Reconstruction Definitions

Reconstruction

In U.S. history, the period immediately following the Civil War.

13th Amendment

This amendment made slavery illegal forever in the United States.

14th Amendment

This amendment guaranteed citizenship to all people born or naturalized within the U.S. except for the Indians.

15th Amendment

This amendment gave African American men the right to vote.

Black Codes

These restricted black people's right to own property, conduct business, buy and lease land, and move freely through public spaces.

Freedmen's Bureau

This was an agency of Reconstruction that offered aid to African Americans.

Ku Klux Klan

A secret society organized and active in the southern United States after the Civil War, which sought to regain white supremacy over newly freed blacks.

Sharecropping

To work (farmland) as a sharecropper, giving a portion of the crop to the landowner.

Freedmen

One who has been released from slavery.

Plessy v. Ferguson

This was a landmark 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the "separate but equal" doctrine.

Poll Tax

A tax levied on a person, rather than a piece of property, as a prerequisite for voting.

Jim Crow Laws

These laws were a collection of state and local statues that legalized racial segregation.

Segregation

The practice of separating people according to groups, especially racial groups.

Literacy Test

Test of reading and writing that decided if a person could vote.