JX 17&18: Reconstruction and Life on the Great Plains

carpetbaggers

Northern politicians who went to the South after the Civil War.

John Wilkes Booth

Man who shot Abraham Lincoln.

Former slaves

Freedmen

Andrew Johnson

Lincoln's vice president

Scalawags

Southerners who had not taken part in the war and who tried to help the North during Reconstruction.

Sharecroppers

People who farmed another person's land, receiving a share of what they produced.

Ulysses S. Grant

Civil War general who became president after Andrew Johnson.

Andrew Johnson

High federal official impeached by the House of Representatives in 1867.

Voting and holding public office

Two rights denied many Southern males after the Civil War.

Tennessee

First Southern state readmitted to the Union.

Ford's Theater

Theater in which President Lincoln was shot.

Military districts

Five sections into which the Southern states that had not reentered the Union were divided.

Equality

Status sought for African Americans by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.

Clara Barton

Woman who helped create the American Red Cross.

Radicals

Group of Republicans who felt the South should be punished for the Civil War.

Tenant farmer

A farmer who owned animals and tools but farmed someone else's farm.

Supreme Court Chief Justice

Person who presides at an impeachment trial.

Fourteenth Amendment

Constitutional Amendment to which the Southern states had to agree before reentering the Union.

Reconstruction

Period of rebuilding after the Civil War.

Freedmen's Bureau

New federal agency established to help Southern blacks adjust to freedom.

Black codes

New laws passed by Southern states to keep blacks from voting.

Fourteenth Amendment

Constitutional amendment that made African Americans citizens.

Fifteenth Amendment

Constitutional amendment that gave black males the right to vote.

Ku Klux Klan

Terrorist organization formed to oppress blacks.

Democratic party

Political party to which most Southerners belonged after the Civil War.

Military rule

During Reconstruction, this group controlled the South.

Rutherford B. Hayes

President who removed all federal troops from the South.

Tenure of Office Act

Law that President Johnson was accused of breaking.

Ten Percent Plan

Lincoln's plan that would make it easy for the Southern states to be readmitted to the Union.

Fourteenth Amendment

Constitutional amendment that barred former officeholders who had fought against the Union from holding public office again.

April 1865

Month and year in which Lincoln was shot.

Literacy test

Test to make sure people could read or write before they could vote.

Jim Crow laws

Nickname for laws that required segregation.

Lewis and Clark

Early explorers sent out by President Jefferson to map the Great Plains.

Pony Express

These fast riders carried letters between California and Missouri.

General Custer

Army commander killed at the Little Bighorn.

Sioux

Largest and most powerful tribe of the Plains Indians.

Crazy Horse

Leader, but not chief, of the Native Americans at Little Bighorn.

Sitting Bull

Sioux chief, leader of Native American forces at Little Bighorn.

Mississippi River

Eastern boundary of the Great Plains.

Rocky Mountains

Western boundary of the Great Plains.

Promontory, Utah

The Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads met here to form the transcontinental railroads.

Montana

The Battle of the Little Bighorn took place here.

Horse

Animal brought to the Great Plains by the early Spanish explorers.

Barbed wire

Cheap fencing for the Great Plains.

Iron horse

Indian name for the railroad.

Buffalo

Animal that supplied the Plains Indians with most of their needs.

Land

What the Native Americans did not believe people could own.

Geronimo

The Apache Indians were led by this man.

Homesteaders

People who qualified for free government lands.

Black Hills

Area in South Dakota reserved by the government for the Sioux Indians until gold was discovered.

Chicago

Most western cattle were shipped on the railroad to this city.

Transcontinental railroad

First railroad to cross the Great Plains.

Homestead Act

Act passed by Congress, allowing farmers to get free land.

Custer's Last Stand

Nickname for the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Sand Creek

Infamous Indian massacre in Colorado.

Trail of Tears

Name for the long, bitter journey taken by the Cherokee Indians after they were forced to give up their land in the East.

Bureau of Indian Affairs

Government agency in charge of matters involving the Native Americans.

Land

What the government gave railroads large amounts of, to encourage railroad building in the West.

Windmill

Mechanism used on the Great Plains to bring water out of deep wells.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Act passed in 1854 that allowed settlement of the Great Plains.