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Reconstruction
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Reconstruction | the period following the Civil War in which the American government aimed to bring the North and South together and rebuild the nation |
| Freedman's Bureau | agency established by Congress to help poor people and freed slaves after the Civil War; it provided food, shelter, clothing, work and education |
| black codes | laws passed in southern states during Reconstruction that greatly limited the freedom and rights of African Americans |
| Thirteenth Amendment | constitutional amendment that outlawed slavery |
| Fourteenth Amendment | constitutional amendment giving full rights of citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the U.S., except American Indians |
| Fifteenth Amendment | constitutional amendment that gave African American men the right to vote |
| Radical Republicans | members of Congress who felt that southern states needed to make great changes to southern society before they could be admitted to the Union |
| Ku Klux Klan | secret society created by white southerners that used terror and violence to keep African Americans from obtaining their civil rights |
| sharecropping | system used on southern farms in which poor farmers worked the land owned by someone else in return for a small portion of the crops |
| scalawags | name that southern Democrats gave to southern Republicans; it means "liars" and "cheats" |
| carpetbaggers | Republicans from the North who moved to the South during Reconstruction, usually for political or financial gain |
| crop lien | a loan to grow crops |
| Hamburg Massacre | six black militia members were killed by a white mob in Aiken, SC |
| Red Shirts | Democrats who supported Wade Hampton for governor of S.C. and used violence and intimidation to influence the 1876 election |