Ap Us History: Unit 5: Key Terms: Chapter 20

Front 1

“10 percent” Reconstruction plan (1863)

Back 1

Introduced by President Lincoln, it proposed that a state be readmitted to the Union once 10 percent of its voters had pledged loyalty to the United States and promised to honor emancipation.

Front 2

Black Codes (1865-1866)

Back 2

Laws passed throughout the South to restrict the rights of emancipated blacks, particularly with respect to negotiating labor contracts. Increased Northerners’ criticisms of President Andrew Johnson’s lenient Reconstruction policies.

Front 3

carpetbaggers

Back 3

Pejorative used by Southern whites to describe Northern businessmen and politicians who came to the South after the Civil War to work on Reconstruction projects or invest in Southern infrastructure.

Front 4

Civil Rights Bill (1866)

Back 4

Passed over Andrew Johnson’s veto, the bill aimed to counteract the Black Codes by conferring citizenship on African Americans and making it a crime to deprive blacks of their rights to sue, testify in court, or hold property.

Front 5

Ex parte Milligan (1866)

Back 5

Civil War Era case in which the Supreme Court ruled that military tribunals could not be used to try civilians if civil courts were open.

Front 6

Fifteenth Amendment (ratified 1870)

Back 6

Prohibited states from denying citizens the franchise on account of race. It disappointed feminists who wanted the Amendment to include guarantees for women’s suffrage.

Front 7

Force Acts (1870-1871)

Back 7

Passed by Congress following a wave of Ku Klux Klan violence, the acts banned clan membership, prohibited the use of intimidation to prevent blacks from voting, and gave the U.S. military the authority to enforce the acts.

Front 8

Fourteenth Amendment (ratified 1868)

Back 8

Constitutional amendment that extended civil rights to freedmen and prohibited States from taking away such rights without due process.

Front 9

Freedmen’s Bureau (1865-1872)

Back 9

Created to aid newly emancipated slaves by providing food, clothing, medical care, education and legal support. Its achievements were uneven and depended largely on the quality of local administrators.

Front 10

Ku Klux Klan (founded 1866)

Back 10

White paramilitary organization whose members, cloaked in sheets to conceal their identities, terrorized freedmen and sympathetic whites throughout the South after the Civil War. By the 1890s, Klan-style violence and Democratic legislation succeeded in virtually disenfranchising all Southern blacks.

Front 11

Pacific Railroad Act (1862)

Back 11

Helped fund the construction of the Union Pacific transcontinental railroad with the use of land grants and government bonds.

Front 12

Reconstruction Act (1867)

Back 12

Passed by the newly-elected Republican Congress, it divided the South into five military districts, disenfranchised former confederates, and required that Southern states both ratify the Fourteenth Amendment and write state constitutions guaranteeing freedmen the franchise before gaining readmission to the Union.

Front 13

Redeemers

Back 13

Southern Democratic politicians who sought to wrest control from Republican regimes in the South after Reconstruction.

Front 14

scalawags

Back 14

Derogatory term for pro-Union Southerners whom Southern Democrats accused of plundering the resources of the South in collusion with Republican governments after the Civil War.

Front 15

Seward’s Folly (1867)

Back 15

Popular term for Secretary of State William Seward’s purchase of Alaska from Russia. The derisive term reflected the anti-expansionist sentiments of most Americans immediately after the Civil War.

Front 16

Tenure of Office Act (1867)

Back 16

Required the President to seek approval from the Senate before removing appointees. When Andrew Johnson removed his secretary of war in violation of the act, he was impeached by the house but remained in office when the Senate fell one vote short of removing him.

Front 17

Union League

Back 17

Reconstruction-Era African American organization that worked to educate Southern blacks about civic life, built black schools and churches, and represented African American interests before government and employers. It also campaigned on behalf of Republican candidates and recruited local militias to protect blacks from white intimidation.

Front 18

Wade-Davis Bill

Back 18

Passed by Congressional Republicans in response to Abraham Lincoln’s “10 percent plan”, it required that 50 percent of a state’s voters pledge allegiance to the Union, and set stronger safeguards for emancipation. Reflected divisions between Congress and the President, and between radical and moderate Republicans, over the treatment of the defeated South.

Front 19

Woman’s Loyal League (1863-1865)

Back 19

Women’s organization formed to help bring about an end to the Civil War and encourage Congress to pass a constitutional amendment to prohibiting slavery.