What You Will Learn
Goals
In this self-paced lesson you will examine the Reconstruction Amendments, determine their key provisions, and explain how these amendments affected African Americans and the former Confederacy.
Vocabulary
Review the meaning of the following vocabulary words before starting the lesson.
Abolition: the act of ending a system, practice, or institution.
Abridge: to shorten, reduce or deprive of.
Amendment: a change in a document; an article added to the U.S. Constitution.
Confederacy: an alliance; the Confederate States of America, a group of states that separated from the United States during the Civil War.
Consummate: to complete or fulfill; to make perfect.
Immunity: exemption from service, duties, or liabilities.
Insurrection: an act of revolt, rebellion or resistance against a government.
Jim Crow: a system of legal and extralegal measures designed to segregate African Americans and maintain white supremacy in the United States from the late 1800s until the 1960s.
Propaganda: a form of communication, usually biased or misleading, that is designed to promote a particular political point of view or agenda.
Provision: a clause in a legal document; a policy or rule.
Ratification: a process of approval or expressing consent. In the United States, amendments to the Constitution must be passed by Congress by a two-thirds majority, and then sent to the states for ratification, which requires three-fourths of the state legislatures (or state ratifying conventions) to approve the change.
Segregation: the act of setting apart; the enforced separation of racial groups.
Vitalize: to give life to.
Strategies
You will be using several reading and writing strategies to complete this lesson. The key strategies that you will focus on are:
- Determining central ideas
- Citing evidence
- Organizing information
- Synthesizing information from multiple sources
