abolitionist - person who supported ending slavery
alliance - two or more groups that cooperate with each other to achieve a common goal
amendment - a change, correction, or improvement to something, such as the United Stated Constitution. From 1789, when our constitution was written, to 1992, twenty-seven Constitutional amendments have been passed.
approximately - not exactly, but close to it
artifact - any object made or used by man
assassination - the murder of an important person by a surprise attack, usually for payment or political reasons.
Black Codes - laws passed in southern states after the Civil War to regain control of freed slaves. These laws restricted the legal rights of African Americans and controlled many aspects of their lives.
census - an official count of a population. The U.S Census is made every 10 years.
Civil War - a war between two groups within a country. The American Civil War (1860-1865) was fought between the Union (northern states) and the Confederacy (the southern states).
colored - African American
Confederacy - also known as Confederate States of America, the Confederacy was made up of eleven southern states of the United States of America between 1861 and 1865. It is also referred to as “the South.” Texas was a Confederate state.
Congress - the United States Senate and House of Representatives which pass federal laws.
freedman - a person who has been freed from slavery.
Freedman’s Bureau - The U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, popularly known as the Freedmen’s Bureau, was established in 1865 by Congress to help former slaves and poor whites in the South after the U.S. Civil War.
Jim Crow - racial segregation laws that were passed in the South, resulting in segregated schools, transportation, and housing.
Ku Klux Klan - Also known as the KKK, the Ku Klux Klan was organized in Tennessee in 1865. Its purpose was to frighten African Americans and other minority groups through the use of public violence.
lynching - the practice of a mob (usually several dozen or several hundred persons) taking the law into its own hands in order to injure and kill a person accused of some wrongdoing.
mass production - the making of large amounts of the same product.
mulatto - a person who is born from one white parent and one black parent.
percent - 1/100th of something.
Reconstruction - period after the Civil War (1865-1877) when the U.S. government tried to bring southern states back into the union and improve freedoms for former slaves.
secede - to withdraw from an organization, as the southern states (including Texas) seceded from the United States.
segregation - the practice of keeping racial groups separate.
sharecropper - a farmer who lives on and works the land of its owner and is paid a share of the value of the crop.
slave schedule - numbered lists of slaves owned by a person.
In most cases, individual slaves were not listed by name in the schedule, but were only numbered and could be identified only by age, sex, and darkness of skin.
statistic - a single piece of information that helps describe a population.
surname - last name, usually one’s family name. African American slaves usually took the surname of their owner, or of the plantation they worked on.
unconstitutional - not allowed by the U.S. Constitution.
Underground Railroad - a network of secret routes and safe houses in the United States used in the 1800s by slaves trying to escape to free states, Canada, and Mexico. By 1850, as many as 100,000 slaves had escaped using the “Railroad.”
Union - the national government of the United States of America which included 20 free states and five slave states which supported the Union. It is also referred to as “the North”.
vigilante - member of a self-appointed group that takes the law into his own hands. |