Reconstruction Terms APUSH

1865 - Agency set up to aid former slaves in adjusting themselves to freedom. It furnished food and clothing to needy blacks and helped them get jobs

Common form of farming for freed slaves in the South; received a small plot of land, seed, fertilizer, tools from the landlord who decided what and how much should be planted; landlord usually took half of the harvest.

To formally charge a public official with misconduct in office

period beginning in 1867, when the Republicans, who had control in both houses of Congress, took charge of Reconstruction. The Radical Republicans passed four Reconstruction Acts in 1868: (1) ratify the Fourteenth Amendment; (2) write new state constitutions that guarantee freedmen the right to vote; (3) form new governments to be elected by all male citizens including African Americans.

In 1866, Andrew Johnson's government passed laws to keep African-Americans from their inalienable rights. They deprived blacks of life, liberty or property without due process of law.

A Northerner in the South after the American Civil War usually seeking private gain under the reconstruction governments.

a temporary plan, also known as Special Field Orders, No. 15, issued by Union general William Tecumseh Sherman in 1865 that granted each freedmen family forty acres of tillable land on islands and the coast of Georgia. The army had a number of unneeded mules which were also granted to these settlers. Although the federal government had confiscated some Confederate lands and given them to freed slaves, it never did this on a massive scale.

A secret society created by white southerners in 1866 that used terror and violence to keep African Americans from obtaining their civil rights.

Race for the presidency between Republican Rutherford B Hayes and Democrat Samuel J Tilden. The decision of the winner came down to congress but no one knew which house should vote because the Senate was Republican and the House of Reps was Democratic. Congress created a Special Electoral Commission consisting of 5 senators, 5 House Reps, and 5 justices from the Supreme court. Votes went 8-7 in favor of Hayes.

Refers to the electoral support of the Southern United States for Democratic Party candidates for nearly a century from 1877 to 1964. There was democratic dominance in the south therefore, southern unity at the national level enabled resistance to any move by the federal government to impose racial policies in the south.

Proposed by Senator Charles Sumner and Representative Benjamin Butler in 1870, was passed by Congress in February of 1875 and signed by President Grant in March. It stated that all Americans, regardless of race, were entitled to the same treatment in "public accommodations" such as restaurants, theaters, trains, and other public transportation. However, this Act was not enforced and was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1883.

The first civil rights act in US history. It had little power. It was passed by congress over Johnson's veto. The Act stated all persons born in the US were citezens regardless of race. As citizens they could make and enforce contracts, sue and be sued, give evidence in court, and inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real and personal property.

An amendment that granted citzenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States and declared that no state could deprive any person of life, liberty, or property "without due process of law."

A few months before the Civil War would come to an end, William T. Sherman issued Special Field Orders, No.15 enabling former slaves to obtain small plots of land from abandoned plantations on the Sea Islands in Georgia. However, once Andrew Johnson was elected into the Presidency after Lincoln, during the Reconstruction period, he revoked this order and gave the land back to former owners.

A period after the civil war when Lincoln originally set up the Ten-Percent Plan stating that most Southerners could reinstate themselves if 10 percent of the voters pledged an oath of allegiance. After his assassination, Johnson added that the states must revoke their secession, accept the 13th Amendment, deny Confederate debt, and pledge loyalty to the Union.

In February 1869, the states were not allowed to deny the vote to anyone because of race, color, and previous servitude.