Davis Bill?
he did not sign it and he opened talks with key congressional representatives to find a compromise solution
How did southern whites respond to the end of slavery?
by enacting black codes
Describe Johnson's Reconstruction Plan.
high-ranking Confederate leaders and wealthy southerners could request and expect to receive presidential pardons that exempted them from punishment
What was the Freedmen's Bureau?
created by Congress, it helped ex-slaves adjust to freedom and secure their basic civil rights
What was the Civil Rights Act of 1866?
asserted that all former slaves would receive equal protection under the law
Why did President Johnson veto the Freedmen's Bureau law and Civil Right Act in 1866?
these 2 pieces of legislation posed too great a challenge to his deeply racist views
What caused Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act in 1866?
the eruption of anti-black violence in various parts of the South
Describe Radical Reconstruction.
it aimed to reform the South and increase federal power
Who was Charles Sumner? Thaddeus Stevens?
they identified with the Radical Republicans
What was the official reason Congress cited for impeaching Andrew Johnson?
he infringed on the powers of Congress
What was the Fourteenth Amendment? Fifteenth Amendment?
gave citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the US; gave the right to vote to African American males
How did southerners avoid giving former slaves the right to vote?
pole taxes
Why was it necessary to add the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S.
Constitution?
the Constitution had condoned slavery and allowed states to set voting requirements
How did Elizabeth Cady Stanton respond to the denial of women's suffrage while freedmen and
immigrant men gained the right to vote?
she made a racist attack on the uneducated black men who could vote while educated white women could not
What did granting suffrage to African American males due to the women's movement?
split the women's movement
Describe the resettlement of former slaves in the South.
under Johnson's plan, ex-Confederates were allowed to recover their land, and freedmen were forced to work for them or leave
Why were many congressional leaders unwilling to consider breaking up plantations and
distributing plots for independent farms to freed slaves?
they hoped to restore cotton cultivation and the export of American cotton
Describe the status of African American women in the Reconstruction-era South.
freed women valued their new right to marry legally and their opportunity to create a stable family life
Why did many African American sharecroppers become trapped in a vicious cycle of debt after
the Civil War?
they could not pay the high prices and interest that whites charged as the price of cotton declined in the 1870s
Describe the sharecropping system.
most sharecroppers believed it was preferable to a wage labor system
What group composed the largest percentage of registered voters in Alabama and Mississippi in
the late 1860s?
Black Republicans
Define scalawags.
southern whites who supported Reconstruction and the Republican party
What was the purpose of Radical Reconstruction?
to achieve a new southern society in the North's image
What were the goals of Southern Republican state Reconstruction governments?
ending the sharecropping system
What was the Union League?
a secret organization that functioned as the grassroots wing of Radical Republicanism in the South
What achievements did the Republican state Reconstruction governments in the South make?
public education
What was one critical flaw of southern Reconstruction governments?
support of the convict leasing system
What became critical community institutions for African Americans throughout the South during
Reconstruction?
churches
Why was the Civil Rights Act of 1875 significant?
the legislation was the last congressional effort to address civil rights until the 1960s
What politician's death marked the waning of Radical Reconstruction?
Charles Sumner
Describe the Election of 1872.
the still disorganized Democratic party allied with the reform-minded Liberal Republicans
Who were Redeemers?
ex-Confederates who sought to return political and economic control of the South to white southerners after the Civil War
What was the goal of the KKK under the leadership of former Confederate general Nathan
Bedford Forrest in 1866?
to use any means to damage the Republican government of Tennessee
Why did Reconstruction end in 1877?
the North lost interest in the cause
Describe the Election of 1876. Why was it significant?
the Democratic candidate won the popular vote, but Republican officials in 3 southern states certified Republican victories, sending 2 sets of electoral votes to Congress; the outcome was determined by an electoral commission established by Congress
Why did Republicans nominate Rutherford B. Hayes for president in 1876?
he had won a reputation for honesty and appeared to be safe from charges of corruption