Neo-Slavery Lecture Notes

These flashcards cover key terms and concepts from the lecture on Neo-Slavery, focusing on historical amendments, systems of oppression, and significant figures.

Neo-Slavery

A term describing the social and economic systems that effectively re-enslave African Americans after the Civil War.

Reconstruction Amendments

The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments aimed at establishing rights for freed slaves.

Thirteenth Amendment

Passed in 1865, it abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime.

Fourteenth Amendment

Ratified in 1868, it guarantees citizenship and equal protection under the law for all persons born or naturalized in the U.S.

Fifteenth Amendment

Ratified in 1870, it prohibits the denial of voting rights based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Debt Peonage

A system where workers are tied to their employers due to debt, often leading to exploitation.

Vagrancy Laws

Laws that criminalize homelessness or joblessness, often used to target African Americans post-Reconstruction.

Convict Leasing

A system in which states leased prisoners to private companies for labor, often exploiting African Americans.

Lynching

An act of violence, often executed by a mob, aimed at African Americans, used to enforce racial control.

Plessy v. Ferguson

A 1896 Supreme Court decision that upheld segregation under the 'separate but equal' doctrine.

New South

A term referring to the South’s post-Reconstruction economic transformation, often marked by contradictions.

Sharecropping

An agricultural system where landowners allow tenants to farm land in exchange for a share of the crops.

Racial Accommodation

An approach wherein Southern leaders promoted a peaceful coexistence between whites and blacks, often masking underlying oppression.

Illiteracy Rates

Statistics showing the inability to read or write, particularly high among African Americans in the South during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Southern Horrors

A pamphlet by Ida B. Wells addressing the lynching of African Americans and its justification by societal racism.

Jim Crow Laws

State and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States.

Civil Rights Activist

An individual advocating for the rights and heightened social position of African Americans, particularly during the Reconstruction era.

Economic Rhetoric vs. Reality

The disparity between the promoted prosperity of the 'New South' and the actual economic conditions faced by its residents.

State-Sponsored Violence

Actions endorsed or carried out by the government against specific groups, particularly evident in the context of lynching.

Ida B. Wells

A journalist and activist who documented lynchings and fought for civil rights in America.