| A | B |
|---|
| Reconstruction | the period following the Civil War in which Congress passed laws designed to rebuild the country and bring the Southern states back into the Union |
| Freedmen's Bureau | a government agency created in 1865 that provided food, schools, and medical care for freed slaves and others in the South |
| Sharecropping | a system common in the South in the late 1800s and early 1900s in which freed slaves, who could not afford to buy land from a landowner by promising to pay the owner with a share of the crop when harvested |
| Segregation | the separation of people, usually based on race or religion |
| Jim Crow Laws | laws passed by southern states after Reconstruction that established segregation or separation of the race |
| Discrimination | an unfair difference in the treatment of people |
| 13th Amendment | passed by Congress and added to the Constitution, which abolished slavery |
| 14th Amendment | passed by Congress and added to the Constitution, which protected the rights of all American citizens |
| 15th Amendment | passed by Congress and added to the Constitution, which protected the rights of all male United States citizens to vote |
| Poll Tax | unfair taxes established to keep African Americans from voting |
| Railroads | were a key to the expansion of business, agriculture, and industry. They helped cities grow. |
| Coal deposits | discovered in Tazwell County and became a source of new jobs in southwest Virginia |
| Tobacco farming | became an important Virginia Industry during Reconstruction |
