Deck 16: The Era of Reconstruction

Question 1

In what ways did white and black Southerners react to Reconstruction?

Answer 1

not answered

Question 2

After emancipation, most freed slaves fled the South.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

How and why did Reconstruction policies change over time?

Answer 3

not answered

Question 4

Southern Democrats embraced the Scalawags and propped them up in important
governmental positions.

Question 5

The Ku Klux Klan started out as a social club but came to engage in horrible violence
against African Americans such as burning schools and churches.

Question 6

Although it was a spectacle, the effort to remove Johnson from the presidency ultimately
strengthened public support for Congressional Reconstruction.

Question 7

What major challenges did the federal government face in reconstructing the South?

Question 8

The Union League mobilized African American voters to such an extent that black men
were able to win elected offices in former Confederate states for the first time.

Question 9

The rulings during the Slaughterhouse Cases (1873) expanded U.S. citizenship so that it
applied to more minority groups.

Question 10

Radical Republicans wanted to drastically change southern society by recognizing the equality
of former slaves.

Question 11

Reconstruction of former Confederate states only began after the war.

Question 12

Waving "the bloody shirt" meant referring to the Civil War and the southern rebellion in order
to discredit political opponents.

Question 13

Democrats generally favored "sound" or "hard" monetary policies.

Question 14

What were the political and economic factors that helped end Reconstruction in 1877?

Question 15

The most popular religious denomination among blacks in the postwar South was Baptist.

Question 16

The Wade-Davis Bill was much more severe than Lincoln's Reconstruction plan.

Question 17

The South emerged from the Civil War with a strong, diversified economy.

Question 18

African Americans were active agents in affecting the course of Reconstruction.

Question 19

What was the significance of Reconstruction on the nation's future?

Question 20

The Freedmen's Bureau was the first federal experiment in providing assistance directly to
people rather than to states.

Question 21

In addition to resulting in the president's death, how did Lincoln's assassination prove significant?

A) It had been in response to Lincoln's passionate calls for a vengeful peace, and to honor his wishes, his supporters resolved to do everything in their power to violently retaliate against the South.
B) It caused northerners to overwhelmingly reject the message of the Radical Republicans and to throw their support behind the conservative Republicans in large numbers.
C) It ensured that economic policies designed to spur industrial development across the country would immediately go into effect in the weeks following Lincoln's death.
D) It went largely unrecognized by much of the country because Americans were still distracted by the carnage of war, so Johnson went on to pursue only policies identical to Lincoln's.
E) It resulted in an immense outpouring of grief across the country but decreased the possibility of a lenient federal Reconstruction of the Confederacy like Lincoln had envisioned.

Question 22

Why did the Radical-led Congress pass the Civil Rights Act of 1866?

A) It was a response to the black codes and the neo-slavery system created by unrepentant southern legislatures.
B) It was to foster national reconciliation and genuine feelings of patriotism among all Americans.
C) It was part of a plan to ease the requirements on the readmission of southern states to the Union.
D) It enjoyed the support of President Johnson and would finally grant Native Americans equal rights.
E) It would convince the southern states to rejoin the Union by clarifying the rights of their citizens.

Question 23

Why was Johnson picked as Lincoln's running mate in 1864?

A) They were both lifelong Republicans.
B) They held remarkably identical political positions.
C) They agreed on the need for strict terms to readmit southern states into the Union.
D) As a gesture of unity, they combined to create a National Union ticket.
E) Johnson and Lincoln had already served together in the Illinois state government.

Question 24

What impact did emancipation have on the South?

A) It ended cotton cultivation throughout the region.
B) It left the South's agricultural economy in disarray.
C) It resulted in the immediate rebound of tobacco production.
D) It eliminated racial prejudice in many states.
E) It encouraged reconciliation with the North.

Question 25

When, in late 1865, the former Confederate states were permitted once again to elect members of Congress, whom did they elect?

A) a mix of freedmen and carpetbaggers
B) former Confederate leaders
C) the first women members of Congress
D) Union military men who had been raised in the South
E) fictitious characters as protest write-in votes

Question 26

Which of the following is true of the 1866 congressional elections during Johnson's presidency?

A) They showed public approval of Johnson's policies.
B) They gave Republicans veto-proof majorities.
C) They encouraged the South to be even more defiant.
D) They were the first in which blacks could vote.
E) They reduced the influence of the Radicals.

Question 27

What did Major Martin Delaney believe to be MOST important for freedmen to possess if they wanted to avoid becoming slaves again?

A) education, so as to be qualified for the same types of jobs as white men
B) voting rights, so as to have the ability to elect anti-slavery leaders in the South
C) health, so as to have the energy necessary to combat day-to-day racial prejudice
D) land, so as to become economically self-reliant as farmers
E) civil equality, so as to open the possibility for better opportunities in the long term

Question 28

What was the significance of the Military Reconstruction Act?

A) It was overturned by the Supreme Court and showed Congress's waning support.
B) It showed the decline of Radical power and the growing authority of the executive branch.
C) It required new state constitutions and established military districts in the South.
D) It removed federal troops from the South and gave southerners more say over Reconstruction.
E) It wiped out the black codes and gave African Americans a prominent place in the army.

Question 29

Johnson's Proclamation of Amnesty excluded

A) everybody with taxable property above a certain amount.
B) the freedmen.
C) the small farmers.
D) the British.
E) northern industrialists.

Question 30

In a decision that would result in talk of his impeachment, Johnson violated the Tenure of Office Act by

A) abolishing new governments "in the Rebel states."
B) naming his brother to serve as a federal judge.
C) firing his vice president due to his beliefs on slavery.
D) trying to remove one of his cabinet members without Senate permission.
E) failing to deliver the State of the Union address in 1866.

Question 31

The Compromise of 1877 showed that some Republicans and southern Democrats were
willing to come together in making a private deal to meet their own political ends.

Question 32

Which of the following statements about Johnson's Reconstruction plan is accurate?

A) It completely rejected Lincoln's, for there was nothing remotely lenient about it.
B) It mandated the appointment of a provisional Unionist governor in each southern state.
C) It gave the vote to all African American men and involved asking them what they needed.
D) It allowed southern state governments to ignore the Thirteenth Amendment.
E) It was consistent with the disdain he had previously shown toward white planters.

Question 33

What did the Fourteenth Amendment do?

A) It ended slavery across the entire United States.
B) It guaranteed women the right to vote nationally.
C) It forbid denying the vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
D) It guaranteed citizenship to freemen as well as immigrant children born in the United States.
E) It established Congress's right to create an income tax.

Question 34

The "black codes" enacted by southern legislatures

A) were accepted by Congress at the national level.
B) showed the South's spirit of reconciliation.
C) were part of an effort to restore white supremacy.
D) proved the success of Johnson's Reconstruction plan.
E) prevented African Americans from marrying one another.

Question 35

Which of the following statements accurately describes the politics of Lincoln's successor, Andrew Johnson?

A) He was a pro-Union southerner who believed in a small federal government and, at least early on in his presidency, in squashing the southern elite in the name of democracy.
B) He genuinely supported racial equality and took Lincoln's lead in actively seeking to make Native American rights a part of his legacy as president as well.
C) He initially sought to advance the interests of southern planters, wishing for them to have unprecedented power in the Union, but eventually changed his mind.
D) He was Lincoln's equal in political skill and consistently refused to pardon Confederates, even if it meant that in doing so he might lose political support.
E) He believed the federal government should be as active as possible, especially in economic policies regarding industrial development.

Question 36

By the fall of 1865, how did many freedmen respond to the all-white state conventions organized under Johnson's Reconstruction plan?

A) organizing freedmen's conventions in state capitals to call for public education and
The vote
B) fleeing the South and heading to northern cities such as Chicago and New York
C) accepting that the South would remain in the hands of former Confederates
D) calling for a separate state for all African Americans because coexistence was unfathomable
E) resorting to vigilant violence in an attempt to combat the return of slavery by
Another name

Question 37

Which of the following was part of Lincoln's plan for Reconstruction?

A) Even before the war ended, army generals would play barely any role in the governance of conquered Confederate areas as a means of regaining the Confederates' trust.
B) Congress, rather than the president, would supervise Reconstruction because this would help replace the white, Democratic planter elite with a generation of small farmers.
C) Northern state governments would oversee Reconstruction, and 10 percent of elected officials in a state had to be African Americans in order for the Union to officially recognize them as states.
D) The presidency would direct Reconstruction, and 10 percent of the 1860 voters had to take an oath of allegiance to the Union in order for former Confederate states to re-create a Union government.
E) Although almost all Confederates in general would be put on trial and, in many cases, sent to prison, the government agreed to issue pardons to senior officers of the Confederate army.

Question 38

President Johnson fully broke with Congress in 1866 when he

A) made a drunken appearance in public.
B) spoke in favor of the black codes.
C) released Jefferson Davis from prison.
D) vetoed the Civil Rights Act.
E) addressed the Radicals in profane language.

Question 39

Which of the following was a task of the Freedmen's Bureau?

A) resettling most formerly enslaved African Americans in northern states, as emancipation was not officially legal in the South
B) prosecuting former Confederate leaders for war crimes as well as their efforts to perpetuate the system of slavery
C) providing formerly enslaved African Americans with food, clothing, and legal assistance and setting up schools
D) arming formerly enslaved African Americans as a means of protection amid the violence of the postwar South
E) protesting emancipation and fighting to limit the definition of who was legally free by taking the matter to the Supreme Court

Question 40

Why did congressional Republicans write the Wade-Davis Manifesto?

A) to proclaim their strong support of President Lincoln's Reconstruction policies
B) to warn the South of a second Civil War if it did not grant full civil rights to the freedmen
C) to protest Lincoln's veto of the Wade-Davis Bill and accuse Lincoln of exceeding his constitutional authority
D) to express their opinion that the South deserved lenient terms to rejoin the Union
E) to accuse England and other European countries of meddling in the Civil War to benefit their own interests

Question 41

Most carpetbaggers were

A) corrupt and greedy southerners.
B) illiterate laborers.
C) wealthy business owners.
D) Union veterans.
E) former Confederates.

Question 42

In South Carolina, the fact that lower-class whites enjoyed unprecedented political power under Radical Republican rule

A) generated unexpected support for Radical Reconstruction among southern white elites.
B) resulted in a rebellion that overthrew the reconstructed South Carolina state government.
C) enabled the state legislature to reinstitute legal slavery.
D) helped keep corruption from becoming a problem in the state government.
E) led many former Confederate leaders to oppose the Radical state legislature.

Question 43

What were the motivations behind Andrew Johnson's impeachment?

A) The vast majority of the Senate had long disagreed with Johnson's hiring policies and tricked him into an action that would result in his immediate removal from office.
B) Johnson's own political party turned on him because he had let so much legislation pass through without trying to hinder the Republicans.
C) Democrats were angered that Johnson had acted far too harshly toward the southern leaders and managed to use their power to secure hard evidence against him.
D) The planter elite blamed Johnson for his role in helping to start the Civil War in the first place and had long tried to see to it that he be punished.
E) Radical Republicans were upset with Johnson because of his continued obstruction of their growing efforts at Congressional Reconstruction.

Question 44

Why did service in the Union army or navy benefit many freedmen?

A) It offered training on how to kill former Confederates, as they believed the war would resume.
B) It instilled a respect for the former Confederacy that made it easier to accept discrimination.
C) It opened a secret supply of weapons for planned rebellions, which grew in frequency.
D) It provided training in leadership and awareness of opportunities in economic advancement.
E) It offered a quicker avenue to true racial equality within the ranks of the military.

Question 45

Which of the following is true about African American involvement in the political arena during Reconstruction?

A) Most southern states had black majorities in their state legislatures.
B) Because slavery was still so prominent, black political rights were practically nonexistent.
C) The most common form of black political participation was voting in elections.
D) Most black voters registered as Democrats before 1870.
E) No freedmen were able to vote before the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment.

Question 46

The main purpose of the Union League was to

A) organize groups of Republicans in the South.
B) terrorize ex-Confederates.
C) acquire land for Union veterans.
D) defy Radical Reconstruction.
E) organize black laborers for higher wages.

Question 47

Many former Confederates resented the new state constitutions imposed by Radical Republicans because

A) all former Confederates were denied the right to vote.
B) their provisions allowed for black voting rights.
C) former Confederates were uniformly banned from holding any public office.
D) their provisions granted universal female suffrage.
E) state governments were dismantled and replaced by direct federal administration.

Question 48

What was the state of the economy during Grant's second term, and why was this significant?

A) The economy experienced a mild panic, but Grant quickly set it back on track, which helped his standing within the Republican party, guaranteed him the nomination in the upcoming election, and made Reconstruction appear more likely to succeed.
B) The economy stayed relatively similar to that of the Civil War because Grant refused to eliminate war bonds out of fear that it would have detrimental effects on an already-fragile southern infrastructure, and as a result, many southern politicians began to support him.
C) A severe depression resulted from Grant's efforts to withdraw greenbacks, or paper money, from circulation after the war, which intensified the debate over soft-money versus hard-money currency and helped enable Democrats to overtake the Republicans in the congressional elections.
D) The northern and southern economies became exceedingly integrated as industrialization spread throughout the South, and as a result, southern farmers began to take steps to bring about deflation as a means of returning to their old way of life.
E) The economy flourished under Grant because he had the foresight to introduce greenbacks into circulation for the first time, and as a result, politicians were more willing to consider and implement his policies regarding protections for African Americans.

Question 49

The Liberal Republicans

A) supported Grant.
B) unified the Republican party.
C) backed Radical Reconstruction.
D) were a faction of southern ex-Whigs.
E) opposed Grant.

Question 50

By the time President Grant took office, southern resistance to Reconstruction efforts had

A) dissipated, as southerners began to get used to the new normal.
B) led to a withdrawal of federal financial support in the South.
C) increased and turned violent with the rise of white supremacy.
D) taken on a peaceful approach thanks to strict enforcement measures.
E) renewed the second phase of the Civil War.

Question 51

During Reconstruction, African Americans

A) passively awaited developments.
B) attempted to establish schools.
C) normally joined integrated churches.
D) terrorized their former masters.
E) refused to work for wages.

Question 52

Which of the following was a reason why Ulysses S. Grant was elected to the presidency?

A) He gained the vote of white southerners because so few black southerners supported him and his political platform.
B) His appeal transcended party because he campaigned on ending Congressional Reconstruction in favor of state-led initiatives.
C) Despite little political experience, his message of enforcing laws and prosperity for all resonated with Americans who longed for peace.
D) Despite his prior affiliation with the Republican party, he split the Republican vote by campaigning on issues that earned him the support of Democrats.
E) He continued to maintain a long-term, close friendship with Johnson, who most of the public believed had been wrongfully impeached.

Question 53

"Hard-money" advocates argued that government war bonds should be

A) paid off in gold.
B) paid off in copper.
C) paid off in greenbacks.
D) canceled.
E) handed out to Union veterans.

Question 54

Which of the following is true of the Fifteenth Amendment?

A) Radical Republicans in Congress opposed it.
B) It protected the right of Americans to vote regardless of color or race.
C) It protected the right of Americans to vote regardless of sex.
D) It formally ended the institution of slavery.
E) It guaranteed equal protection under the law for all citizens.

Question 55

One legacy of Republican state governments in the South after 1877 was

A) the construction of railroads, roads, and bridges.
B) lower taxes and laws prohibiting awarding money to corporations.
C) continued federal protection for black voting rights.
D) the immediate elimination of new constitutions they created.
E) government reform that eliminated corruption and sharecropping.

Question 56

Most scalawags were white southerners who had

A) owned slaves.
B) served in the Union army.
C) changed their minds about race relations.
D) joined the Democratic party.
E) opposed secession.

Question 57

President Grant's attitude toward Native Americans is best described as

A) generous because Grant favored paying native tribes reparations to help them reestablish themselves on new lands away from white settlers.
B) nonexistent because Grant was so focused on Reconstruction that he paid little attention to Indian policy and failed to make the group any promises.
C) aggressive because Grant believed it would be necessary to destroy Native American communities and use violence to pacify the West.
D) ignorant because Grant believed that tensions between Native American and western settlers would be resolved without government action.
E) progressive because Grant believed that the best policy was one of conciliation and that the root of the problem was actually "bad whites."

Question 58

The primary objective of the Ku Klux Klan was

A) national unity.
B) upholding southern honor.
C) starting a new civil war.
D) oppressing blacks and white Republicans.
E) raising money for Confederate widows.

Question 59

Jay Gould and James Fisk triggered a scandal with their scheme to

A) embezzle public funds.
B) create a railroad monopoly.
C) corner the gold market.
D) sell damaged goods to the Indians.
E) bribe members of Congress.

Question 60

Which of the following was true of advocates of "soft-money," or paper, currency?

A) They tended to be merchants and bankers.
B) They saw economic benefits in price inflation.
C) They urged the elimination of greenbacks.
D) They dominated the Grant administration.
E) They wanted to cancel the national debt.

Question 61

Why was the Compromise of 1877 significant?

A) It gave the White House to Tilden, which guaranteed that Democrats would once again have the executive power of the presidency.
B) It ended the North-South division in that it created a labor system through which many southerners would migrate to the North and vice versa.
C) It protected the civil rights of ex-slaves by calling for the thorough enforcement of laws against voter suppression.
D) It brought about the end of Reconstruction through the promise that federal troops would be removed from the Deep South.
E) It increased the role of the federal government in the South by establishing five additional military districts.

Question 62

What did the Supreme Court rule in United States v. Cruikshank (1876)?

A) Business monopolies did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment because they were an essential component of the economy.
B) African Americans were not citizens because the founding fathers had not envisioned them as equals to white Americans.
C) The equal protection and due process requirements of the Fourteenth Amendment only applied to states, not to individuals.
D) Women were not included in the provisions of the Fifteenth Amendment, even though the language of the amendment had not specified either way.
E) The Ku Klux Klan Act was unconstitutional because it singled out a specific group of Americans in its restrictions.

Question 63

When the votes were first counted in the 1876 presidential election,

A) no candidate had an electoral college majority.
B) Hayes led Tilden in popular votes.
C) it was clear that a clean election had occurred.
D) the Democrats immediately conceded defeat.
E) the Supreme Court ordered a new election.

Question 64

How did "redeemer" Conservative Democrats come to power in the South during the 1870s?

A) by forming a close coalition with northern Democrats
B) by adopting a pro-Republican position that favored Reconstruction policies
C) by using the race issue to excite the white electorate and threaten black voters
D) through fair and free elections ensured by federal troops
E) with the support of the black vote after redeemers promised to protect black suffrage

Question 65

What was the MOST significant enduring legacy of Reconstruction?

A) the creation of true social equality in the South
B) the lack of equal rights for blacks even in theory
C) the passage of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments
D) the redistribution of wealth in the South
E) the eradication of sectional differences

Question 66

What were the primary goals of Reconstruction and to what extent was Reconstruction successful in achieving these goals?

Question 67

Why did Reconstruction end in 1877? Identify the political, economic, and social factors that contributed to the end of this outcome.

Question 68

Describe the plans for Reconstruction offered by Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, and Congress. What was the goal of each plan? How did each plan propose to accomplish its goal?

Question 69

Describe the development in the North as a result of the Civil War. What effect did the absence of southern members of Congress have on the economic and political agenda of northern Republicans?

Question 70

Why didn't President Grant seek a third term in 1876?

A) He was restricted by the Constitution to two terms.
B) A former Confederate soldier assassinated him.
C) He felt he was too old and had achieved as much as could be expected of any president.
D) He acknowledged that many Republicans had lost confidence in his leadership.
E) The public became aware of his alcoholism.

Question 71

What happened after the end of Reconstruction?

A) The freedmen remained a powerful force in southern politics and made Reconstruction a successful experiment in interracial democracy.
B) Women filled the power vacuum that Reconstruction had created and soon held positions of political power in city legislatures.
C) The South embarked on a path toward rapid industrial development as it fought to compete with the North again economically.
D) The protections of black civil rights crumbled under the pressure of restored white rule and unfavorable Supreme Court decisions.
E) The majority of blacks migrated out of the South because conditions were so difficult in the wake of the war.

Question 72

What were the major problems facing the nation in April 1865? What factors stood in the way of a solution to those problems?

Question 73

Which of the following statements accurately describes attitudes freed slaves held toward the Yankees at the beginning of Reconstruction versus after the end of it?

A) Whereas freed slaves had little trust or hope when it came to the goodwill of the Yankees at the beginning of Reconstruction, they were convinced after the end of Reconstruction that the Yankees would continue to transform their lives for the better.
B) Whereas freed slaves were still angry with the Yankees at the beginning of Reconstruction because of they way in which the Civil War had uprooted their lives, they came to adopt the Yankee way of life as they moved North in large numbers.
C) Although freed slaves experienced drastic changes in their everyday lives once emancipated, their views toward the Yankees evolved little over the course of Reconstruction because Yankees had little to do with those changes.
D) Although Yankees were quick to take credit for freeing enslaved African Americans at the beginning of Reconstruction, freed slaves tended to find that southern whites were far more supportive and responsible for advances in civil rights by the end of Reconstruction.
E) Whereas freed slaves often thought of the Yankees as their saviors at the beginning of Reconstruction, some felt let down by the Yankees with the collapse of Reconstruction as they began to move backward in terms of civil rights.

Question 74

What was the "Lost Cause"?

A) It was a term that referred to southerners' sense of embarrassment following the Civil War that they had ever engaged in and fought for a practice as terrible as slavery.
B) It was a common phrase used by African Americans to describe their frustrations with Reconstruction and belief that life had been better before the war because they had more security.
C) It was a narrative that described the widespread belief among northerners that Reconstruction had been a waste of time and had resulted in few advances in terms of African American rights.
D) It was a concept shared among northerners and southerners that whether they liked it or not, their prior way of life would be lost forever as they set aside their differences in favor of an integrated nation.
E) It was a sanitized version of history in the South that glamorized the old plantation culture and claimed that the Civil War concerned the honorable defense of states' rights rather than slavery.

Question 75

Explain the Fourteenth Amendment and how it was received throughout the country.

Question 76

Discuss the nature of intransigence, or stubbornness, in the South after the Civil War. How did this intransigence affect moderate Republicans in Congress?

Question 77

What problems did blacks in the South face after emancipation? What attempts did the government make to solve these problems? Which solutions were more successful than others and why?

Question 78

The events in Colfax, Louisiana, on Easter Sunday in 1873 are evidence of the

A) success of Reconstruction policies in achieving a biracial democracy in the South.
B) willingness of ex-Confederates and Klansmen to murder blacks.
C) support Grant had enjoyed in the Election of 1872 among southern Republicans.
D) economic consequences of "soft-money" policies in the South.
E) strength of the Union Leagues in Louisiana to rally support for black office holders.

Question 79

How did President Grant respond to the Ku Klux Klan?

A) He did nothing to attempt to stop the Ku Klux Klan because he saw it as the duty of the southern state legislatures and did not want to be seen as interfering, especially with his hopes of being elected to a second presidential term.
B) He had been a slave owner himself previously, and because he was worried he would lose support if anyone found out about this part of his past, he left it to Congress to give a public reaction to events initiated by the Ku Klux Klan.
C) He eradicated the Ku Klux Klan in the South by giving the Klansmen incentives to profit from industries separate from those that had traditionally demanded the use of slave labor, such as cotton and tobacco cultivation.
D) He urged Republicans to pass three Enforcement Acts, which, although intended to protect black rights and punish those who threatened them, were not consistently enforced, allowing the violent efforts of southern whites to end Reconstruction to intensify.
E) He took a middle-of-the-road approach by refusing to renounce the Ku Klux Klan publicly but, at the same time, working closely himself with local law enforcement to successfully squash the Klan's activities and meetings.

Question 80

Discuss the impeachment of President Johnson. What was the basis of the charges, and how did the impeachment end?