The Civil War Unit 4 Vocabulary

Civil War War between the states (North and South fought against one another over slavery and how the national government should be run)

Abolition Movement to end Slavery

Abolitionist A person who worked to end slavery (Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison)

Freedmen Former slave who has been released from slavery

Emancipation Freeing someone from the control of another (Emancipation Proclamation-Abraham Lincoln)

Dysentery An infection of the intestines

Amputation Removal of all or part of a limb

Plantation Large farm or estate where slaves worked and cash crops were grown during the Antebellum period (Civil War Era)

Secede To break away (the southern states seceded from the union before the Civil War began and created the Confederate States of America)

Secessionist Someone who believed in seceding from the Union

Segregate To separate (African Americans had to use different things and sit different places.)

Total War When everything in a country revolves around war (life, production, business, etc.)

Reconstruction Time period after the American Civil War in which the south and parts of the north worked to rebuild nearly every aspect of their life and economy.

Turning Point Time in a war when the tides turn to the other side (one side begins to win more battles)

Underground Railroad Informal network of secret routes and safe houses that helped slaves escape to freedom in the north (Harriet Tubman was the “Conductor”)

Carpetbagger Name given to northerners who moved to the south during the reconstruction era after the Civil War (negative term given by southerners because they were trying to take advantage of the southerners)

Black Codes Laws passed on state and local levels of government to limit basic human rights and civil liberties of blacks

Freedman’s Bureau Federal government agency that aided refugees and freed slaves during the reconstruction era Passed to help former slaves get food and housing

Grandfather Clause Voting rights law If your grandfather DID NOT vote you could not vote either (did not allow most African American men to vote)

Jim Crow Laws State and local laws that were supposedly “separate but equal” (racial segregation in public facilities)