Causes and Terms
This term describes the period after the Civil War when the United States worked to rebuild and reunite the country.
What is the Reconstruction Period
He became president after Lincoln's assassination and often clashed with Radical Republicans.
Who is Andrew Johnson
The laws that defined freed people as citizens in federal law and tried to block Black Codes were passed in 1866; name the act.
What is Civil Rights Act of 1866
Which amendment abolished slavery?
What is the 13th Amendment?
The secret group that used violence and intimidation against African Americans and Republicans in the South was the ________.
What is Ku Klux Klan.
The practice of forcing freed people to work for no pay by leasing prisoners to private employers was called this.
What is convict lease system
This Radical Republican from Pennsylvania led efforts for strong federal action to protect freed people and pushed for the 13th Amendment
Who is Thaddeus Stevens.
These were laws and practices (like literacy tests and poll taxes) used to prevent African Americans from voting despite the 15th Amendment; give the general name.
What is disenfranchisement laws (voter suppression)
The amendment that defined citizenship and guaranteed equal protection under the law is the ________ Amendment.
What is the 14th amendment?
The term for Southern laws that enforced racial segregation after Reconstruction ended is ________.
What are the Jim Crow laws
Name the laws passed in Southern states that limited freedoms of African Americans after the Civil War.
What is Black Codes
Union general and Civil War hero elected president in 1868 who tried to enforce Reconstruction laws.
Who is Ulysses S. Grant
What was one important service that Freedmen’s Bureau schools provided to freed people?
What is literacy/basic education
What did the 15th Amendment prohibit the government from using to deny voting rights?
What is race, color, or previous condition of servitude
Name one political success for African Americans during Reconstruction (local or national).
What is Hiram Revels elected to U.S. Senate; many African Americans elected to state legislatures or local offices.
The federal agency created in 1865 to help freed people with food, education, and legal aid was called the ________.
What is Freedmen’s Bureau.
This term describes Northerners who moved to the South during Reconstruction; they were sometimes accused of exploiting the region.
What are carpetbaggers.
Define "sharecropping" in one sentence and explain why it often kept African Americans in poverty.
What is a farmer worked land owned by someone else in exchange for a share of the crops; it often kept families in debt because landowners charged high prices or claimed debts, trapping sharecroppers year after year.
Congress used military districts and federal troops to protect freed people and enforce Reconstruction after passing this 1867 law.
What is Military Reconstruction Act (Reconstruction Acts of 1867)
What was an "Exoduster"? Give one reason why many African Americans did NOT leave the South.
What is Exoduster = an African American who left the South after Reconstruction (often to Kansas). Many did not leave because moving was expensive; they lacked funds/resources; had family or land ties.
Explain (briefly) two major economic problems the South faced after the Civil War.
What is destroyed infrastructure (railroads, bridges, cities); loss of livestock and crops; collapsed commerce and banks; loss of slave labor requiring economic restructuring; widespread poverty/unemployment.
This term describes Northerners who moved to the South during Reconstruction; they were sometimes accused of exploiting the region.
What was Johnson was too lenient toward the South; he supported strong states’ rights; he vetoed Civil Rights/Freedmen’s Bureau bills; he was sympathetic to ex-Confederates.
Describe how vagrancy and convict lease laws worked together to limit freedom for African Americans.
What is Vagrancy laws criminalized unemployment or lack of residence; many convicted could not pay fines and were jailed. Convict lease laws allowed states to lease prisoners to employers for labor, effectively forcing unpaid labor and recreating conditions similar to slavery.
Explain how Congress was able to override President Johnson's vetoes of major Reconstruction laws (one-sentence answer)
What is Republicans gained large majorities in both houses after the 1866 midterm elections, giving them the two-thirds votes needed to override Johnson's vetoes.
Summarize (in two sentences) one long-term positive and one long-term negative effect of Reconstruction on the United States.
What is Positive — Reconstruction produced the 13th–15th Amendments, expanding legal rights and citizenship protections. Negative — Many of those rights were undermined by Jim Crow laws, disenfranchisement, and racial violence that limited rights for decades.