Reconstruction
Lesson 2: Sharecropping to the KKK
5-1.2 Explain the effects of Reconstruction, including new rights under the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth
amendments; the actions of the Freedmen’s Bureau; and the move from a plantation system to sharecropping.
5-1.3 Explain the purpose and motivations of subversive groups during Reconstruction and their rise to power
after the withdrawal of federal troops from the South.
Vocabulary:
1. Sharecropping: ________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Dred Scott Case: _______________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
3. Ku Klux Klan: _________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
4. Terrorism: ____________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
5. The ______ Amendment freed the slaves everywhere in the United States.
6. Consequently, during _______________________, the rights of African Americans were protected by the
federal government.
7. The _______ Amendment overturned the ________________ decision and recognized the citizenship of
African Americans.
8. The amendment affected African Americans in all parts of the United States, not just in the
______________.
9. Southern states refused to ________________________________________ and so
________________________________ was imposed.
10. The ___________ amendment declared that the right to vote of a male citizen could not be infringed upon
based on “race, creed or previous condition of servitude.”
11. Although the _____th, ______th and ______th amendments were designed to protect the rights of African
Americans, they were only effective so long as the Southern states were forced to follow them.
12. Once Reconstruction ended, there was nothing to protect the rights of African Americans. Although African
Americans had constitutional rights as a result of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, these were often
violated by hate or terrorist groups such as the _____________________________.
13. The initial reaction of freedmen to emancipation ranged from exhilaration to __________________.
14. The goal of African Americans during Reconstruction was to
_________________________________________ and _________________________________________.
15. Many left their plantations, but most ________________________________________________.
16. Instead of fleeing the south, they __________________________________________________________.
17. African Americans formed their own ___________________ where they or others could worship freely.
18. Many African Americans sought an _________________________ in the freedom schools that were
established.
19. Freedmen started ___________________, they ________________, and even _____________________
during Reconstruction.
20. During the Civil War and shortly after, some land was taken away from ___________________________
and given to _______________________________. However, the federal government returned most of
lands because they ____________________________________________________________.
21. Freedmen entered into agreements with white landowners to trade their labor for crops in an arrangement
known as ________________________________.
22. The Freedman’s Bureau provided _______________, __________________, ______________________,
_____________________ and some protection from the hostile environment in the South.
23. The Bureau helped many freedmen find _______________. However, African Americans were not able to
become successful economically because they didn’t have any _______________ of their own.
24. The most important contribution of the Freedman’s Bureau, however, was the establishment of over 1,000
__________________________ throughout the South.
25. During the Reconstruction period several discriminatory groups developed in order to intimidate the
freedmen; the most infamous of these was ________________________________________.
26. The goal of the KKK was to use ____________________, ______________________, and
_______________________ to keep African Americans from exercising their rights.
27. ______________________________________ became common methods of intimidating African
Americans who did not ‘know their place.’
28. The rights gained by African Americans after the Civil War were constantly violated by
______________________ groups like the KKK.
29. The Ku Klux Klan was made up of ______________________________________ as well as businessmen,
lawyers, judges and politicians.