U.S History flashcards

Reconstruction

returning the South back to the Union

Freedmen's Bureau

A federal agency that helped freed slaves & relieve the South's immediate needs

Andrew Johnson

U.S. president after Lincoln, almost impeached by the Radical Republicans

Thirteenth Amendment

the constitutional amendment ratified after the Civil War that forbade slavery and involuntary servitude.

Radical Republicans

Political party that favored harsh punishment of Southern states after civil war

impeachment

The political equivalent of an indictment in criminal law, prescribed by the Constitution.

Fourteenth Amendment

made "all persons born or naturalized in the United States" citizens of the country

Fifteenth Amendment

constitutional ammendment that gave specifically African American men the right to vote.

Ku Klux Klan

founded in the 1860s in the south; meant to control newly freed slaves through threats and violence; other targets: Catholics, Jews, immigrants and others thought to be un-American

De jure segregation

segregation by law

Cash crop

a readily salable crop that is grown and gathered for the market (as vegetables or cotton or tobacco)

Farmer's Alliance

A Farmers' organization founded in late 1870s; worked for lower railroad freight rates, lower interest rates, and a change in the governments tight money policy

Civil Rights Act of 1875

Prohibited discrimination against blacks in public place, such as inns, amusement parks, and on public transportation. Declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

reservation

land set aside for the Native Americans

Sand Creek Massacre

an attack on a village of sleeping Cheyenne Indians by a regiment of Colorado militiamen on 29 November 1864 that resulted in the death of more than 200 tribal members

Sitting Bull

American Indian chief, he lead the victory of Little Bighorn

Battle of the Little Big Horn

1876 - General Custer and his men were wiped out by a coalition of Sioux and Cheyenne Indians led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse.

Chief Joseph

Leader of Nez Perce. Fled with his tribe to Canada instead of reservations. However, US troops came and fought and brought them back down to reservations

assimilate

become similar to one's environment

Dawes General Allotment Act

1887 law that divided reservation land into private family plots

vigilante

someone who takes law enforcement into his or her own hands

Transcontinental Railroad

Railroad connecting the west and east coasts of the continental US

land grant

land given by a government

open-range system

property was not fenced in though ranchers claimed ownership and knew the boundaries of their property , cattle from any ranch grazed freely across those boundaries.

Homestead Act

1862 - provided free land in the west as long as the person would settle there and make improvements in five years

Exodoster

African Americans who migrated from the South to the West fter the Civil War

Redeemer

Southerners who wanted to return the South to the way it was before the Civil War

Sharecropping

Poor people contracted with landowners to work the land and get a share of the crop

Manifest Destiny

the belief that the United States was destined to stretch across the continent from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean