Key Concepts from Civil War to Reconstruction

These flashcards cover key vocabulary and concepts related to the Civil War, Reconstruction, and post-war America.

Civil War

A conflict in the United States from 1861 to 1865, primarily over issues of slavery and states' rights.

Sectionalism

Loyalty to a region or section rather than to the country as a whole, which contributed to the tensions leading up to the Civil War.

Compromise of 1850

A series of laws passed to ease tensions between slave and free states, including the admission of California as a free state.

Emancipation Proclamation

The executive order issued by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, declaring that all slaves in the rebellious states were to be set free.

Dred Scott Decision

A landmark Supreme Court ruling in 1857 that declared African Americans were not citizens and could not sue in federal court.

Anaconda Plan

A strategic plan by the Union to defeat the Confederacy by blockading Southern ports and controlling the Mississippi River.

Radical Republicans

A faction within the Republican Party that believed in harsh reconstruction policies and full civil rights for freed slaves.

13th Amendment

The constitutional amendment that abolished slavery in the United States.

14th Amendment

The amendment that granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the U.S. and guaranteed equal protection under the law.

15th Amendment

The amendment that prohibits the denial of the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Jim Crow Laws

State laws enacted in the South that enforced racial segregation and disenfranchised Black Americans.

Sharecropping

A system where farmers worked land owned by someone else in exchange for a share of the crops.

Debt Peonage

A system where workers are bound in servitude until their debts are paid.

Nadir of American race relations

Refers to the period in U.S. history in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when racial segregation and discrimination were at their worst.

Grandfather Clause

A law allowing individuals to bypass literacy tests and poll taxes if their grandfather had been eligible to vote before the Civil War.

Dawes Act

A law aimed at assimilating Native Americans into American society by allotting them individual plots of land.

Indian Wars

A series of conflicts between the US government and various Native American tribes during the late 19th century.