16. The Era of Reconstruction, 1865–1877

Key Terms

Black Codes

Discriminatory state laws passed across the South in 1865-1866 that restricted formerly enslaved people's civic rights and tied them to plantation labor in the absence of slavery itself.

Carpetbagger

A term of abuse for northerners accused of moving south during Reconstruction to profit from political power at former Confederates' expense.

Compromise of 1877

The informal 1877 agreement that awarded Rutherford B. Hayes the contested 1876 presidential election in exchange for the withdrawal of federal troops from the South, effectively ending Reconstruction.

Crop-Lien System

A credit system in which store owners advanced goods to farmers against a share of their future harvest, at high interest rates that trapped freed people in debt.

Freedmen's Bureau

A federal agency (1865-1872) created to assist formerly enslaved people and poor whites in the postwar South with food, housing, education, labor contracts, and legal disputes.

Ironclad Oath

The oath the 1864 Wade-Davis Bill would have required a majority of southern voters and officials to swear, affirming they had never supported the Confederacy.

Ku Klux Klan

A white-supremacist vigilante organization founded in Tennessee in 1866 that used terror, arson, and murder to stop Reconstruction and suppress Black political participation.

Radical Republicans

Northern Republicans in Congress who rejected Lincoln's and Johnson's lenient terms for the South and demanded stronger guarantees of Black civil and political rights.

Reconstruction

The post-Civil War process (roughly 1865-1877) of readmitting the former Confederate states to the Union and defining the citizenship and rights of formerly enslaved people.

Redeemers

Southern Democrats committed to overturning Radical Reconstruction and restoring white political control, who succeeded across the South by 1877.

Scalawags

A pejorative term for white southerners who supported Reconstruction and cooperated with Republican state governments, viewed by other white southerners as traitors.

Sharecropping

A postwar southern farm-labor system in which freed people rented land -- often on the same plantations where they had been enslaved -- and paid landlords with a share of the crop they grew.

Ten Percent Plan

Lincoln's 1863 proposal to readmit former Confederate states once 10 percent of their 1860 voters swore future allegiance to the Union and accepted emancipation.

Union Leagues

Fraternal organizations, originally founded in the North to promote Union loyalty, that expanded into the postwar South as political and civic clubs organizing Black voters for the Republican Party.

Civil Rights

Legal and political rights guaranteed to all citizens, at issue in Reconstruction-era debates over the status of formerly enslaved African Americans.

14th Amendment

Constitutional amendment passed during Reconstruction to guarantee equal protection and due process for all citizens, particularly addressing the rights of recently freed slaves.

Ku Klux Klan Violence

Systematic campaign of terror and intimidation against African Americans and their supporters during the Reconstruction era, aimed at maintaining white supremacy and undermining racial equality.

White Supremacy

The racist ideology that white people are superior to other races, used during Reconstruction to justify violent resistance to Black civil and political rights.

Civil War Aftermath

The period immediately following the Civil War, characterized by massive social, political, and economic transformation as the United States sought to reunify and address the consequences of slavery.

13th Amendment

The 13th Amendment, ratified in 1865, formally abolished slavery and involuntary servitude throughout the United States. This groundbreaking amendment represented the culmination of the abolitionist movement and marked a fundamental shift in American society, though its promise of complete freedom w

15th Amendment

Constitutional amendment prohibiting the denial of voting rights based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude, passed in 1870 as a key Reconstruction-era civil rights measure.

Reconstruction Acts

Series of federal laws passed in 1867 to govern the Reconstruction of Southern states, mandating political reforms and establishing conditions for readmission to the Union.

Civil Rights Act of 1866

First federal law to define citizenship and protect civil rights for recently freed slaves, passed over President Andrew Johnson's veto.

Emancipation of Slaves

The legal and practical process of freeing enslaved African Americans during the Civil War, culminating in the 13th Amendment and fundamental transformation of American society.

Political Struggles in the South

Intense political conflicts in Southern states during Reconstruction, characterized by struggles over governance, representation, and the fundamental restructuring of social and political systems.

Political Representation

The process of including marginalized groups, particularly African Americans, in political institutions and decision-making processes during the Reconstruction era.

Racial Integration

The complex process of breaking down racial barriers and creating more inclusive social, political, and economic institutions during the Reconstruction era.

Political Representation Challenges

The systematic efforts to undermine and restrict African American political participation during and after the Reconstruction era, including legal, social, and violent methods of voter suppression.