| A | B |
|---|
| Reconstruction | the reorganization and rebuilding of the former Confederate states after the Civil War |
| amnesty | the act of granting a pardon to a large group of people |
| Thaddeus Stevens | a Radical Republican Representative from Pennsylvania that wanted to revolutionize the South |
| Radical Republicans | resisted Lincoln's plan for Reconstruction-they wanted to prevent Confederate leaders from returning to power, the Republican Party to become a powerful institution in South, & African Americans to have political equality by guaranteeing their right to vote |
| Wade-Davis Bill | required the majority of the adult white men in a former Confederate state to take an oath of allegiance to the Union, the state could then hold a constitutional convention to creat a new state government to abolish slavery, reject debts by Confederacy, and prevent former Confederates from voting or holding office |
| pocket veto | indirectly vetoing a bill by letting a session of Congress expire without signing the bill |
| freedmen | persons freed from slavery |
| Freedman's Bureau | fed and clothed war refugees in the South using surplus army supplies and helped formerly enslaved people find work on plantations, educated former slaves |
| black codes | laws passed in the South just after the Civil War aimed at controlling freedmen and enabling plantation owners to exploit African American workers |
| Civil Rights Act | passed by Congress to override the black codes-granted citizenship to all persons born in the US except Native Americans, allowed African Americans to own property & treated equally in court, federal government had power to sue that violated these rights |
| Fourteenth Amendment | granted citizenship to all person born or naturalized in US, declared that no state could deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, and no state could deny any person equal protection of the laws |
| Military Reconstruction Act | passed by Congressional Republicans in 1867 which divided the former Confederacy(except Tennessee) into five military districts and each district had a Union general in charge |
| Tenure of Office Act | required the Senate to approve the removal of any government official whose appointment had required the Senate's consent |
| impeach | to formally charge a public official with misconduct in office("high crimes and misdemeanors" |
| carpetbagger | name given to many Northerners who moved to the South after the Civil War and supported the Republicans |
| scalawag | name given to Southerners who supported Republican Reconstruction of the South |
| Joseph Rainey | first African American elected to the United States House of Representatives(1870)-he was born to enslaved parents that bought their freedom |
| Hiram Revels | first African American elected to the United States Senate(1870)-he was born to free parents in North Carolina |
| graft | the acquisition of money in dishonest ways, as in bribing a politician |
| Ku Klux Klan Act | outlawed activities of the Ku Klux Klan-arrests were made by local authorities and federal agents |
| "sin tax" | federal tax on alcohol and tobacco |
| Horace Greeley | influential newspaper publisher and presidential nominee by the Liberal Republicans in 1872-against men in public office that made money & sold influence |
| "Whiskey Ring" | scandel in 1875 under President Grant where a group of government officials and St. Louis distillers filed false tax reports cheating the government of millions of dollars |
| Panic of 1873 | fear from economic crisis where banks closed, the stock market plummetted, thousands of businesses shut down, and tens of thousands of Americans were out of work |
| Compromise of 1877 | to settle the presidential election of 1876 Southern Democrats joined the Republicans in accepting the ruling of the special Congressional commission-Hayes was the winner and he pulled all federal troops from the South ending Reconstruction |
| tenant farmer | farmer who works land owned by another and pays rent either in cash or crops |
| sharecropper | farmer who works land for an owner who provides equipment and seed and receives a share of the crop |
| furnishing merchant | merchant who provides sharecroppers with supplies on credit at high interest rates |
| crop lien | obligation placed on a farmer to repay a debt with crops |
| debt peonage | condition of sharecroppers who could not pay off their debts and therefore could not leave the property they worked |
| buffalo soldiers | freed African Americans that served in the US Cavalry after 1866 and were stationed in the southwestern US |
| Command of the Army Act | required all orders from the president to go through the headquarters of the general of the army which was Grant's headquarters |
| Fifteenth Amendment | declared that the right to vote "shall not be denied...on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude" |
| Ku Klux Klan | started in 1866 by former Confederate soldiers to drive Union troops & carpetbaggers from the South and regain control of the South for the Democratic Party |
| William Belknap | impeached Secretary of War under President Grant that accepted bribes from merchants operating at army posts in the West |
| Rutherford B. Hayes | former governor of Ohio nominated for president by the Republicans in 1876 |
| Samuel Tilden | a wealthy corporate lawyer and former governor of New York nominated for president by the Democrats in 1876-won 184 electoral votes, 1 short of majority |
| New South | term started by Henry Grady, stating that the region had to develop a strong industrial economy |
