Civil War + Reconstruction Vocabulary

Question 1

Reform

Answer 1

to amend or improve by change of form or removal of faults or abuses

Question 2

Nativist

Answer 2

the practice or policy of favoring native-born citizens as against immigrants

Question 3

Steam Engine

Answer 3

steam engine, Machine that uses steam power to perform mechanical work through the agency of heat (hence a prime mover). In a steam engine, hot steam, usually supplied by a boiler, expands under pressure, and part of the heat energy is converted into work

Question 4

Reform Movement

Answer 4

In social movement: Types of social movements. …a distinction implies that a reform movement advocates a change that will preserve the existing values but will provide improved means of implementing them. The revolutionary movement, on the other hand, is regarded as advocating replacement of existing values

Question 5

Suffrage

Answer 5

the right of voting : franchise. also : the exercise of such right. Etymology. Latin suffragium vote, political support, from suffragari to support with one’s vote

Question 6

Co-Education

Answer 6

he education of both male and female students at the same institution

Question 7

Abolitionist

Answer 7

a person who wants to stop or abolish slavery

Question 8

Casualty

Answer 8

Britannica Dictionary definition of CASUALTY. 1. [count] : a person who is hurt or killed during an accident, war, etc. a low number of casualties. The army suffered/took/sustained heavy casualties [=many soldiers were killed or wounded] in the town.

Question 9

Revolt

Answer 9

to break away from or rise against constituted authority, as by open rebellion; cast off allegiance or subjection to those in authority; rebel; mutiny: to revolt against the present government

Question 10

Prohibition

Answer 10

the act of prohibiting. 2. : an order forbidding something. 3. often capitalized : the forbidding by law of the sale and manufacture of alcoholic beverages.

Question 11

Three Fifths Compromise

Answer 11

It determined that three out of every five slaves was counted when determining a state’s total population for legislative representation and taxation

Question 12

Dred Scott Decision

Answer 12

the United States Supreme Court upheld slavery in United States territories, denied the legality of black citizenship in America, and declared the Missouri Compromise to be unconstitutional

Question 13

Underground Railroad

Answer 13

the resistance to enslavement through escape and flight, through the end of the Civil War

Question 14

Bleeding Kansas

Answer 14

Abolitionists and pro-slavery settlers fought about whether Kansas would be a free or slave state

Question 15

Union Troops

Answer 15

During the American Civil War, the United States Army, the land force that fought to preserve the collective Union of the states, was often referred to as the Union Army, the Grand Army of the Republic, the Federal Army, or the Northern Army

Question 16

Confederacy

Answer 16

a group of people, countries, organizations, etc. joined together for a common purpose or by a common interest

Question 17

Abraham Lincoln

Answer 17

Definitions of Abraham Lincoln. 16th President of the United States; saved the Union during the American Civil War and emancipated the slaves; was assassinated by Booth (1809-1865) synonyms: Lincoln, President Abraham Lincoln, President Lincoln

Question 18

Jefferson Davis

Answer 18

Jefferson Davis was a celebrated veteran of the Mexican War (1846–1848), a U.S. senator from Mississippi (1847–1851; 1857–1861), secretary of war under U.S. president Franklin Pierce (1853–1857), and the only president of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War (1861–1865)

Question 19

Secession

Answer 19

To secede is to break away from a territory or group in power and create a separate entity. Throughout history, this is almost always the result of a political act. Disagreements over customs, government, or land all can be factors in a group’s decision to secede

Question 20

Militia

Answer 20

a private group of armed individuals that operates as a paramilitary force and is typically motivated by a political or religious ideology

Question 21

Battle of Fort Sumter

Answer 21

South Carolina location where Confederate forces fired the first shots of the Civil War in April of 1861

Question 22

Battle of Bull Run

Answer 22

Fairfax County and Prince William County, VA | Jul 21, 1861. Bull Run was the first full-scale battle of the Civil War. The fierce fight there forced both the North and South to face the sobering reality that the war would be long and bloody

Question 23

Battle of Shiloh

Answer 23

The South’s defeat at Shiloh ended the Confederacy’s hopes of blocking the Union advance into Mississippi and doomed the Confederate military initiative in the West. With the loss of their commander, Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, in battle, Confederate morale plummeted

Question 24

Battle of Antietam

Answer 24

Most importantly, Union victory at Antietam provided President Abraham Lincoln the opportunity he had wanted to announce the Emancipation Proclamation, making the Battle of Antietam one of the key turning points of the American Civil War

Question 25

Battle of Gettysburg

Answer 25

The Battle of Gettysburg was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. The battle involved the largest number of casualties of the entire war and is often described as the war’s turning point.

Question 26

Gettysburg Address

Answer 26

The Gettysburg Address gave meaning to the sacrifice of over fifty thousand men who laid down their lives in the Battle of Gettysburg. The Gettysburg Address declared that the United States had to stand as a country where all men are created equal and should be treated as equals

Question 27

Appomattox Court House

Answer 27

The Appomattox Court House cultural landscape marks the beginning of the country’s transition to peace and reunification following four years of Civil War

Question 28

Surrender

Answer 28

to yield to the power, control, or possession of another upon compulsion or demand. surrendered the fort. b. : to give up completely or agree to forgo especially in favor of another

Question 29

13th Amendment

Answer 29

Passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the United States

Question 29

Emancipation Proclamation

Answer 29

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war

Question 30

US Civil War

Answer 30

American Civil War, four-year war (1861–65) between the United States and 11 Southern states that seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America

Question 31

Reconstruction

Answer 31

the historic period in which the United States grappled with the question of how to integrate millions of newly freed African Americans into social, political, and labor systems

Question 32

Jim Crow Laws

Answer 32

Segregation is the action of separating people, historically on the basis of race and/or gender

Question 33

Amnesty

Answer 33

a general pardon for offenses, especially political offenses, against a government, often granted before any trial or conviction

Question 33

Segregation

Question 34

Segregation

Answer 34

the separation or isolation of a race, class, or ethnic group by enforced or voluntary residence in a restricted area, by barriers to social intercourse, by separate educational facilities, or by other discriminatory means.

Question 35

Ten Percent Plan

Answer 35

in December, President Lincoln proposed a reconstruction program that would allow Confederate states to establish new state governments after 10 percent of their male population took loyalty oaths and the states recognized the permanent freedom of formerly enslaved people.

Question 36

Freedman

Answer 36

a person freed from slavery

Question 37

Integrate

Answer 37

What is a simple definition of integration?
Integration occurs when separate people or things are brought together, like the integration of students from all of the district’s elementary schools at the new middle school, or the integration of snowboarding on all ski slopes. You may know the word differentiate, meaning “set apart.” Integrate is its opposite

Question 38

Sharecropping

Answer 38

Sharecropping is a system where the landlord/planter allows a tenant to use the land in exchange for a share of the crop. This encouraged tenants to work to produce the biggest harvest that they could, and ensured they would remain tied to the land and unlikely to leave for other opportunities.

Question 39

Lynching

Answer 39

to put to death (as by hanging) by mob action without legal authority