Unit Key Vocabulary: Reconstruction, Industrialization, and Civil War Era

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms related to Reconstruction, constitutional amendments, economic systems, labor practices, and industrial growth.

Laissez-faire

An economic philosophy of free-market capitalism with minimal government intervention.

Marxism

A political and economic theory that argues the working class should rise up, share the wealth equally, and create a classless society where everyone owns things together.

Strike

A work stoppage by employees as a protest.

Scabs

People who are brought in to work to take the place of striking workers.

Vertical Integration

A business strategy where a company controls all stages of production from raw materials to finished goods.

Horizontal Integration

A business strategy where a company buys out or merges with competitors in the same industry.

Stock

A share of ownership in a company. People who buy stock become part-owners of the business and can earn money if the company does well.

Corporation

A large business that the law treats as a single "person", It is owned by shareholders who buy its stock.

Reconstruction

The period from 1865 to 1877 when the U.S. government worked to rebuild the South and reunite the nation after the Civil War.

Ratify

To approve

Suffrage

To vote

Amnesty

When the government decides to forgive people for breaking the law.

Black Codes

Laws passed by Southern states after the Civil War to limit the rights and freedoms of African Americans and keep them economically dependent.

13th Amendment

Abolished slavery

14th Amendment

Anyone born in the United States is a US citizen and is entitled to equal protection under the law.

15th Amendment

Gave African American men the right to vote by stating that voting rights could not be denied based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Manifest Destiny

The 19th-century belief that the United States was destined to expand across the North American continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.

Exodusters

African Americans who moved west, particularly to Kansas, after the Civil War in search of land and opportunity, fleeing discrimination in the South.

Capitalism

An economic system based on private ownership and free markets.

Monopoly

Complete control of a product or business by one person or company.

Trust

A group of corporations run by a single board of directors to reduce competition.

Robber Baron

A term used to describe powerful industrialists who were viewed as having used unethical methods to get rich.

Captain of Industry

A positive term for business leaders who helped the economy and contributed to society.