| A | B |
|---|
| Reconstruction | The period after the Civil War in which the states formerly part of the Confederacy were brought back into the United States. |
| Radical Republicans | A wing of the Republican Party organized around an uncompromising opposition to slavery before and during the Civil War and a vigorous campaign to secure rights for freed slaves during Reconstruction. |
| Thirteenth Amendment | Abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. In Congress, it was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, and by the House on January 31, 1865. |
| Fourteenth Amendment | Addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws and was proposed in response to issues related to former slaves following the American Civil War. |
| Fifteenth Amendment | Prohibits the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude". |
| Carpetbaggers | A person from the northern states who went to the South after the Civil War to profit from the Reconstruction. |
| Scalawags | A white Southerner who collaborated with northern Republicans during Reconstruction, often for personal profit. The term was used derisively by white Southern Democrats who opposed Reconstruction legislation. |
| Transcontinental Railroad | A train route across the United States, finished in 1869. It was the project of two railroad companies: the Union Pacific built from the east, and the Central Pacific built from the west. The two lines met in Utah. |
| Tenant Farmers | A farmer who works land owned by another and pays rent either in cash or in shares of produce |
| Sharecroppers | The poorest Southerners, white and black in return for farming a piece of land, they gave some of the crop to a landlord. Worn-out land, low prices for cotton, and high prices for farm supplies kept many sharecroppers in debt. |
| Jim Crow Laws | Southern states beginning in 1881, adopted these laws enforcing segregation. These laws applied to every part of life---marriage, education, healthcare, public accommodations, even burial. |
| Black Codes | In 1865, Southerners holding state conventions to organize new governments drew up measures to restrict the rights of former slaves. |
| Freedmen | An emancipated slave. |
| Disenfranchisement | The state of being deprived of a right or privilege, especially the right to vote. |
