Reconstruction

Abraham Lincoln

Is remembered as a man who grew up in poverty but became the eloquent and humane president who presided over the end of slavery in the United States.

Amnesty

This legal term means official pardon or immunity from persecution.

Black Codes

A group of laws passed in the former Confederate states right after the Civil War. These laws were passed to the limit the rights of newly freed African Americans and to continue the white dominance that had existed under slavery

Carpet Baggers

Was used to describe Northerns who moved to the South for political or economic gain

Civil Rights Act of 1866

A law passed by the U.S Congress that granted citizenship to all men born in the United States regardless of their “race or color or previous condition of slavery.” The law also said African American citizens would have all the same rights that white Americans had.

Disenfranchise

Taking away someone’s right to vote

Fifteenth Amendment

Gave all male U.S. citizens the right to vote, regardless of their race or previous status as enslaved people

Fourteenth Amendment

Granted citizenship and legal rights to African Americans. It established that anyone who was born or naturalized in the United States was a citizen and that the states could not deny the rights of any citizens

Freedman’s Bureau

A federal agency that Congress created in 1865, during Reconstruction, to help newly freed African Americans. It established hospitals, provided food rations, gave legal advice, helped with employment, and established schools for freed African Americans

Freedman’s Bureau

A federal agency that Congress created in 1865, during Reconstruction, to help newly freed African Americans. It established hospitals, provided food rations, gave legal advice, helped with employment, and established schools for freed African Americans

Infrastructure

Is the underlying foundation or framework of a system, organization, or location. It is often classified as either “hard” or “soft.” Hard includes railroads, bridges, water systems, subway systems, and telecommunications. Soft is human capital, or knowledge and skills, along with the schools and training programs that develop it

Jim Crow Laws

Were state and local laws in the South that made racial segregation-separation by races-legal. These laws existed mostly in Southern states from the end of Reconstruction in the late 1870s until the 1960s. The name comes from a character in a minstrel show; the name came to be used as a degrading term

Ku Klux Klan

Was a secret terrorist organization that formed in the South during Reconstruction to maintain white supremacy and prevent African Americans from voting. Members of the organization threatened, beat, and killed African Americans and frequently burned their homes and property. They dressed in robes and hoods to frighten their victims and to avoid being identified by law enforcement officials

Plessy v. Ferguson

A Supreme Court ruling that stated racial segregation in public places. This case created the doctrine of separate but equal. The justices determined that separate and supposedly equal facilities for white Americans and African Americans did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment requirement of equal protection of the laws

Poll Tax

Is collected on individual people instead of on their property or their income. Are sometimes a requirement for voting. During the period of Reconstruction after the Civil War, many African Americans began voting in Southern states and Southern legislatures passed this to keep African Americans from voting

Reconstruction

Was the period in United States history right after the Civil War. During this period the South was readmitted to the United States and law were passed to protect the rights of newly freed African Americans

Scalawags

Were Southerners who supported the federal Reconstruction plan and the Republican Party. Was used as an insult. It originally meant a worthless farm animal

Sharecropping

A landowner provides the workers with housing, food, farming tools, and seeds. Then the workers’ pay for these items by selling a share of the crops they raise

Tenant Farmer

A person who lives on and farms land is owned by someone else

Thirteenth Amendment

Formally abolished slavery in the United States