Reconstruction Crossword

3. To approve something officially. The states had to ratify (approve) the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to be part of the Union again.
6. Not allowed or prohibited. During slavery, it was forbidden for enslaved people to learn how to read or write.
8. A part of something. In sharecropping, workers gave a share of the crops to the landowner.
9. Suggested or put forward for people to consider. The amendments to the Constitution were proposed during Reconstruction.
12. Official changes to a law or document. The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments were added to the Constitution.
13. To leave or break away from a group or country. Southern states seceded from the Union during the Civil War.
14. Meetings where people gather to do something important, like writing new state rules (constitutions) after the Civil War.

1. Broken, ruined, or torn down. Many cities and buildings in the South were destroyed during the Civil War.
2. To forgive someone for doing something wrong. After the Civil War, it meant forgiving the South for leaving the Union.
4. In return for something. In sharecropping, the landowner gave land to workers in exchange for a part of the crops.
5. To make or arrange something. Congress set up a plan to rebuild the South after the Civil War.
7. To join or participate in something, like voting or being involved in government.
10. People who owned slaves and controlled their work. Plantation owners were the masters of enslaved people.
11. Money paid for work. After slavery ended, many former slaves did not get wages for their work but worked in sharecropping instead.