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Da VIP Academy / GED / Social Studies / U.S. History

Civil War & Reconstruction

Explain the causes and outcomes of the Civil War and the Reconstruction amendments.

Practice this skillAll Social Studies skills

How it works

Central cause

The expansion of slavery into new territories was the central dispute, tangled with states' rights and economic differences between an industrial North and an agricultural South.

Reconstruction and backlash

The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments ended slavery and promised citizenship and voting rights. After 1877, Black Codes, Jim Crow laws, poll taxes, and literacy tests stripped much of that promise for decades.

Worked examples

  1. How did poll taxes undercut the 15th Amendment?

    1. The 15th barred race-based denial of the vote.
    2. Poll taxes and literacy tests were race-neutral on paper.
    3. In practice they disenfranchised Black voters.

Words to know

Reconstruction
The 1865–1877 effort to rebuild the South and secure freedpeople's rights.
Jim Crow
State and local laws enforcing racial segregation.

Test-day tips

  • • Distinguish what a law says from how it was enforced — the test asks about both.
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