SDC American History Unit 1 Vocab

Emancipation

The process of freeing enslaved people, officially achieved through the 13^{th} Amendment.

Black Codes

Laws passed in Southern states after the Civil War that limited the rights and freedoms of newly freed African Americans.

Reconstruction Amendments

The 13^{th} (ended slavery), 14^{th} (citizenship and equal protection), and 15^{th} (voting rights for Black men) Amendments.

Jim Crow

A system of laws and customs in the South that enforced racial segregation and discrimination.

Buffalo Soldiers

African American soldiers who served in the West, fighting in the Indian Wars and protecting settlers.

Multiculturalism

The presence, acceptance, and celebration of many different cultures within the same society.

Cowboys and Ranchers

Ranchers owned or managed large cattle herds; cowboys were hired workers who handled cattle and led long drives to railroads.

Transcontinental Railroads

Railroads that connected the East and West coasts, making travel faster and boosting settlement and trade.

Open Range Cattle

A system where cattle roamed freely on unfenced land before barbed wire ended open grazing.

Coal Mining

A dangerous but important industry that provided fuel for trains, factories, and expanding Western towns.

Romanticism of the West

Art and stories that exaggerated the West as wild, heroic, and full of opportunity.

Rocky Mountain School

A group of painters who created dramatic, idealized landscapes of the American West (artists like Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran).

Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show

A traveling show that reenacted battles, cowboy life, and Native performances, shaping myths about the “Wild West.”

Lynching and the Anti-Lynching Campaign

Lynching was the illegal, violent killing of African Americans by mobs. Activists—especially Ida B. Wells—fought to expose and stop it.

Sharecropping

A labor system where farmers rented land and paid the owner with a share of the crops, often trapping African Americans in debt.

Rise of Black Churches

After emancipation, African Americans built their own churches, which became community centers for education, leadership, and activism.

Ku Klux Klan

A white supremacist terrorist group that used violence and intimidation to stop African Americans from gaining rights and participating in politics.

Suffrage Movement

A movement focused on gaining voting rights, especially involving debates about whether women should have the vote before or along with Black men.

Presidential Reconstruction

Lenient plans by Presidents Lincoln and Johnson that allowed Southern states to rejoin the Union quickly with few punishments.

Congressional/Radical Reconstruction

A more demanding plan led by Congress to protect African American rights and restructure Southern society.

Disfranchisement

The process of taking away someone’s right to vote, often through laws like poll taxes and literacy tests targeting African Americans.

Williams v. Mississippi

An 1898 Supreme Court case that allowed Mississippi’s voting restrictions (like literacy tests and poll taxes), helping states continue disfranchisement.

Segregation

The forced separation of races in public places, schools, transportation, and daily life.

Plessy v. Ferguson

The 1896 Supreme Court case that ruled segregation was legal as long as facilities were “separate but equal.”

New South

A vision for the South after the Civil War that promoted industrial growth and economic modernization.

Lost Cause Myth

A false and romantic story that portrayed the Confederacy as noble, minimized slavery’s role in the Civil War, and justified Southern segregation.

Indian Wars

A series of conflicts between Native tribes and the U.S. Army as settlers pushed west and the government seized Native lands.

Ghost Dance Movement

A spiritual movement among Native Americans that hoped to restore their lands, bring back the buffalo, and end white expansion.

Native American Boarding Schools

Schools where Native children were forced to adopt white culture and give up their language and traditions.

The Dawes Act

A law that divided tribal land into individual family plots to force Native people to farm; it resulted in major loss of Native land.

Vaudeville

A popular type of live entertainment featuring comedy, music, dancing, and variety acts.

Minstrel Shows

Racist performances where white (and sometimes Black) actors used blackface and stereotypes to mock African Americans.