Civil War & Reconstruction Vocab

1. Civil War & Reconstruction Vocab US History Honors

2. Civil War Vocab • Compromise of 1850: a series of congressional measures intended to settle the major disagreements between free states and slave states (California admitted as free state and much more strict Fugitive Slave Act) • Fugitive Slave Act: a law enacted as part of the Compromise of 1850, designed to ensure that escaped slaves would be returned to slavery • popular sovereignty: a system in which the residents vote to decide an issue • secession: the formal withdrawal of a state from the Union

3. Civil War Vocab • Anaconda Plan: a three part strategy by which the Union proposed to defeat the Confederacy in the Civil War • conscription:the drafting of citizens for military service • Emancipation Proclamation: an executive order issued by Lincoln freeing the slaves in ALL regions behind Confederate lines • Thirteenth Amendment: abolished slavery and involuntary servitude

4. Civil War Vocab • Battle of Gettysburg: turning point of the Civil War, the South (Confederacy) never invaded the north again • Gettysburg Address: famous speech given by Lincoln, at a dedication of a national cemetery in Gettysburg • Total War: military strategy in which an army attacks not only enemy troops but the economic and civilian resources that support them • Appomattox: court house where Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant which ended the Civil War

5. Reconstruction Vocab • Reconstruction:the period of rebuilding that followed the Civil War, during which the defeated Confederate states were readmitted into the Union • Fourteenth Amendment: makes all persons born in the US – including former slaves – citizens of the country and guarantees equal protection of the laws • Fifteenth Amendment: prohibits the denial of voting rights to people because of their race or color or because they have previously been slaves • Freedmen’s Bureau: a federal agency set up to help former slaves after the Civil War

6. Reconstruction Vocab • Black Codes: discriminatory laws passed throughout the post Civil War South which severely restricted African Americans’ lives • Ku Klux Klan: a secret organization that used terrorist tactics in an attempt to restore white supremacy in Southern states after the Civil War • Sharecropping:a system in which landowners give farm workers land, seed, and tools in return for part of the crops they raise • Poll Tax:an annual tax that formerly had to be paid in some Southern states by anyone wishing to vote

7. Reconstruction Vocab • Literacy Test: tests that potential voters were required to pass in some Southern states • Grandfather Clause:clause used formerly in some Southern states that exempted whites from the strict voting requirements used to keep African Americans from the polls • Separate but Equal: agreement that came from Plessy v. Ferguson case that allowed Southern states to have separate facilities for African Americans as long as the facilities were equal in quality • Segregation:separation of the races

8. Westward expansion Vocab • Manifest Destiny: 19th century belief that the United States would inevitably expand westward to the Pacific Ocean and into Mexican Territory • Land Grant:land given to railroad companies by the federal government to motivate settlers to move west • Assimilation:a minority group’s adoption of the beliefs and way of life of the dominant culture • Reservation:a piece of public land set aside by the federal government for Native American tribes