US History: Civil War and Reconstruction Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards generated from theCivil War and Reconstruction unit, covering causes, military strategies, key figures, Reconstruction policy, and constitutional amendments.

Reconstruction

The period following the Civil War focused on readmitting Southern states to the Union, rebuilding the Southern economy, and resolving the position of millions of former slaves in society.

Freedman's Bureau

An agency established by the federal government after the Civil War to help former slaves adjust to freedom.

Thirteenth Amendment

A constitutional amendment that prohibited slavery throughout the United States, freeing enslaved people in border states and confirming emancipation across the South.

Andrew Johnson

The Vice President from Tennessee who succeeded Abraham Lincoln after his assassination in April $1865$, gave individual pardons to former Confederate leaders, and recognized newly formed Southern governments.

Black Codes

Laws passed by Southern states during Reconstruction to preserve their social structure by defining freedmen as 'persons of color' and restricting their rights to vote, serve on juries, testify against whites, or travel freely.

Sectionalism

The political, economic, and social division between regions of the United States, including the slave-holding South, the manufacturing Northeast, and the agricultural Northwest.

Abolitionist

A person who worked to end slavery in the United States, often inspired by the British Empire's abolition of slavery in $1833$.

Frederick Douglass

An influential former slave and abolitionist speaker who wrote 'Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass' detailing the horrors of Southern slavery.

Sojourner Truth

An American evangelist, social reformer, and former slave who spoke publicly against the institution of slavery.

Harriet Tubman

An American abolitionist and former slave who actively campaigned and fought against slavery.

Missouri Compromise of 1820

An early sectional agreement designed to balance free and slave states and preserve fragile national unity.

Compromise of 1850

A series of congressional measures intended to settle territorial and slavery disputes following westward expansion.

Confederate States of America

The government established by Southern states after seceding from the Union, beginning with South Carolina.

Jefferson Davis

The elected President of the Confederate States of America.

Fort Sumter

A federal fort in Charleston, South Carolina, where Confederate forces opened fire on April $12, 1861$, starting the Civil War.

De Witt Clinton (1831)

A steam locomotive built for the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad in New York state, illustrating Northern industrial and transportation advantages.

Robert E. Lee

A gifted military commander who served as General for the Confederate army during the Civil War.

"Stonewall" Jackson

A prominent Confederate General known for his military leadership during the Civil War.

Anaconda Plan

A Northern strategy proposed by General Scott to strangle the South through a naval blockade of Southern ports and taking control of the Mississippi River.

Radical Republicans

A faction of Congress who argued that the South should be punished for the Civil War and insisted that African Americans receive full political and civil equality.

Fourteenth Amendment

A Reconstruction-era constitutional amendment designed to grant citizenship and equal protection of the laws to all persons born or naturalized in the United States.

Fifteenth Amendment

A constitutional amendment that protected citizens' right to vote regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Carpetbaggers

A term used during Reconstruction to describe Northerners who moved to the South following the Civil War.

Ku Klux Klan

A secret organization formed in the South after the Civil War that used terrorism and violence to oppose Reconstruction and suppress freedmen.

Suffrage

The legal right to vote in political elections.

Sharecropping

An agricultural system in which tenant farmers worked a landowner's soil in exchange for a share of the harvested crops.

Debt Peonage

A system where workers were bound in labor servitude to work off financial debts, often tied to Southern sharecropping.

Nadir

The period following Reconstruction marking the lowest point in race relations in the United States.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

An $1854$ law that divided the Nebraska Territory into Kansas and Nebraska, repealed the Missouri Compromise, and introduced popular sovereignty to determine the status of slavery.

Popular Sovereignty

The political policy allowing voters inside a territory to decide for themselves whether to permit or prohibit slavery.

Republican Party

A political party formed in response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act to oppose the expansion of slavery into any new U.S. territories.

Ostend Manifesto

A diplomatic incident where Southern diplomats schemed to annex Cuba as a new slave state for the United States.

Dred Scott Decision (1857)

A landmark Supreme Court ruling which declared that African Americans were not U.S. citizens and that Congress lacked constitutional authority to prohibit slavery in federal territories.

Roger taney

The Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court who wrote the majority opinion in the Dred Scott decision in $1857$.

Freeport Doctrine

A position put forward by Stephen A. Douglas arguing that territorial residents could effectively ban slavery by refusing to pass local enforcement laws.

John Brown's Raid

An attempt by abolitionist John Brown to incite an armed slave uprising, creating fear among Southern slaveholders.

States' Rights

The Southern constitutional theory asserting that individual states voluntarily joined the Union and retained the authority to secede at will.