Reconstruction Era Key Terms

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Black Codes

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Laws passed in 1865 and 1866 in the former Confederate states to limit the rights and freedoms of African Americans.

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Civil Rights

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The rights guaranteed by the Constitution to all people, especially equal treatment under the law.

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Fifteenth Amendment

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A change to the Constitution, ratified in 1870, declaring that states cannot deny anyone the right to vote because of race or color or because the person was once enslaved.

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Fourteenth Amendment

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A change to the Constitution, ratified in 1868, granting citizenship to anyone born in the United States and guaranteeing all individuals equal protection of the law.

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Freedmen's Bureau

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An agency established by Congress at the end of the Civil War to help and protect newly freed Black Americans.

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Jim Crow Laws

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Laws enforcing segregation of Black people and White people in the South after the Civil War.

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Reconstruction

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The period after the Civil War in which Southern states were rebuilt and brought back into the Union as the federal government addressed the impact of slavery.

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Thirteenth Amendment

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A change to the Constitution, ratified in 1865, abolishing slavery in the United States.