Vocabulary
A white southerner who supported the Republicans during the Reconstruction.
Scalawag.
A person who rents a plot of land from another person and farms it in exchange for a share of the crop.
Sharecropper.
Why didn't any state elect an African American governor?
Being a governor requires a lot of management experience and as former slaves, Freedmen never received that kind of experience.
What was the Ku Klux Klan, and what did it try to accomplish?
It was a secret society that used threats and violence to keep African Americans and white Republicans from voting and serving in office.
Explain the social and political impact on Southern conservatives during the Reconstruction?
A secret society organized in the South after the Civil War to reassert white supremacy by means of violence.
Ku Klux Klan.
An uncomplimentary nickname for a northerner who went to the South after Civil War.
Carpterbagger.
Why did sharecroppers end up in debt?
Sharecroppers could often not sell their crops to repay what they borrowed, so the debt grew.
Why did white Southern conservatives resist Reconstruction?
Conservatives opposed equality for African Americans and wanted power in the hands of whites.
How did politics in the South change during Reconstruction?
African Americans finally had a voice in the kinds of laws their government passed.
Give three examples of how Reconstruction governments brought improvements to southern states.
They built public schools, gave women the right to own property, and rebuilt infrastructure, including railroads, telegraph lines, and roads.
What were the differences between scalawags and carpetbaggers?
Scalawags were white Southern Republicans. Carpetbaggers were Northerners who came to the South.
What were the central challenges to rebuilding the South?
Well known for some bad quality or effect.
Notorious.
Expect or look ahead to.
Anticipate.
Summarize the problems that faced Reconstruction governments trying to rebuild the South.
Lack of money, corruption, and voting restrictions.