RECONSTRUCTION & WESTWARD EXPANSION

Vocab

Centralized Government: organized government of a country or territory where power is consolidated into one body, group, or city.

Impeachment: the process of accusing a public official of wrongdoing

Reconstruction: the period of rebuilding that followed the Civil War, during which the defeated Confederate states were readmitted to the Union

Amendment: changing or correcting

13th Amendment: an amendment to the US Constitution that has abolished slavery and involuntary servitude

14th Amendment: an amendment to the US Constitution that makes all persons born or naturalized in the United States, including former slaves, citizens of the country and guarantees equal protection under the law

15th Amendment: an amendment to the US Constitution that prohibits the denial of voting rights to people because of their race or color or because they have previously been slaves

Due Process: a course of formal proceedings carried out regularly and in accordance with established rules and principals

Sharecropping: a system in which landowners give farm workers land, seed, and tools in return for part of the crops they raise

Poll Tax: an annual tax that formerly had to be paid in some Southern states by anyone wishing to vote

Literacy Test: tests that potential voters were required to pass in some Southern states

Grandfather Clause: Clause used formerly in some Southern states that exempted whites from the strict voting requirements used to keep African Americans from the polls

Separate but Equal: Agreement that came from Plessy v. Ferguson case that allowed Southern states to have separate facilities for African Americans as long as the facilities were equal in quality

Segregation: Separation of the races

Manifest Destiny: 19th century belief that the United States would inevitably expand westward to the Pacific Ocean and into Mexican Territory

Annex: to incorporate (a country or other territory) within the domain of the state

Land Grant: land given to railroad companies by the federal government to motivate settlers to move west

Sovereign: one possessing or held to possess supreme political power (country or territory)

Reservation: a piece of public land set aside by the federal government for Native American tribes

Assimilation: a minority group’s adoption of the beliefs and way of life of the dominant culture