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Reconstruction Pt. 2

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Vocabulary

Sharecropping: A system where farmers receive supplies and land in exchange for providing a share of the crop to the landowner

Redeem: to recover or make amends for

Exempt: freed from responsibility

Segregation: the enforced separation of people, specifically on the basis of race

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Impeachment

  • Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act which limited the power of the President by requiring him to secure approval from the Congress
  • President Johnson did not abide by the rule - firing one of his cabinet members and Congress voted to impeach him
  • He was tried but acquitted by one vote - He did not run for reelection

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Election of 1868

  • Ulysses S. Grant was elected President with support from Republicans in the North and newly freed men in the South
  • African Americans turned out in high numbers to vote and Republicans feared that Southern States would try to limit their voting
  • Congress proposed the 15th Amendment which made it illegal to deny citizens the right to vote based on race

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Life for Former Slaves

  • Hiram Revels became the first African American in the U.S. Senate and Blanche K. Bruce became the second black senator
  • However, most former slaves stayed poor and resorted to contract work on plantations or sharecropping
  • Sharecropping: Farmers receive supplies and land in exchange for providing a share of the crop to the landowner (this often time forced farmers into a lifetime of debt to those who owned the land)

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Ku Klux Klan

  • The KKK was organized in Tennessee in 1866 with the purpose of opposing civil rights
  • Members of the KKK wore disguises, covered their faces, and attacked individuals
    • Lynching: Executing someone, usually by hanging, without a trial
  • Local authorities typically turned a blind eye but Congress signed the Force Acts which allowed the military to enforce the 14th Amendment
  • This helped destroy the KKK until it was resurrected in the 1920s

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Panic of 1873 & Compromise of 1877

  • A financial firm went bankrupt which set off a major economic depression
  • The Compromise of 1877 essentially ended the period of Reconstruction
    • The election between Hayes and Tilden was disputed due to electoral votes from the newly reconstructed states
    • Compromise of 1877: Hayes would become President but federal troops would leave the South and provide Southerners with aid for public projects

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Southern Redemption

  • Those who took control of the South became known as “Redeemers” - Their goal was to decrease taxes, decrease the size of government, and decrease racial equality
  • They created Poll taxes - which required people to pay money to vote - and literacy tests - which required a certain level of literacy to vote
  • The purpose of these measures was to make it difficult for former slaves to participate in the government because most white men were exempt from the tax and literacy test
  • Many Southern States passed “Jim Crow Laws” which kept black citizens and white citizens separate

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Jim Crow Laws

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Jim Crow Laws

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Plessy v. Ferguson

  • Homer Plessy rode in a whites-only, segregated railroad car and was arrested
  • He sued the railroad company but Congress ruled that segregation was legal as long as facilities for blacks were “separate but equal”

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