U.S History A: The Civil War Vocabulary Words
1. Confederacy: a group of people, states, or organizations united for a common purpose
2. Union: a group of states or countries united under a central government
3. Secession: the act of withdrawing from an organization or union
4. Abolition: the act of ending or abolishing something
5. Emancipation Proclamation: an executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War that declared the freedom of all slaves in the Confederate states
6. Reconstruction: the period of rebuilding and reorganizing the United States after the Civil War
7. Jim Crow Laws: laws enacted in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States
8. Thirteenth Amendment: an amendment to the United States Constitution that abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime