Significant People and Groups

Cartpetbaggers

• Nickname given by Southern newspapers to Northerners who came to the South during Reconstruction to help the freedmen 

• Main goal was to help the freedmen or business opportunities 

Freedmen

• His term was used to describe former slaves who were newly emancipated and needed to be incorporated into public life during Reconstruction

• How would four million people enter public life and the free market economy?

• Despite the promises after the war, the freedmen were not given their own land 

Scalawags : Southerners 

• “sell outs” who supported Reconstruction 

Ku Klux Klan

• After the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment, a Secret society formed by a former Confederates had the goal of terrorizing Southern blacks in order to deter them from exercising their full political and social rights

• Targeted teachers and local communities and used lynching to terrorize African Americans 

• 13th: no slaves 

• 14th: citizenship

Freedmen’s Bureau

• This agency was established by Congress in March 1865 to help former slaves adjust to freedom

• The Freedmen’s Bureau set up schools in the South to educate the Freedmen

Radical Republicans 

• This  group of Congress members believed that the South should be punished and that African Americans should be granted full political and civil equality 

• Responsible for passing the Civil Rights Bill to enlarge the Freedmen’s Bureau

• Also p[assed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 which prohibited discrimination based on race 

• Passed a bill to divide the South into 5 districts controlled by the Union Army with martial law

Abraham Lincoln

• This president promised a lenient plan for readmitting Southern states to the union, but was assassinated in April 1865 just after the war ended

Andrew Johnson

• Former slaveholder and did not consider African Americans as equals

• This president eventually pardoned many former Confederate leaders who became leaders in the government 

• He was responsible for allowing the South to pass Black Codes

• Which led to his eventual impeachment for failing to enforce the Congressional Reconstruction laws

Radical Republicans 

• This  group of Congress members believed that the South should be punished and that African Americans should be granted full political and civil equality 

• Responsible for passing the Civil Rights Bill to enlarge the Freedmen’s Bureau

• Also p[assed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 which prohibited discrimination based on race 

• Passed a bill to divide the South into 5 districts controlled by the Union Army with martial law