Reconstruction

the time after the Civil War in the United States when the country was rebuilding

Civil War

The War fought between the American North and South (the Union vs the Confederacy). The North (the Union) won. 750,000 people died. 1861 - 1865.

Abraham Lincoln

16th president of the United States. Led the North (the Union) through the Civil War.

Secession

The act of breaking away from your country.

Emancipation Proclamation

Speech given by Abraham Lincoln. Freed all the slaves in the South.

13th Amendment

Totally abolishes (gets rid of) slavery in the United States.

14th Amendment

Gave black Americans citizenship in the United States.

15th Amendment

Gave black American males the right to vote in the United States.

Sharecropper

Former slaves and poor whites in the South worked on land owned by someone else. They got to keep some of the crops and had to give the rest to the landowner.

Plessy v Ferguson

"Separate but equal". Allowed states to segregate (divide) services to black and white Americans as long as the services were "equal".