The Reconstruction
Amendments
This amendment completely banned slavery and involuntary servitude across the United States and all its territories, except as punishment for a felony.
13th Amendment
This federal agency was established in March 1865 to provide food, clothing, medical care, and schools to formerly enslaved people in the South.
Freedmen's Bureau
This massive expanse of flat grasslands sits in the central portion of the United States and was heavily settled after the Civil War.
the Great Plains
This agricultural technique required deep plowing to break up the dense prairie sod and seal existing moisture within the soil clumps.
Dry Farming
Passed by Congress during the Civil War, this landmark law offered 160 acres of free public land to any citizen willing to migrate west and farm it.
Homestead Act
This amendment grants full citizenship to all individuals born or naturalized in the United States and guarantees them equal protection under the law.
14th Amendment
This powerful voice for human rights fought passionately for constitutional amendments that guaranteed voting liberties and civil rights for all until his death in 1895.
Frederick Douglass
This phrase describes how the geography of the Great Plains changes physically as you travel westward across the continent.
flatlands that rise gradually from east to west
Lacking expensive forest lumber, western homesteaders used thick, hand-cut blocks of prairie grass roots to construct these insulated shelters.
Sod Houses
This critical transportation link, fully completed in 1869, joined the East and West coasts to move passengers, mail, and industrial materials across the country.
Transcontinental Railroad
This amendment ensures that the right of citizens to vote cannot be denied or abridged based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
15th Amendment
This U.S. President sought to bring Confederate states back into the Union through a lenient "10% Plan," but his plans were cut short by his assassination in April 1865.
Abraham Lincoln
Because of dry weather patterns and a complete lack of natural trees, the soil of the Great Plains was constantly vulnerable to this geological process caused by wind and water.
Erosion
Invented by John Deere and nicknamed the "grasshopper plow," this sharp steel tool cut cleanly through the dense, heavy soil of the plains.
Steel Plow
This fierce military leader of the Apache nation spearheaded decades of armed resistance against the expansion of white settlements into his tribe's southwestern lands.
Geronimo
Despite the protections of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, these two specific groups of people did not receive the full benefits of citizenship until generations later.
American Indians and women
Reconstruction officially ended in 1877 due to this backroom political agreement, which gave Rutherford B. Hayes the presidency in exchange for removing federal troops from the South.
Compromise of 1877?
Along with low overall rainfall, settlers on the harsh open plains frequently had to survive these blinding, wind-driven dirt storms.
dust storms
These tall wooden structures utilized the open prairies' heavy winds to pump vital water out of deep underground wells.
Windmills
This tragic 1890 massacre of a fleeing band of Sioux Indians along a creek in South Dakota marked the absolute end of the Plains Indian Wars.
Battle of Wounded Knee
This legal term from the 14th Amendment means that the exact same rights, privileges, and legal shields must be provided to all citizens equally.
Equal Protection under the Law
This former Confederate general urged white Southerners to stop fighting, reconcile with the North, and reintegrate as Americans at the war's end.
Robert E. Lee
Before new technological advances changed their minds, early travelers completely dismissed the Great Plains region by calling it by this negative name.
treeless wasteland
Made of twisted steel metal strands, this cheap fencing alternative allowed farmers to protect crops and enclose their cattle without any timber.
barbed wire
This 1887 federal law attempted to forcefully assimilate American Indians by breaking up communal tribal reservations into individual family farming plots.
Dawes Act (or Dawes Severalty Act)