Reconstruction Vocabulary

Question 1

The act of rebuilding former Confederate states and restoring them to the United States of America.

Answer 1

Reconstruction

Question 2

The U. S. Constitutional Amendment that ended slavery.

Answer 2

13th Amendment

Question 3

The U. S. Constitutional Amendment that provided equal protection under the law and due process for citizens of the United States.

Answer 3

14th Amendment

Question 4

The U. S. Constitutional Amendment that said all males of legal age (21 at the time) could vote. This did not include females of any ethnicity. Females did not get the right to vote until the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1919.

Answer 4

15th Amendment

Question 5

President of the United States during the Civil War, he was assassinated at Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC just 5 days after the end of the War on April 14, 1865.

Answer 5

Abraham Lincoln

Question 6

A formal change or addition to the constitution or a law.

Answer 6

Amendment

Question 7

Vice-President under Lincoln, he became President when Lincoln was assassinated. He was not well liked and Congress began an impeachment process, but he was found not guilty and remained in office.

Answer 7

Andrew Johnson

Question 8

Laws passed in the South that discriminated against Freedmen. They included such laws as curfews, various laws regulating work and pay, and other restrictions on freed African-Americans.

Answer 8

Black codes

Question 9

A Northerner who came South during Reconstruction to profit from the chaos and confusion. Generally disliked throughout the South.

Answer 9

Carpetbagger

Question 10

Government run by elected officials and the people of the state or nation.

Answer 10

Civil government

Question 11

Part of the Republican Party that supported Lincoln and Johnson and wanted to readmit former Confederate states quickly into the Union, “forgive and forget” the war years, and get things back to normal quickly, they were voted out of power in the years after 1865.

Answer 11

Conservative Republicans

Question 12

Appointed Governor of Texas during Radical Reconstruction under martial law and later elected Governor.

Answer 12

Edmund Davis

Question 13

The act of freeing formerly enslaved persons.

Answer 13

Emancipation

Question 14

The agency set up after the Civil War to help freed slaves get an education and a “fresh” start. They promised “40 acres and a mule” to every Freedman.

Answer 14

Freedman’s Bureau

Question 15

The term used to represent a freed slave during Reconstruction.

Answer 15

Freedman

Question 16

A qualification set for voting (after the passage of the 15th Amendment) in many Southern states. It said that you could vote ONLY IF your grandfather had been able to vote. It was one way of excluding freed slaves from voting.

Answer 16

Grandfather clause

Question 17

The man who assassinated Abraham Lincoln, he was tracked and later killed by Federal Marshalls. Others who helped him in a proven conspiracy were put on trial and hanged, including Mary Surrat, one of the first women to be put to death by hanging.

Answer 17

John Wilkes Booth

Question 18

A secret organization (of conservative, racist whites) used to intimidate and terrorize Blacks and other minorities.

Answer 18

Ku Klux Klan

Question 19

A qualification put on voting that was a test to prove someone could read and write before they were allowed to register to vote. This law discriminated against Freedmen, who had lacked an education before the Civil War.

Answer 19

Literacy test

Question 20

A promise or oath required of all Southerners who had fought for or in any way aided the Confederacy. They had to promise never to fight against the United States again.

Answer 20

Loyalty oath

Question 21

More than one-half of a group (i.e. majority vote, majority party and so on).

Answer 21

Majority

Question 22

Military rule imposed on citizens instead of civil law and government. Martial law suspends such things as voting and trial by jury. The South was put under martial law following the Civil War.

Answer 22

Marital Law

Question 23

Another qualification put on the right to vote provided by the 15th Amendment. This qualification required the voter to pay a tax to register to vote.

Answer 23

Poll tax

Question 24

This group came into power in the late 1860’s and stayed in power into the 1870’s. They wanted to punish the South for their part in the Civil War and refused to forgive them quickly*italics. They began a period called Radical Reconstruction that was very harsh on the South.

Answer 24

Radical Republicans

Question 25

To formally approve an Amendment or law.

Answer 25

Ratify

Question 26

These were laws passed by the Radical Republicans that divided the South into five military districts that were ruled by martial law. All civil government and civil rights were suspended for anyone who had in any way supported the Confederacy (which was almost anyone who was a white Southerner). Texas was a part of the 5th Military District and didn’t get fully readmitted into the Union until the mid-1870’s.

Answer 26

Reconstruction Acts

Question 27

A Southerner who sided with the Northerners and the soldiers who occupied the South during Radical Reconstruction and profited from Reconstruction. He also joined the Republican Party. His neighbors saw him as a “traitor” to other Southerners.

Answer 27

Scalawag

Question 28

This law provided a free public education to all children in Texas between the ages of 6 and 18. It was passed by Edmund Davis during Reconstruction.

Answer 28

School Act

Question 29

Elected to be the 18th President of the United States as a Radical Republican (in 1868). He campaigned on his Civil War record.

Answer 29

Ulysses S. Grant