Social Studies - Reconstruction

Test on Friday, writing on monday

freedmen

enslaved people who had been freed by the war

freedmen’s bureau

government agency founded during reconstruction to help former slaves

thirteenth amendment

an 1865 amendment to the United States Constitution that bans slavery throughout the nation

black codes

Laws denying most legal rights to newly freed slaves; passed by southern states following the Civil War

fourteenth amendment

guarantees equal protection of the law and rights of citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the USA,

impeach

An action by the House of Representatives to accuse the president, vice president, or other civil officers of the United States of committing "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors."

fifteenth amendment

forbids any state to deny African Americans the right to vote because of race. All males 21+ can vote.

scalawag

A derogatory term for white Southerners who supported Reconstruction following the Civil War.

carpetbagger

A northerner who went to the South immediately after the Civil War; especially one who tried to gain political advantage or other advantages from the disorganized situation in southern states

ku klux klan

A secret society created by white southerners in 1866 that used terror and violence to keep African Americans from obtaining their civil rights.

sharecropper

A person who works fields rented from a landowner and pays the rent and repays loans by turning over to the landowner a share of the crops.

poll tax

A requirement that citizens pay a tax in order to register to vote

literacy test

A test given to persons to prove they can read and write before being allowed to register to vote

grandfather clause

Southern laws that excluded blacks from exercising suffrage by restricting the right to vote only to those whose grandfathers had voted before 1865

segregation

Separation of people based on racial, ethnic, or other differences

plessy v. ferguson

1896 court case that ruled in favor of segregation. Declared "separate, but equal" is constitutional and led to Jim Crow laws being passed-especially in the South.

reconstruction

rebuilding of the South after the Civil War

radical republicans

Political party that favored harsh punishment of Southern states after civil war

citizen

A person with certain rights and responsibilities in his or her country or community

the result of the compromise of 1877

the withdrawal of federal troops and abandonment of federal protection of black civil and voting rights in the South

andrew johnson

17th President of the United States, A Southerner form Tennessee, as V.P. when Lincoln was killed, he became president.

amendment

A change to the Constitution

federal

relating to the national government of the United States

civil rights

the rights of citizens to political and social freedom and equality.

legislatures

a group of people that makes laws

plantation

a large farm

naturalization

the legal process by which a non-citizen voluntarily acquires the citizenship or nationality of a country after birth.

servitude

the state of being under another person's complete control and lacking freedom; often associated with forced labor or slavery.