Reconstruction Vocab

The movement of 6 million people out of the rural Southern United States to the urban Northeast, Midwest, and West that occurred between 1916 and 1970.

• African American Migration

• Sharecropping

• Black Codes

• Carpetbaggers

Laws written by Southern states (each state’s was slightly different) that were based on slave codes from the past. Prevented freedmen (persons of color) from voting, holding office, serving on juries, etc. Helped spur the creation of the 14th Amendment.

• African American Migration

• Black Codes

• Thirteenth Amendment

• Jim Crow Laws

Northerners who moved to the South after the Civil War to take advantage of the unstable social, financial, and political climate.

• Carpetbaggers

• Black Codes

• Ku Klux Klan

• Sharcropping

Land or business owner forces a worker to pay off a debt with work. Workers are often unable to re-pay the debt, and find themselves in a continuous work-without-pay cycle.

• Carpetbagger

• Ku Klux klan

• Radical Republican

• Debt Peonage

States that no one can be denied suffrage (right to vote) based on race or color.

• Black Codes

• Jim Crow Laws

• Fifteenth Amendment

• Fourteenth Amendment

Granted full citizenship to African Americans. States citizens cannot be deprived of rights without due process of the law. Guarantees equal protection under the law.

• Thirteenth Amendment

• Radical Republicans

• Fourteenth Amendment

• Sharecropping

Laws passed in the South after Reconstruction that required racial segregation.

• Jim Crow Laws

• Black Codes

• Debt Peonage

• African American Migration

Groups that believe in white supremacy. Were formed in the South to terrorize African Americans. Helped to enforce segregation and keep African Americans “in their place.”

• Carpetbaggers

• Ku Klux Klan

• Radical Republicans

• Thirteenth Amendment

A sub group of a political party who believed the South should face punishment for the Civil War and that African Americans should be given full political and civil equality. Gained power in Congress – was able to push through “Congressional Reconstruction”.

• African American Migration

• Black Codes

• Sharecropping

• Radical Republicans

System of agriculture used in the South with former slaves. Farmers would give a portion of their crops to the landowner in exchange for use of the land.

• Debt Peonage

• Radical Republicans

• Sharecropping

• Fourteenth Amendment