Reconstruction Era and Related Terms

Emancipation Proclamation

• A declaration by President Abraham Lincoln that freed slaves in rebelling states on January 1, 1863.

• A law passed by Congress to abolish slavery in all states.

• An executive order that allowed states to decide on slavery.

• A speech given by Lincoln at Gettysburg about the importance of freedom.

Sharecropping

• A system where farmers own their land and sell crops for profit.

• A practice where landowners provide land to farmers in exchange for a fixed rent.

• A system in which formerly enslaved people and poor farmers worked land owned by others in exchange for a share of the crops, often trapping them in cycles of debt.

• A method of farming where crops are grown solely for personal consumption.

Disenfranchisement

• The state of being deprived of a right or privilege, especially the right to vote.

• A legal process to grant citizenship to immigrants.

• A method of voting that allows for anonymity.

• A political system where citizens have no rights.

Freedmen’s Bureau

• A federal agency established in 1865 to provide aid, education, and assistance to formerly enslaved people and poor whites in the South.

• A military organization formed to protect the rights of enslaved people during the Civil War.

• A social club for former Union soldiers to support their families after the war.

• A government program aimed at redistributing land to formerly enslaved people.

Poll Tax

• A fee required to vote, used to disenfranchise African Americans and poor white voters in the South.

• A tax imposed on property owners to fund public schools.

• A fee charged for registering to vote in federal elections.

• A tax levied on income to support local governments.

Grandfather Clause

• A law that allowed individuals to vote only if their ancestors had voted before Reconstruction, effectively disenfranchising African Americans.

• A law that granted voting rights to all citizens regardless of their ancestry.

• A law that required individuals to pass a literacy test before voting.

• A law that allowed women to vote in federal elections.

Tenant Farming

• A system where farmers owned their land outright and sold their crops for profit.

• A system where farmers rented land and paid the landowner with a portion of their crops or cash, similar to sharecropping but with more independence.

• A system where landowners worked their own land without any help from tenants.

• A system where farmers were paid a fixed wage to work on the landowner's property.

Radical Republicans

• A faction of the Republican Party that advocated for leniency towards the former Confederate states.

• A group that sought to expand the rights of women during Reconstruction.

• A faction of the Republican Party that pushed for harsh penalties on the former Confederate states and full rights for African Americans during Reconstruction.

• A coalition of Northern Democrats who opposed the Civil War.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

• A Supreme Court case that upheld racial segregation under the 'separate but equal' doctrine, reinforcing discrimination against African Americans.

• A landmark case that abolished slavery in the United States.

• A Supreme Court decision that granted women the right to vote.

• A case that established the principle of judicial review.

Segregation

• The enforced separation of racial groups in public spaces, education, and employment, legally upheld by Jim Crow laws.

• A policy promoting the integration of different racial groups in society.

• A legal framework that supports equal rights for all racial groups.

• A movement aimed at abolishing racial discrimination in public spaces.