Chapter 22 Terms and Definitions

Reconstruction: The 1865–1877 effort to reunite the nation after the Civil War and redefine the rights of formerly enslaved people.
Freedmen's Bureau: A federal agency created in 1865 to aid formerly enslaved people and destitute whites, notably by establishing schools across the South.
Andrew Johnson: Lincoln's successor as president, whose lenient Reconstruction policy toward the South clashed with Congress and led to his impeachment.
Black Codes: Restrictive laws passed by southern states after the war that severely limited the rights, labor, and movement of freedpeople.
Radical Republicans: The faction of Congress that demanded strong federal protections for freedpeople and harsher Reconstruction terms for the South.
Civil Rights Act of 1866: A law granting citizenship and equal rights to all persons born in the U.S., passed over Johnson's veto.
Fourteenth Amendment: The 1868 amendment granting citizenship and equal protection under the law to all persons born in the United States.
Fifteenth Amendment: The 1870 amendment barring the denial of voting rights based on race, color, or previous servitude.
Reconstruction Act of 1867: The law dividing the South into military districts and requiring Black male suffrage and ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment for readmission to the Union.
Impeachment of Andrew Johnson: The first presidential impeachment in U.S. history (1868), triggered by Johnson's violation of the Tenure of Office Act; he was acquitted by one vote.
Carpetbaggers: Northerners who moved to the South during Reconstruction, often to support Republican governments — a term used derisively by their opponents.
Scalawags: Southern whites who supported Republican Reconstruction governments, often scorned by fellow white southerners.
Ku Klux Klan: A white supremacist terrorist organization that used violence and intimidation to suppress Black political participation during Reconstruction.
Compromise of 1877: The political deal that resolved the disputed 1876 election by making Rutherford B. Hayes president in exchange for withdrawing federal troops from the South, ending Reconstruction.