VIRGINIA STUDIES 2015 CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK (CONDENSED) – STUDY GUIDE

VS.8 RECONSTRUCTION
– “Jim Crow” Laws established segregation or
STANDARD VS.8A separation of the races and reinforced
EFFECTS OF RECONSTRUCTION prejudices held by whites
Effect of “Jim Crow” laws on the lives of
Virginians faced serious problems in rebuilding the
African Americans and American Indians
state after the war.
included
Terms to know • experiencing unfair poll taxes
• Reconstruction: The period following the Civil War in and voting tests that were
which Congress passed laws designed to rebuild the established to keep them from
country and bring the southern states back into the voting;
Union • difficulty voting or holding public office;
Problems faced by Virginians during Reconstruction • being forced to use
• Hundreds of thousands of freed African Americans separate, poor-quality
needed housing, education, clothing, food, and jobs. facilities and services,
• Virginia’s economy was in ruins: such as drinking
fountains, restrooms, and restaurants; and
– Money had no value.
• attending separate schools.
– Banks were closed.
Segregation and discrimination had an impact on:
– Railroads, bridges, plantations, and crops were
destroyed. • Housing
– Businesses needed to be rebuilt. • Employment
Measures taken to resolve problems • Health care
• The Freedmen’s Bureau was a federal government • Political representation
agency that provided food, public schools, and • Education
medical care for freed African Americans and others
in Virginia. STANDARD VS.8C
Sharecropping was a system common in Virginia after
•
the war in which freedmen and poor white farmers
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
rented land from a landowner by promising to pay After the Civil War, industry and technology,
the owner with a share of the crop. transportation, and cities began to grow and contribute to
Virginia’s economy.
STANDARD VS.8B
Virginia began to grow in many areas after the Civil War and
SEGREGATION & “JIM CROW” Reconstruction.
The freedoms and rights promised to African • Virginia’s cities grew with people, businesses, and
Americans were slowly taken away after Reconstruction, factories.
and it would take years to win them back. • Railroads were a key to the expansion of business,
agriculture, and industry.
“Jim Crow” laws had an effect on African Americans
and American Indians. – They facilitated the growth of small towns to
cities.
Terms to know
• Other parts of Virginia
• Segregation: The separation of people, usually based grew as other
on race or religion industries developed.
• Discrimination: An unfair difference in the treatment • Coal deposits were
of people mined in the
During Reconstruction, African Americans began to have Appalachian Plateau.
power in Virginia’s government, and black and white men • The need for more and better roads increased.
could vote and hold office.
• Tobacco farming and tobacco products became
After Reconstruction, these gains were lost when “Jim Crow” important Virginia industries
Laws were passed by southern states.