Term A Assessment (2023-4)

Emancipation Proclamation

Issued by President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. Declared the freedom of all enslaved people in Confederate-held territory.

Reconstruction

The period after the Civil War in which the U.S. government aimed to rebuild the South and promote civil rights.

13th Amendment

Constitutional amendment that made slavery illegal except as a punishment for a crime

14th Amendment

Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that granted citizenship and equal protection under the law to all people born or naturalized in the United States.

Run for political office & serve on a jury

Because of the 15th Amendment, Black men could run for office and serve on juries.

Importance of bison/buffalo to indigenous people of the Great Plains

The bison are central to the people of the Great Plains way of life, including diet, clothing, materials, and religion.

Abraham Lincoln

The president of the US during the Civil War who signed the Emancipation Proclamation

Lincoln Plan for Reconstruction

Also known as the Ten Percent Plan, Lincoln's plan for Reconstruction of the South after the Civil War, mostly focused on forgiveness & getting the country to reunite

13th Amendment loophole

The "except as the punishment for a crime" part of the 13th Amendment allowed the South to come up with creative ways to criminalize behavior, resulting in arrest & the possibility for re-enslavement.

Equal protection

The idea (created by the 14th Amendment) that all American citizens are entitled to be treated equally by US laws.

Disenfranchisement

Taking away the right to vote

Battle of Little Bighorn

A victory by the Lakota Sioux during the Indian Wars of the 1870s.

Border states

States where slavery was legal, but they still fought on the Union/Northern side of the Civil War.

Johnson Plan for Reconstruction

Johnson's plan was very forgiving towards the South, including giving land back to former Confederates

Sharecropping

An agricultural system in which workers could work on a landowner's property in exchange for a share of the crops. However, the system kept the worker indebted to the landowner, resulting in conditions similar to slavery

Due process

The legal principle that individuals have the right to fair and equal treatment under the law

Poll tax

used as a means of disenfranchisement, requiring a fee to vote

Reservation system

Introduced in the 1850s, a policy that granted land for an entire community of indigenous people to live on & use

Special Field Order 15 ("40 Acres & a Mule")

advocated for giving land for the formerly enslaved

Radical Republican Plan for Reconstruction

Viewed as the most harsh towards Southern whites, advocated for giving rights/voting power to formerly enslaved people

Convict leasing

involved prisoners being leased to private companies for forced labor

Ku Klux Klan

a white supremacist terrorist organization that emerged after the Civil War, was disbanded by President Grant but the hate remained

Literacy test

were used as a means of disenfranchisement, testing a person's ability to read and write; the tests were often designed to be pretty much impossible

Lincoln assassination

Complicated the Reconstruction process, because Lincoln was already working on plans for Reconstruction before he died

What the 3 Reconstruction plans had in common

End slavery via constitutional amendment

Freedmen's Bureau

An organization focused on helping formerly enslaved people adjust to freedom through supports like education, legal aid, & medical care

White supremacy

the belief that white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant people are somehow superior to all groups of people

Grandfather Clause

allowed individuals to vote if their ancestors had been eligible to vote before the Civil War, this kept Black men from voting

Andrew Johnson

President after Abraham Lincoln's assassination and faced conflict with Congress during Reconstruction

Constitutional amendment

an addition/change to the Constitution

Black Codes

new laws the South passed in order to limit the rights of Black people during Reconstruction

15th Amendment

voting cannot be restricted based on race

Indian Wars

A series of conflicts that took place in the Dakota Territory between the US Army & the indigenous peoples of the area. These conflicts took place in the 1860s and 1870s.

Gilded

A thin layer of gold covering something cheap/unattractive

Capitalism

An economic system where the market regulates itself based on supply & demand

Victories of the Labor Movement

8th hour workday, higher pay, end of child labor, workplace safety regulations

Jim Crow Laws

laws that officially separated/segregated people by race, beginning in the Gilded Age

Indigenous boarding schools

Schools established to assimilate Native American children into white culture, often associated with the motto "Kill the Indian, save the man."

Gilded Age

The period from 1877 to about 1909, characterized by industrialization

Priorities/goals of capitalist economy

making more money & growth

Limits of the Labor Movement

racism & sexism divided workers, law enforcement was used against the movement, & calling union activists "radicals" destroyed their credibility

Segregation

separating people based on characteristics, usually race

"Kill the Indian, save the man"

Phrase created by Captain Pratt, advocated for destroying indigenous culture & assimilating indigenous people into white culture

Monopoly

A company that has total/almost total control over the market for a particular commodity (ex: Standard Oil owned 90% of the market of oil during the Gilded Age)

Labor Movement

A movement of workers advocating for better pay, conditions, & treatment. Started in response to industrialization during the Gilded Age.

Racism in the Labor Movement

Bosses exploited racial tension to divide unions, unions were usually segregated

Plessy v. Ferguson

The case that established the doctrine of "separate but equal," making segregation & Jim Crow legal under federal law

assimilation

the process of incorporating people into the dominant culture at the expense of their own culture

Problems with monopolies

no incentive to innovate or treat employees well, owners can set whatever price they want because they're the only option buyers have

Sexism in the Labor Movement

unions excluded women because they felt that women being willing to work for lower wages then men hurt men's chances to ask for higher wages

"Separate but equal"

The doctrine created by the Plessy v. Ferguson case which stated facilities could legally be separate as long as they were equal

Ghost Dance

A spiritual practice developed by the indigenous people of the Great Plains to peacefully protest land theft, was seen as very threatening by white authorities

Industrialization

the process of creating an industrial economy

Strike

an organized labor stoppage in order to hurt profits & make a point to bosses

Radicalism

political views that are seen as extreme & outside the norm

Ida B. Wells

A Black woman who exposed the horrors of lynching to her readers

Dawes Act

this new law divided indigenous reservations into allotments, promising citizenship rights to anyone who agreed to the plan. This made tribal ownership of reservations basically impossible, making land theft easier for the US government.

Innovation

the process of developing new ideas to improve something

Boycott

To not buy something as a form of protest

Strikebreaker/scab

people who work during a strike, undermines the strength of the strike

Lynching

To execute a person without a fair trial, typically related to race, often by hanging

Wounded Knee massacre

the 1890 murder of hundreds of Lakota people by the US Army

US public response to Wounded Knee

the soldiers involved were awarded medals for bravery, was generally seen as a good thing