PEOPLE

Susan B. Anthony

. Major leader of American suffrage movement

. Advocate of abolition and temperance

. Opposed giving suffrage to freedmen without also giving it to women

. Arrested for trying to vote, 1872

Frederick Douglass

. Runaway slave who became prominent abolitionist

. Leading figure in the American Anti-Slavery Society, founder of abolitionist publication North Star

. Also advocated for women's rights

Rutherford B. Hayes

. Republican President of the United States

. Fought in Civil War; supported Radical Reconstruction while in Congress

. Elected as part of the Compromise of 1877

. Withdrew federal troops from South (thus ending Reconstruction), 1877

Oliver O. Howard

. Chief commissioner of Freedmen's Bureau

. Founded Howard University

. Union general during Civil War

. Offered education and opportunities to blacks as head of Freedmen's Bureau, but undercut by President Andrew Johnson

Andrew Johnson

. Democratic Tennessee Governor, then Vice President and President of U.S.

. Selected as Lincoln's Vice President despite belonging to opposite party

. After Lincoln's assassination, oversaw failed Presidential Reconstruction, offering lenient terms to defeated southerners

. Impeached by House of Representatives, 1868

Abraham Lincoln

. First-ever Republican President of the United States, elected in 1860

. Oversaw Union victory in Civil War; issued Emancipation Proclamation in 1863

. Barely began Presidential Reconstruction before being assassinated, 1865

William T. Sherman

. Union general in Civil War

. Offered forty acres and a mule to freed slaves, before orders were countermanded by President Andrew Johnson

Thaddeus Stevens

. Pennsylvania representative, leader of Radical Republicans in Congress

. Felt both Lincoln and Johnson were not radical enough in Reconstruction reforms

. Pushed forward Civil Rights Act and Fourteenth Amendment

. Committed to racial equality in political rights

EVENTS

1863 Proclamation of Amnesty and

Reconstruction

. Lincoln issued standards by which rebel states could be readmitted to the Union following the Civil War

. So-called 10 Percent Plan required 10% of population to take "ironclad oath" of loyalty before state could re-enter the Union

1865 Sherman's Special Field Order 15

. William T. Sherman, commanding Union army occupying Deep South, issued proclamation seizing Confederate properties and distributing land in forty-acre plots to freedmen in Georgia and South Carolina

. Eventually countermanded by President Johnson

1865 Freedmen's Bureau Established

. Provided educational assistance and other opportunities for freed blacks

. Congress established Freedmen's Savings Bank in the same year

1865 Lincoln Assassination

. President Lincoln killed by southerner John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.

. Vice President Andrew Johnson became President, took control over Reconstruction

1865 Thirteenth Amendment

. Declared slavery unconstitutional

1865 Ku Klux Klan Founded

. White supremacist terror organization founded by group of Confederate Army veterans

. Served as paramilitary wing of Democratic Party in South, ensuring white power through violence and intimidation

1868 Fourteenth Amendment

. Guaranteed "equal protection of the laws" to all citizens, regardless of race

1870 Fifteenth Amendment

. Guaranteed right to vote to all men, regardless of race

1871 Ku Klux Klan Act

. Allowed individuals to sue states for private or public violations of their civil rights

. Designed to protect blacks from the KKK when local law enforcement authorities in South refused to press charges against white supremacists

. Major piece of Radical Reconstruction legislation

1875 United States v. Cruikshank

. Ruled that U.S. Constitution did not "confer right of suffrage upon anyone," despite Fifteenth Amendment

. First of series of Supreme Court decisions that undermined Reconstruction

1875 Mississippi Redemption

. Democrats returned to power, re-establishing white power in state government

. First Southern state government to expel blacks and Republicans from power

Compromise of 1877

. After close election resulted in Electoral College deadlock, Democrats agreed to allow Republican Rutherford B. Hayes assume presidency in exchange for promise by Republicans to withdraw Federal troops from South

. Marked end of Reconstruction

GROUPS

Radical Republicans

. Republicans in Congress who sought to use federal power to ensure equal treatment under the law for all races through Reconstruction

. Hated President Johnson's willingness to compromise with conservative southerners

. Leading figures were Sen. Charles Sumner, Rep. Thaddeus Stevens

Ku Klux Klan

. Secret white supremacist terrorist organization

. Attacked blacks, Republicans, northerners, foreigners, Catholics, Jews in South

. Blacks especially targeted for success or for trying to vote

. Destroyed after Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871; recreated in twentieth century

Scalawag

. Disparaging southern term for supporters of Republican Party

. Often subjected to insults and violence from southern Democrats

. Some genuinely wanted to help blacks; many merely supported Republicans because they wanted to industrialize South

Carpetbagger

. Disparaging southern term for northerners who moved into positions of authority in South during Reconstruction

. Often were Union officers trying to make profit

. Some had genuinely altruistic motives; some just wanted to get rich; most in between

Freedman's Bureau

. Tried to advance cause of blacks in South through education and social services

. Ultimately undermined by southern hostility, northern fatigue

CONCEPTS

Redemption

. Southern term for period when white southern Democrats regained control of local governments at conclusion of Radical Reconstruction

. Power gained and maintained through intimidation of blacks and Republicans

PLACES

Ford's Theatre, Washington, D.C.

. Playhouse where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by actor John Wilkes Booth in 1865