Social Studies Ch. 11 Study Guide
 Know all 11 vocabulary words for the matching part (see last page of
this guide)
 Reconstruction was the period following the Civil War in which
Congress passed laws designed to rebuild country
 Virginias faced many problems during Reconstruction:
1) Railroads, bridges, plantations, and crops were destroyed
2) Money had no value.
3) Banks were closed.
 Virginia’s land and plantations lost their value after the Civil War
because the system of farming based on slavery was in ruin.
 The Freedmen’s Bureau:
1) Helped build over 200 schools
2) Helped over fifty thousand African Americans learn to read and
write
3) Provided African Americans with medical care.
 Sharecropping facts:
1) It seemed to meet the needs of poor white farmers and
African Americans.
2) Sometimes landowners made unfair deals with sharecroppers.
3) Sharecroppers could easily become trapped into a lifetime of
poverty.
 Before Virginia could rejoin the Union, it had to write a new state
constitution.
 African Americans took advantage of their new rights by:
1) Serving in town governments
2) Winning seats in the Virginia General Assembly
3) Becoming judges
*African Americans did NOT help legalize the poll tax.
 Virginia wrote a new constitution in 1902 to make it harder for
African Americans to vote.
 The Jim Crow laws were a system of laws designed to separate
African Americans and whites.
 Effects of the Jim Crow Laws:
1) Increased poll taxes
2) Difficult voting tests
3) Separate schools for African Americans and whites
 Effects of Railroads on Virginia’s Recovery:
1) Helped small towns grow into cities
2) Brought new industries to Virginia
3) Made communication and transportation easier
 Richmond in the late 1800s:
1) Became a center of African American business
2) Richmond’s mills produced tons of flour.
3) Maggie Walker founded the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank in
Richmond.
 Virginia Agriculture in the late 1800’s:
1) Most farmers had small farms.
2) Farmers grew a wider variety of crops, such as potatoes and
apples.
3) Railroads made it easier and cheaper for farmers to ship their
crops to market.
*There were NOT a greater number of big plantations in VA in the late
1800s.
 What part of Virginia grew when coal deposits were discovered there
after the Civil War? Tazewell County in Southwestern, VA
ESSAYS:
1. Describe the challenges that Virginians faced after the Civil War.
Virginia’s bridges, roads, and railways were unusable. Crops, fields,
and livestock were destroyed. Virginia’s cities had been reduced to piles
of rubble. Virginia was deeply in debt. Money had no value and banks
were closed. Land that had once sold for over $150 an acre now sold for
$2 an acre. Also, Virginia had lost many of its best and brightest young
people during the war.
2. Why was the Freedman’s Bureau established? Name at least two
purposes it served.
It was set up to provide food, schools, and medical care for
freed slaves and others in Virginia and the rest of the South after
the Civil War because they did not have the ability to provide these
things themselves.
3. What system of farming was used in Virginia after the Civil War?
How did it work?
Sharecropping was used in Virginia after the Civil War.
Freedmen and poor white farmers rented land from a landowner
promising to pay the owner with a share of the crop.
*Also, be able to fill in the cause and effect railroad chart:
Changes Brought by Railroads
TOWNS – caused towns to grow in size and population
INDUSTRIES – brought new and diverse industries to VA
JOBS – created jobs and opportunities for many people
COMMUNICATION – made communication between people in different
parts of the state easier
TRANSPORTATION – made transportation easier and cheaper
VOCABULARY FOR TEST
1) Reconstruction – the period of time after the Civil War that provided
services for African Americans
2) Suffrage – the right to vote
3) Segregation – to separate races, classes, or groups
4) Freedman’s Bureau – an office established after the Civil War that
provided services for African Americans
5) Roanoke – previously called Big Luck, became a railroad boomtown.
6) Discrimination – an unfair difference in the treatment of people
7) Sharecropping – a system set up where a landowner provided workers
with a piece of land in return for a share of their crops.
8) Poll tax – a fee a person had to pay in order to vote
9) Luray – town located in Blue Ridge Mountains known for its
caves/caverns
10) Jim Crow – a system of laws and rules that separated Afican
Americans and white people
11) Maggie Lena Walker – community leader who helped to improve lives
of African Americans by encouraging hard work and saving money (1st
woman bank president).