Topic 2 Vocabulary: Reconstruction Era

A set of vocabulary flashcards defining key historical terms, laws, and constitutional amendments from Topic 2.

13th Amendment

The constitutional amendment that abolished slavery and involuntary servitude throughout the United States, except as punishment for a crime.

14th Amendment

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

15th Amendment

The constitutional amendment that prohibited denying a citizen the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Abolitionists

Individuals who actively advocated for and worked toward the complete end of slavery.

Amnesty

An official government pardon granted to a group of individuals, offered to former Confederates who took an oath of loyalty during Reconstruction.

Black Codes

Laws passed by Southern states after the Civil War designed to restrict the freedom and rights of African Americans and compel them to work in a labor economy.

Carpetbaggers

A derogatory term for Northerners who moved to the South during Reconstruction to seek economic or political opportunities.

Freedmen's Bureau

A federal government agency created in 1865 to assist newly freed African Americans and poor whites in the South with food, clothing, healthcare, and education.

Grandfather clause

A provision exempting individuals from voting qualifications if their grandfathers had the right to vote prior to the Civil War, effectively disenfranchising Black citizens.

Impeachment

The formal process of bringing charges against a public official, such as the President, by the House of Representatives.

Jim Crow laws

State and local laws enacted in the Southern United States that enforced racial segregation and disenfranchised Black citizens following Reconstruction.

Ku Klux Klan

A white supremacist terrorist group established in the South after the Civil War that used violence and intimidation to suppress freed Black people and oppose Reconstruction.

Literacy tests

Tests evaluating reading and writing skills, administered as a voting requirement in Southern states to disenfranchise Black voters.

Martial law

The imposition of direct military control over a region, temporarily replacing civil authority and suspending standard constitutional rights.

Poll taxes

A fee required as a prerequisite for voting, utilized in Southern states to prevent low-income African Americans and poor whites from casting ballots.

Radical Republicans

A faction within the Republican Party during Reconstruction that advocated for severe political penalties against former Confederates and complete civil rights for freed African Americans.

Scalawags

A derogatory term used by Southern Democrats to describe white Southerners who supported Reconstruction policies and the Republican Party.

Segregation

The enforced policy of legal or social separation of racial groups in public places, transportation, schools, and other facilities.

Sharecropping

An agricultural system where a landowner allows a tenant to farm a portion of land in exchange for a share of the harvested crops, often leaving farmers trapped in debt.

Ten Percent Plan

President Abraham Lincoln's proposed Reconstruction plan that allowed a former Confederate state to rejoin the Union once 10 percent of its voters swore an oath of loyalty.

Tenant farmer

A farmer who resides on and cultivates land owned by a landlord, paying rent either in cash or with a portion of the crop while typically owning their own farming tools.