U.S. History: Civil War, Reconstruction, and Progressive Era

A set of vocabulary flashcards summarizing major events, figures, amendments, and concepts from the Civil War through the Progressive Era.

Civil War (1861–1865)

Armed conflict between the Union and Confederacy over slavery and states’ rights; preserved the Union and ended slavery.

Jane Addams

Progressive social reformer who founded Hull House (1889) and championed child-labor laws, women’s rights, and peace; Nobel laureate 1931.

Reconstruction (1865–1877)

Post-Civil War effort to reintegrate Southern states and secure rights for freedpeople; hindered by Black Codes and white-supremacist violence.

Henry Ford

Industrialist who founded Ford Motor Company and pioneered the moving assembly line, making automobiles affordable to middle-class Americans.

Thirteenth Amendment (1865)

Constitutional amendment that abolished slavery and involuntary servitude except as punishment for crime.

John Muir

Naturalist and conservationist whose writings helped create Yosemite and Sequoia national parks; co-founded the Sierra Club.

Fourteenth Amendment (1868)

Granted citizenship to all born or naturalized in the U.S. and guaranteed equal protection and due process; cornerstone of civil-rights law.

Margaret Sanger

Birth-control activist who opened the first U.S. contraceptive clinic and helped found Planned Parenthood; advanced women’s reproductive rights.

Fifteenth Amendment (1870)

Prohibited denying the vote based on race, color, or previous servitude; enfranchised Black men but was weakly enforced for decades.

Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)

Radical labor union founded in 1905 (“Wobblies”) that promoted industrial unionism, direct action, and anti-capitalism; repressed during WWI.

Special Field Order 15

1865 order by Gen. Sherman allocating coastal lands (“forty acres and a mule”) to freedpeople; reversed by President Andrew Johnson.

Theodore Roosevelt

26th U.S. president (1901–1909); expanded federal power, busted trusts, promoted conservation, and pursued an assertive foreign policy.

Ku Klux Klan

White-supremacist group formed in 1865 that used terror to undermine Reconstruction and later civil-rights advances.

Woodrow Wilson

28th U.S. president (1913–1921); led nation in WWI, enacted Progressive reforms, and proposed the League of Nations.

Andrew Johnson

17th U.S. president (1865–1869); favored lenient Reconstruction, clashed with Congress, and became the first impeached president.

Muckrakers

Progressive-Era journalists who exposed corporate, political, and social abuses, spurring reforms like the Meat Inspection and Pure Food & Drug Acts.

Sharecropping

Post-war farming system in which tenants paid landowners with a share of crops, trapping many—especially African Americans—in debt and poverty.

Nineteenth Amendment (1920)

Extended suffrage to women nationwide; major victory for the women’s movement though barriers persisted for women of color.

Radical Republicans

Congressional faction that pressed for harsh Reconstruction measures and full civil rights for freedpeople; drove passage of the 13th–15th Amendments.

Congressional Reconstruction

Reconstruction program (begun 1867) dividing the South into military districts and requiring new constitutions with Black male suffrage.

Black Codes

1865–1866 Southern laws restricting freedpeople’s rights and labor; provoked Northern outrage and stricter federal intervention.

Carpetbaggers

Northern migrants to the South during Reconstruction viewed as opportunists or reformers; bolstered Republican influence and faced hostility.

Scalawags

White Southerners who supported Republican Reconstruction policies; allied with freedpeople and were targets of white-supremacist violence.

Freedmen’s Bureau

Federal agency (1865–1872) providing food, education, and legal aid to freedpeople and poor whites; hampered by underfunding and opposition.

Compromise of 1877

Deal that settled the 1876 election by making Rutherford B. Hayes president in exchange for withdrawing federal troops, ending Reconstruction.

Redeemers

Southern white Democrats who regained power after Reconstruction, dismantled Black political gains, and instituted Jim Crow segregation.