1. Freedmen’s Bureau
An agency established by Congress in 1865 to aid freed slaves in the South during the Reconstruction era. It provided food, housing, medical aid, schooling, and legal assistance. It also attempted to settle former slaves on land confiscated or abandoned during the war.
2. American Equal Rights Association
Founded in 1866, this organization was created to advocate for the equal rights of all citizens, regardless of race or gender. It aimed to secure the right to vote for both African Americans and women.
3. Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction
Issued by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, this proclamation offered a full pardon and restoration of property (except for slaves) to Confederates who would swear allegiance to the Union and accept the end of slavery.
4. Scalawags
A derogatory term used during the Reconstruction era to describe Southern whites who supported Reconstruction and the Republican Party, often for personal gain.
5. Black Codes
Laws passed by Southern states after the Civil War aimed at restricting the freedoms of African Americans and ensuring their availability as a cheap labor force.
6. Carpetbaggers
A term used to describe Northerners who moved to the South after the Civil War, often perceived as exploiting the local populace for financial, political, or social gain.
7. Fourteenth Amendment
Adopted in 1868, this amendment granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, including former slaves, and provided all citizens with equal protection under the laws.
8. Sharecropping
An agricultural system that emerged in the South during Reconstruction where landowners allowed tenants to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on their portion of land.
9. Tenure of Office Act
A U.S. federal law enacted in 1867, intended to restrict the power of the President to remove certain officeholders without the Senate's approval. It was the basis for the impeachment of Andrew Johnson.
10. Exodusters
African Americans who migrated from the South to Kansas in the late 19th century, seeking economic opportunities and freedom from racial oppression.
11. Fifteenth Amendment
Ratified in 1870, this amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on "race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
12. Redeemers
A political coalition in the Southern United States during the Reconstruction era, who sought to overthrow the Republican coalition of freedmen, carpetbaggers, and scalawags.
13. Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK)
A secret society founded in the Southern United States in 1865, which used terrorist tactics to resist Reconstruction and maintain white supremacy.
14. Thirteenth Amendment
Adopted in 1865, this amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime, in the United States.
15. Force Acts
A series of laws passed by Congress in 1870 and 1871 to combat the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist organizations, protecting the constitutional rights of African Americans.
16. Compromise of 1877
An unwritten deal that settled the 1876 U.S. presidential election, resulting in Rutherford B. Hayes becoming president and the withdrawal of federal troops from Southern states, effectively ending Reconstruction.