Glossary
13th Amendment
An amendment to the U.S. Constitution ratified in 1865 that officially abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime.
Example:
The passage of the 13th Amendment was a monumental step towards freedom, but its 'except as punishment' clause later enabled systems like convict leasing.
14th Amendment
An amendment ratified in 1868 that granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the U.S. and guaranteed equal protection of the laws and due process.
Example:
Despite the promise of equal protection under the 14th Amendment, Southern states quickly enacted laws like Black Codes to circumvent its intent.
15th Amendment
An amendment ratified in 1870 that granted African American men the right to vote, stating that suffrage could not be denied based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Example:
Despite the promise of the 15th Amendment, Southern states quickly devised methods like poll taxes and literacy tests to disenfranchise Black voters.
Black Codes
Restrictive laws passed by Southern states after the Civil War to control the labor, movement, and behavior of newly freed African Americans.
Example:
The Black Codes often prohibited African Americans from owning land or serving on juries, severely limiting their newfound freedoms.
Carpetbaggers
A derogatory term used by Southern Democrats for Northerners who moved to the South during Reconstruction, often seen as opportunistic outsiders seeking economic or political gain.
Example:
A Northern teacher who moved South to help establish schools for freedmen might have been scorned as a carpetbagger by resentful Southerners.
Compromise of 1877
An unwritten deal that settled the disputed 1876 presidential election, resulting in Rutherford B. Hayes becoming president in exchange for the withdrawal of federal troops from the South, effectively ending Reconstruction.
Example:
The Compromise of 1877 marked the official end of federal intervention in the South, leading to the rapid decline of African American civil rights.
Convict Leasing
A system in the post-Civil War South where states leased out prisoners, predominantly African Americans, to private companies for labor, often under brutal conditions.
Example:
The practice of convict leasing allowed Southern states to exploit Black labor, effectively creating a new form of involuntary servitude after slavery was abolished.
Credit Mobilier Affair
A major scandal during the Grant administration where insiders of the Union Pacific Railroad's construction company, Credit Mobilier, gave stock to Congressmen to avoid investigation of their inflated profits.
Example:
The Credit Mobilier Affair exposed widespread corruption in railroad construction and implicated several prominent politicians.
Cruikshank Case
An 1876 Supreme Court case that ruled the federal government could not prosecute individuals for violating the civil rights of African Americans, leaving enforcement to the states.
Example:
Following the Cruikshank Case, white supremacist groups like the KKK faced fewer federal consequences for their violence against Black citizens.
Enforcement Acts
A series of laws passed by Congress in the early 1870s to protect African American voting rights and suppress the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups.
Example:
The Enforcement Acts were initially effective in dismantling the KKK's power, but their impact waned as Northern support for Reconstruction faded.
Gold Market Scheme
A financial scandal during the Grant administration where Wall Street financiers attempted to corner the gold market with the help of Grant's brother-in-law.
Example:
The Gold Market Scheme highlighted the corruption that plagued parts of the Grant administration, even if Grant himself was not directly involved.
Grandfather Clauses
Provisions in Southern voting laws that exempted individuals from literacy tests or poll taxes if their ancestors had been eligible to vote before 1866 or 1867, effectively disenfranchising African Americans while allowing most whites to vote.
Example:
The Grandfather Clauses were a clear example of how Southern states found loopholes to maintain white political dominance despite the 15th Amendment.
Jim Crow Laws
State and local statutes enacted in the Southern and some border states from the late 19th to mid-20th centuries that mandated racial segregation in public facilities.
Example:
The widespread implementation of Jim Crow Laws meant that separate facilities, from schools to restrooms, were legally enforced for Black and white citizens.
Literacy Tests
Difficult and often subjective tests administered to prospective voters, primarily in the South, designed to prevent African Americans from exercising their right to vote.
Example:
Even educated African Americans were often failed on literacy tests by biased registrars, ensuring their exclusion from the ballot box.
New South
A vision for the post-Reconstruction South that emphasized industrialization, economic diversification, and a shift away from the agrarian economy of the antebellum period.
Example:
Proponents of the New South hoped to attract Northern investment and build factories, but this economic progress often occurred alongside continued racial inequality.
Poll Taxes
A fee required to vote, used in the post-Reconstruction South to disenfranchise poor African Americans and some poor whites.
Example:
Many formerly enslaved people, lacking economic resources, were effectively barred from voting due to the imposition of poll taxes.
Reconstruction
The period after the Civil War (1865-1877) focused on rebuilding the South, integrating formerly enslaved people into society, and readmitting Confederate states to the Union.
Example:
During Reconstruction, the federal government attempted to establish civil rights for African Americans, though these efforts faced significant resistance.
Scalawags
A derogatory term used by Southern Democrats for white Southerners who supported the Republican Party and Reconstruction policies, often viewed as traitors.
Example:
A white farmer who joined the Republican Party and advocated for Black suffrage might have been labeled a scalawag by his neighbors.
Sharecropping
An agricultural system where landowners allowed tenants to farm land in exchange for a share of the crops, often trapping formerly enslaved people in cycles of debt and dependence.
Example:
Many African American families found themselves in perpetual debt under sharecropping agreements, as they often had to borrow against future harvests for supplies.
Slaughterhouse Cases
A series of 1873 Supreme Court cases that significantly weakened the 14th Amendment by narrowly interpreting its 'privileges or immunities' clause, limiting federal protection of civil rights.
Example:
The Supreme Court's ruling in the Slaughterhouse Cases effectively allowed states to continue discriminating against their citizens without federal intervention.
Vagrancy Laws
Laws enacted in the post-Civil War South that criminalized homelessness and unemployment, forcing many African Americans into involuntary labor contracts.
Example:
Under vagrancy laws, a Black man without a job could be arrested and then forced to work for a white planter to pay off his 'fine,' resembling slavery.
Whiskey Ring
A scandal during the Grant administration involving federal revenue agents and liquor distillers who conspired to defraud the government of millions in tax revenue.
Example:
The Whiskey Ring demonstrated how corruption extended even to federal tax collection, further eroding public trust in the Grant administration.