Reconstruction Study Guide
1. Know the following vocab:
a. Scalawags: nickname for a native white Louisiana Republican during Reconstruction
b. Carpetbaggers: a Northerner who came to or stayed in the South after the Civil War for
political or financial gain
c. Repudiate: to refuse pay
d. crop lien system: a farming system in which the farmer borrowed money from a lender and
paid it back by giving the lender a portion of the harvest
e. freedmen’s bureau: a government agency set up to assist freedmen and poor whites
f. disenfranchise: to deprive of voting rights
g. black codes: laws passed during Reconstruction to restrict the rights of blacks
h. reconstruction: the period after the Civil War during which former Confederate states were
brought back into the Union
2. The KKK and the Knight’s of White Camellia sent messages to Republicans and other former union
sympathizers through acts of terror.
3. Warmoth’s State Returning Board was a state agency designed to prevent election fraud. It made
voters distrustful of government because it could claim fraud for just about anything and throw
out votes from precincts that did not vote Republican.
4. The Radical Reconstruction Act was passed because congress was unhappy with President
Johnson’s Reconstruction tactics.
5. The 13th amendment abolished slavery.
6. Civil War veterans blamed Republicans for the destruction in the south.
7. The Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction.
8. Freedmen supported the Republican party after the Civil War.
9. The Black Codes were used so the white population could keep control over the freed slaves.
10. The Battle of Liberty Place was an act of violence against the New Orleans Metropolitan Police by
the White League.
11. The Colfax Riot began when freedman seized the parish courthouse.
12. Know the differences between Presidential and Congressional Reconstruction. (The t-chart on
your Reconstruction notes sheet)
13. Carpetbaggers received their name from their luggage that was made from carpet-like material.
14. Andrew Johnson became president after Lincoln’s assassination.
15. P.B.S. Pinchback was the first African American Governor of Louisiana.
16. The results of the Compromise of 1877 were: Rutherford Hayes (Republican) became president.
In return, Republicans promised to withdraw the U.S. army from the southern states still under
Reconstruction.
17. Warmoth was considered a corrupt governor because he took bribes, used his position to profit
from selling state bonds, and he forced people to sign undated letters of resignation before they
could accept state jobs so he could remove the person from office easily.
18. The Constitution of 1868 increase rights for freed slaves by ending segregation by prohibiting
discrimination in public places, all children guaranteed free public education, granted black men
the right to vote, and opened doors for African Americans to enter politics.
19. The sharecropping system was a never ending cycle of debt for freed slaves. The freed slaves that
worked on farms owned by someone else became sharecroppers. They did not receive any money
until they sold their crops, but they still needed to buy food, clothing, and other essentials before
harvest time. Most landowners had stores on their plantations and sold these items to their
workers on credit. The first bill sharecroppers had to pay was the store bill. If the harvest was
poor, workers might not earn enough money to pay off the year’s bill. Then they still had to buy
supplies to carry them through the next harvest. As a result, sharecroppers were usually deeply
indebted to their landowners.
20. The crop lien system only benefited banks because the freed slaves that owned land had to
borrow money from a bank because they could not afford to pay for seeds, tools, or labor. They
had to sign a contract saying they would give the bank a percentage of their crops when they were
harvested. The problem was that harvests were usually poor, so there was little money left for the
landowner after he paid off the bank. Sometimes they had so little money that they had to take out
an even larger loan the next year and sink deeper into dept.
21. The Union League was created to combat the nightriders. The Metropolitan Police was created to
greater protect New Orleans.
22. There was so much violence in Louisiana after the Civil War because Louisiana Republicans (were
against slavery) and Democrats (were for slavery) did not agree on issues over freedmen’s rights.