| Term | Definition |
| formal education | learning in a school |
| infancy | the time when a person is a baby |
| politician | a person who works in the government or politics |
| plantations | large farms in the South |
| seceded | formally stopped being part of a country |
| practice | the work of a doctor or lawyer |
| debates | public talks at which people discuss different opinions about an issue |
| dedicated | set apart for a purpose |
| Reconstruction | the rebuilding after the Civil War |
| the ages | all of time and human history |
| abolitionists | people who believed that slavery should be against the law |
| expansion | the act of increasing (something) in size or volume or quantity or scope |
| hardship | Something that is hard to bear, difficult |
| refused | Rejected, turned down |
| unity | quality of wholeness or oneness |