Modern American History: The Civil War and Reconstruction

Vocabulary practice cards covering the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the historical memory of the era based on Professor Adam Kocurek's lecture.

Primary Source

Evidence from the past such as diaries, journals, recordings, photographs, newspapers, speeches, and letters.

Secondary Source

A historical document or account created by someone who did not experience an event first-hand, differing from a primary source.

Agrarian Economy

The state of the United States prior to the Civil War where between $70-80\%$ of Americans lived in rural areas by $1860$.

Civil War Dates

The conflict lasted from April $12$, $1861$, to April $9$, $1865$.

Civil War Casualties

Approximately $750,000$ casualties, which was about $2\%$ of the nation’s population in $1860$.

Dysentery

A disease that caused nearly $57,000$ deaths during the Civil War.

NYC Anti-Abolitionist Riots

Riots that occurred in $1834$ in New York City, whose economy was closely tied to Southern cotton shipments.

NYC Draft Riots

A racially-charged urban disturbance in $1863$ that remains the largest civil disturbance in American history.

Emancipation Proclamation

An $1863$ document that excluded Border States and Union-occupied territories, leaving $700,000+$ people in bondage.

13th Amendment

Abolished slavery in the U.S. except as a punishment for a crime; officially ratified by Mississippi on February $7$, $2013$.

Santee Sioux Mass Execution

The hanging of $38$ Sioux on December $26$, $1862$, in Minnesota, which remains the largest mass execution in American history.

Reconstruction Era

The period from $1865$ to $1877$ focused on rebuilding the nation and defining citizenship and equality.

Andrew Johnson

The U.S. President after Lincoln described as a states' rights advocate and unapologetic racist who was impeached by the House of Representatives.

Radical Republicans

A political faction ($1854-1877$) that demanded civil rights and suffrage for freed slaves and initiated Reconstruction Acts.

Freedmen’s Bureau

An agency ($1865-1872$) that helped black families reconnect, taught literacy, and advocated for political participation.

Hiram Revels

The first colored Senator, representing the state of Mississippi.

Sherman’s Special Field Order No. 15

An order that set aside land in Georgia and South Carolina as homesteads for freed people.

14th Amendment

An $1868$ amendment providing birthright citizenship, a due process clause, and the first mention of gender (male inhabitants) regarding voting rights.

15th Amendment

An $1870$ amendment stating the right to vote cannot be denied based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Mississippi Black Codes

Laws passed in $1865$ including Vagrancy Laws and Penal Codes designed to restrict the movement and rights of African Americans.

Enforcement Acts

Legislation ($1870-1871$) that made it criminal to deprive African Americans of civil rights and deemed Klan behavior as acts of rebellion.

Lynching Statistics

The Tuskegee Institute recorded $4,743$ lynchings between $1882$ and $1968$, including $3,446$ African Americans and $1,297$ whites.

Henry Smith

A black teenager who was the victim of a public spectacle lynching in Paris, Texas, in $1893$.

Depression of 1873

An economic downturn that shifted focus from Radical Republican idealism and race issues to economic concerns.

Election of 1876

A contest between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden that resulted in a compromise to remove federal troops from the South.

Dunning School

A historical perspective from Columbia University that viewed Reconstruction through a white supremacist, Southern apologist lens.