Civil War + Reconstruction Vocabulary List

Question 1

Reform

Answer 1

“ The amendment, or altering for the better, of some faulty state of things, esp. of a corrupt or oppressive political institution or practice; the removal of some abuse or wrong”

Question 2

Nativist

Answer 2

nativism, an ideology, governmental policy, or political stance that prioritizes the interests and well-being of native-born or long-established residents of a given country

Question 3

Steam Engine

Answer 3

A steam engine is a machine that uses heat and steam pressure to create mechanical motion.

Question 4

Suffrage

Answer 4

The right to vote in electing public officials and adopting or rejecting proposed legislation.

Question 5

Co-Education

Answer 5

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

Question 6

Abolitionist

Answer 6

In the late 1700s people who were opposed to slavery began a movement to abolish, or end, the practice.

Question 7

Casualty

Answer 7

someone who has been hurt or killed, but the difference is in the cause. If that person has been harmed in a war or accident

Question 8

Revolt

Answer 8

an illegal and often violent attempt by a group of people to change their country’s political system.

Question 9

Prohibition

Answer 9

a nationwide ban on the sale and import of alcoholic beverages that lasted from 1920 to 1933.

Question 10

Three Fifths Compromise

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Underground Railroad

Answer 11

An organized network devoted to keep slaves away from their masters, sometimes even crossing the border into Canada.

Question 12

Dred Scott Decision

Answer 12

The U.S. Supreme Court stated that enslaved people were not citizens of the United States and, therefore, could not expect any protection from the federal government or the courts

Question 13

Bleeding Kansas

Answer 13

A small civil war in the United States, fought between proslavery and antislavery advocates for control of the new territory of Kansas under the doctrine of popular sovereignty.

Question 14

Union Troops

Answer 14

The land force that fought to preserve the collective Union of the states,

Question 15

Confederacy

Answer 15

a political union

Question 16

Abraham Lincoln

Answer 16

16th president of the United States (1861–65), who preserved the Union during the American Civil War and brought about the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States.

Question 17

Secession

Answer 17

The action of breaking away or formally withdrawing from an alliance, a federation, a political or religious organization, etc

Question 18

Militia

Answer 18

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

Question 18

Battle of Fort Sumter

Answer 18

The location of the first battle of the Civil War

Question 18

Jefferson Davis

Answer 18

planter, politician and soldier

Question 19

Battle of Bull Run

Answer 19

Two conflicts in the American Civil War

Question 20

Battle of Shiloh

Answer 20

Allowed Union troops to penetrate the Confederate interior

Question 21

Battle of Gettysburg

Answer 21

One of the turning points of the American Civil War. The South lost many of its men, including generals and colonels, and Gen. Robert E. Lee lost all hope of invading the North.

Question 21

Battle of Antietam

Answer 21

The deadliest one-day battle in American military history

Question 22

Gettysburg Address

Answer 22

A short speech reminding why the Civil War was fought and honoring the sacrifice of the many men who had died fighting it

Question 23

Appomattox Court House

Answer 23

Set the stage for the surrender of all Confederate forces, the reunification of the Country, and sweeping Constitutional change

Question 24

Surrender

Answer 24

to give up, or to give oneself over to something

Question 25

Emancipation Proclamation

Answer 25

issued by President Lincoln on Jan. 1, 1863, declared all persons held as slaves to be free

Question 26

13th Amendment

Answer 26

ended slavery in the United States

Question 27

US Civil War

Answer 27

4 year war (1861-1865) between US and 11 Southern states (Confederate States)

Question 28

Reconstruction

Answer 28

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 29

Jim Crow Laws

Answer 29

State and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced racial segregation

Question 30

Segregation

Answer 30

Separation of groups of people with differing characteristics, often taken to connote a condition of inequality.

Question 31

Reconstruction Act of 1867

Answer 31

established military rule over Southern states until new governments could be formed; limited rights of Confederate officers on voting and running for public office

Question 32

Amnesty

Answer 32

government pardons a large group of individuals for their crimes

Question 33

Ten Percent Plan

Answer 33

part of reconstruction - would allow Southern states to make new state governments once 10% of the male population took loyalty oaths and recognized the permeant freedom of former slaves

Question 34

Freedman

Answer 34

former enslaved person; released by legal means

Question 35

Integrate

Answer 35

process where newcomers or minorities are incorporated into society

Question 36

Sharecropping

Answer 36

a landlord lets others farm the land for a share of the crops

Question 37

Lynching

Answer 37

unlawful killing of minorities by a mob or group

Question 38

Reform Movement

Answer 38

Advocates a change that will preserve the existing values but will provide improved means of implementing them