6th grade vocabulary

1. Reconstruction
Vocabulary

2. Reconstruction
the period after the American Civil War
when the southern states were
reorganized and brought back into the
Union; 1865-1877

3. Reconstruction
the activity of constructing something
again

4. Radical Republican
during and after the Civil War, a member of the
Republican Party committed to freeing of the slaves
and later to the equal treatment and enfranchisement
of the freed blacks.

5. Franchise
The right to vote

6. Suffrage
The right to vote

7. Freedmen
a former slave who has been released
from slavery, usually by legal means

8. Yeoman
a farmer who cultivates his own land

9. Waving the bloody shirt
A political practice of referring to the
blood shed by martyrs or heroes to
inspire support for their cause or avoid
criticism

10. Pardon
Forgiveness for a serious crime

11. Amnesty
A general pardon, especially for crimes
against a government, forgiveness

12. Black codes
Codes of law created by the states after
the Civil War that limited the rights of
freedmen.

13. Impeachment
the presentation of formal charges against a
public official by the House of Representatives.
This does NOT mean that the official is kicked
out of office.

14. Scalawag
a Southerner who cooperated with
occupying Union forces after the war,
often for personal gain

15. Carpetbagger
a Northerner who went South after the
war for personal gain or political
advancement

16. Sharecropping
a system of agriculture in which a
landowner allows a tenant to use the
land in return for a share of the crop
produced on that land