Ku Klux Klan

In 1866, Tennessee formed one of the most notable anti-black groups. They were against any power or rights a black might have. They were violent and often times they killed blacks "to keep them in their place."

Force Acts
These acts were passed in 1870 and 1871. They were created to put a stop to the torture and harassment of blacks by whites, especially by hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. These acts gave power to the government to use its forces to physically end the problems.

Tenure of Office
The Tenure of Office Act was passed by Congress in 1867 -stated that the president cannot fire any appointed officials without consent of Congress - Congress passed this act knowing that Johnson would break it - Johnson fired Stanton without asking Congress, thus giving Congress a reason to impeach him

Military Reconstruction Act

It divided the South into five military districts that were commanded by Union generals. It was passed in 1867. It ripped the power away from the president to be commander in chief and set up a system of Martial Law

Fifteenth Amendment
An incorporation of black suffrage into the federal Constitution. The Amendment was passed in congress in 1869 and was ratified by the required number of states in 1870. Before ratification, Northern states withheld the ballot from the black minorities. The South felt that the Republicans were hypocritical in insisting that blacks in the South should vote. The moderates wanted the southern states back in the Union, and thus free the federal government from direct responsibility for the protection of black rights.

Civil Rights Act

In 1866 the Civil Rights Act was created to grant citizenship to blacks and it was an attempt to prohibit the black codes. It also prohibited racial discrimination on jury selection. The Civil Rights Act was not really enforced and was really just a political move used to attract more votes. It led to the creation and passing of the 14th amendment.

Scalawags

Southerners who were former Unionist and Whigs who helped the radical Republicans in the South because they accepted the consequences of the war.

Carpetbaggers
During the reconstruction period after the Civil War this nickname was given to Northerners who moved south to seek their fortune out of the destruction.

10% Plan
This was Lincoln's reconstruction plan for after the Civil War. Written in 1863, it proclaimed that a state could be reintegrated into the Union when 10% of its voters in the 1860 election pledged their allegiance to the U.S. and pledged to abide by emancipation, and then formally erect their state governments. This plan was very lenient to the South, would have meant an easy reconstruction.

Moderate/Radical Republicans
Moderate republicans agreed with Lincoln's ideals. They believed that the seceded states should be restored to the Union swiftly and on the terms of Congress, not the President. The radical republicans believed that the South should pay dearly for their crimes. The radicals wanted to social structure of the South to be changed before it was restored to the Union. They wanted the planters punished and the blacks protected by federal power. They were against Abraham Lincoln.

Black Codes
The Black Codes were laws that were passed in the southern regimes in the south after the Civil War. The laws were designed to regulate the affairs of the freed blacks. They were aimed to ensure a stable labor supply and they sought to restore, as closely as possible, the pre-freedom system of racial relations. They recognized freedom and a few other rights, such as the right to marry, but they still prohibited the right to serve on a jury, or renting or leasing land. No blacks were allowed to vote.

Sharecropping
After the Civil War former landowners "rented" plots of land to blacks and poor whites in such a way that the renters were always in debt and therefore tied to the land.

Fourteenth Amendment
First called the Civil Rights Bill, then turned into the Fourteenth Amendment proposed by Congress and sent to the states in June of 1866.

Thaddeus Stevens
Thaddeus Stevens was a radical Republican congressman. He tried to impeach President Andrew Johnson in 1868

William Seward
Secretary of State under Lincoln who purchased Alaska in 1867 for $7.2 million. It was referred to as "Seward's Folly"

Freedman's Bureau 1865

It was to be a welfare agency. It provided food, clothes, and education to freedman and to white refuge. Union General, Oliver O. Howard founded the program. Taught 200,000 blacks to read, expired in 1872.

Andrew Johnson
What: President after Lincoln's assassination When: 1864-1868( president) Why: " An accidental president" who was an ex-Tennessee Senator. Johnson was Lincoln's vicepresident. He was a Southerner who did not understand the North, a Tennessee who had never been accepted by the Republicans, and a president who had never been elected to the office. Republicans feared that Southerners might join hands with Democrats in the North and win control of Congress. If the South ran Congress blacks might be enslaved once again.

Alexander Stephens
He was the vice-president of the Confederacy until 1865 when it was defeated and destroyed by the Union. Like the other leaders of the Confederacy, he was under indictment for treason.

Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner was the Senator for Massachusetts. He was a leading abolitionist. He spoke against slavery and openly insulted Butler in the wake of the Kansas-Nebraska crisis. Preston S. Brooks was offended by the insults and beat Sumner with a cane. Sumner had very serious injuries and had to leave for three and a half years to recover. Mass. reelected Sumner. This showed how emotional the North and South were and how close they were to war.

Oliver O. Howard

Head of the Freedmen's Bureau which was intended to be a kind of primitive welfare agency for free blacks. Later founded and served as President of Howard University in Washington D.C.