Reconstruction

Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that granted citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States," which included former slaves recently freed.

Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that prohibits the United States from denying a citizen the right to vote on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude".

enabled farm laborers to rent ground from landowners for a percentage of crops (called crop rent) or cash payments (called cash rent).

A vigilante group that whipped, tortured, and murdered former slaves in an attempt to restore white supremacy.

officially abolished and continues to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude.

laws passed at the state and local level in the United States to limit the basic human rights and civil liberties of blacks.

A negative term Southerners gave to Northerners (also referred to as Yankees) who moved to the South during the Reconstruction era, between 1865 and 1877.

An agency set up by the US government at the close of the Civil War to help the freed slaves. It offered help of various kinds, including education and resolving disputes with employers. The Bureau also helped many white Southerners impoverished by the war.

A nickname for southern whites who supported Reconstruction following the Civil War.

The period after the Civil War, when political, economic and social structures were rebuilt.

Leaders of Congress who worked to destroy the white power structure in the south after the Civil War

men and women who had been slaves

government pardon

To accuse government officials of misconduct while in office

legal separation of people based on racial, ethnic, or other differences