Civil War and Reconstruction

Rebuilding of something that has been damaged or destroyed. It was the remaking of the Southern United States after they lost their war of rebellion and slavery was officially ended and is marked by three constitutional amendments aimed at expanding the civil rights of African Americans.

• Reanimation

• Reconstruction

• Civil War

• Dred Scott Decision

Creator of the Presidential Reconstruction plan that was lenient to former Confederate leaders, allowing them to to reclaim power and implement black codes in the South. Impeached and nearly removed from the Office of President.

• Abraham Lincoln

• Andrew Jackson

• Andrew Johnson

• John Johnson

As reconstruction ended and white southerners regained power, they worked to strip African Americans of their voting and civil rights. One way was to require a fee to be paid before voting. Many poor African Americans could not use their limited means to vote, giving more power to white southerners.

• Poll Tax

• Literacy Test

• Voter Fee Act

• Sharecropping

As reconstruction ended and white southerners regained power, they worked to strip African Americans of their voting and civil rights. One way was to require voters to demonstrate that they could read and write in order to vote. This impacted many African Americans that had been denied educational opportunities during the period of slavery.

• Poll Tax

• Literacy Test

• Fifteenth Amendment

• Segregation

Secret society that resorted to violence and terror in order to maintain power; they used verbal threats and violence to intimidate African Americans and prevent them from voting.

• al Qaeda

• Radical Republicans

• Carpetbaggers

• Ku Klux Klan

System that started as a positive opportunity for African Americans but ended in a situation just like slavery. A white plantation owner rented plots of land to African Americans, loaned them seed and supplies, and the African American worked the land hoping to make enough money to pay off the loan and earn a profit. Instead, they usually ended up in debt and working for free.

• Jim Crow Laws

• Segregation

• Sharecropping

• Poll Tax

A principle or rule that is established by the verdict of a court case; that ruling or decision is then used to determine the outcome of all similar court cases. The landmark decision in Plessy v. Ferguson makes segregation legal in the United States.

• Dred Scott Decision

• Legal Precedent

• Dissenting Opinion

• Judicial Activism

This reconstruction amendment gave equal protection and citizenship rights to everyone born in the United States, even if your parents were slaves.

• Thirteenth Amendment

• Fourteenth Amendment

• Fifteenth Amendment

This reconstruction amendment officially abolished slavery; all reconstruction plans required that southern states ratify this amendment in order to rejoin the government.

• Thirteenth Amendment

• Fourteenth Amendment

• Fifteenth Amendment

This reconstruction amendment stated that the right to vote could not be denied by race, color, or previous condition of servitude. This amendment was designed to protect the right to vote of African Americans, yet southern states found ways around it like poll taxes and literacy tests.

• Thirteenth Amendment

• Fourteenth Amendment

• Fifteenth Amendment