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Period: to
Period of 1863-1877
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Wade-Davis Bill
An unsuccessful attempt by the Radical Republicans and others in the U.S. Congress to set Reconstruction policy before the end of the Civil War. The bill was sponsored by Benjamin Wade and Henry Davis for the appointment of provisional military governors in the seceded states. -
Special Field Order 15
Set aside a large amount of land along the coast of South Carolina and Georgia for the settlement of only black families. -
Lincoln's Plan for Reconstruction
Abraham Lincoln's goal in the Reconstruction was to restore the Union from the earliest days of the war. He wanted to accomplish the goal as fast as possible and ignore the calls for punishing the South. -
President Lincoln's Death
The Assassination of President Lincoln took place on April 14,1865 when actor John Wilkes Booth entered the presidential box at Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C. He fatally shot President Lincoln. -
Freedman's Bureau
Freedman's Bureau, formally known as the Bureau of Refugees, Freedman and Abandoned Lands, was established in 1865 by Congress to help millions of former black slaves and poor whites in the South after the Civil War. It provided food, housing, medical aid, established schools, and offered legal assistance. -
The 13th Amendment
The 13th Amendment to the Constitution declared that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been dully convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." -
"Great Constitutional Revolution"
The laws and amendments of Reconstruction reflected the intersection of two products of the Civil War era—a newly empowered national state, and the idea of a national citizenry enjoying equality before the law. What Republican leader Carl Schurz called the “Great Constitutional Revolution” of Reconstruction transformed the federal system and with it, the language of freedom so central to American political culture. -
Civil Rights Act of 1866
The Civil Rights Act was passed by Congress on April 9, 1866. The act declared that all persons born in the United States were now citizens, without regard to race, color, or previous condition. As citizens they could make and enforce contracts, sue and be sued, give evidence in court, and have personal property. The people who disregarded the act would be charged with a fee no more than $1,000, no more than a year in prison, or both. -
Black Codes
Black Codes were restrictive laws designed to limit the freedom of African Americans and ensure their availability as a cheap labor force after slavery was abolished during the Civil War. Even though slavery was now illegal, freed blacks' status was still under question. Under black codes, many states required blacks to sign yearly labor contracts; if they refused they were arrested, fined and forced into unpaid labor. -
Radical Republican
Radical Republicans were during and after the Civil War, who were members of the Republican Party committed to the emancipation of the slaves and later to the equal treatment and enfranchisement of the freed blacks. -
Ku Klux Klan
Hate organizations that had employed terror in pursuit of their white supremacist agenda. The organization quickly became a vehicle for Southern white underground resistance to Radical Reconstruction. Members sought restoration of white supremacy through intimidation and violence aimed at the newly enfranchised black freedom. -
The Impeachment of President Johnson
The U.S. House of Representatives votes 11 articles of impeachment against President Andrew Johnson, nine of which cite Johnson's removal of Secretary of War, a violation of the Tenure of Office Act. The House vote made President Johnson the first president to be impeached in U.S. History. -
Reconstruction Acts
The Reconstruction Act outlined the conditions in which the Southern States would be readmitted to the Union following the Civil War. The bills were largely written by the Radical Republicans and in the U.S. Congress. -
The 14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment states, "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." -
The 15th Amendment
The 15th Amendment states, "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." -
Sharecropping
Sharecropping is 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. Sharecropping has a long history and there are a wide range of different situations and types of agreements that have used a form of the system. -
Enforcement Acts
The Enforcement Acts were three bills passed by the United States Congress between 1870 and 1871. They were criminal codes which protected African-Americans' right to vote, to hold office, to serve on juries, and receive equal protection of laws. -
Scalawags
Any Southerner who supported the federal plan of Reconstruction after the Civil War or who joined with the black freedman and the carpetbagger (q.v.) in support of Republican Party policies. The term is derogative. -
Slaughterhouse Cases
Slaughterhouse Cases are a legal dispute that resulted in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1873 limiting the protection of the privileges and immunities clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. -
Civil Rights Act of 1875
The Civil Rights Act of 1875 guaranteed African Americans equal treatment in public transportation and public accommodations and service on juries. The U.S. Supreme Court declared the act unconstitutional in the Civil Rights Cases. -
Bargain of 1877
The Bargain of 1877 was an informal, unwritten deal that settled the intensely disputed 1876 U.S. presidential election. It resulted in the United States federal government pulling the last troops out of the South, and formally ended the Reconstruction Era.
