Deck 16: Reconstruction: an Unfinished Revolution, 1865-1877

Question 1

Andrew Johnson's initial plan for Reconstruction

A) demonstrated an unforgiving hatred of all southerners.
B) protected the political rights of freed slaves in the South.
C) attempted, at least temporarily, to deny power to wealthy southern planters.
D) failed to require the southern states to draft new constitutions.

Answer 1

attempted, at least temporarily, to deny power to wealthy southern planters.

Question 2

Which of the following was true of sharecropping when it originated?

A) It allowed African Americans to buy land on credit.
B) It was forced on African Americans by ruthless landowners.
C) It gave African Americans freedom from daily supervision by white landowners or overseers.
D) It was a humanitarian system of poor relief.

Answer 2

It gave African Americans freedom from daily supervision by white landowners or overseers.

Question 3

After the Civil War, most African American farmers eventually worked

A) as sharecroppers.
B) as domestic servants under a system of assigned tasks.
C) as field hands under a contract for wages.
D) on land they rented.

Answer 3

as sharecroppers.

Question 4

President Johnson's refusal to allow any change in his Reconstruction policies caused which of the following?

A) The influence of the Radical Republican faction grew among conservative and moderate Republicans.
B) Democrats in Congress were so angered that they began to vote with the Republican majority.
C) Johnson's refusal established the precedent that policy decisions concerning a conquered territory were to be solely in the hands of the president.
D) Johnson's refusal angered the former plantation elite of the South, who had hoped that Congress would enact a more lenient Reconstruction plan.

Question 5

Although the South lost the Civil War, it was possible that the South would gain power in Congress when readmitted to the Union because

A) southern congressmen could use the threat of secession to intimidate northern representatives.
B) southern congressmen would chair the key congressional committees.
C) the number of southern states had increased.
D) for purposes of congressional representation African Americans would count as a full person rather than as three-fifths of a person.

Question 6

The black codes enacted in the South after the Civil War showed that southerners

A) were willing to allow African Americans equality under law.
B) sought to return African Americans to a position of servility.
C) recognized the need for providing basic education for African Americans.
D) would leave the destiny of African Americans up to the African Americans themselves.

Question 7

The Radical Republicans in Congress believed that it was essential to

A) complete the Reconstruction process quickly.
B) treat the South with sympathy and compassion.
C) place Reconstruction policy in the president's hands.
D) ensure the rights of the freedmen.

Question 8

Which of the following is true concerning African Americans who won public office during Reconstruction?

A) Many came from the prewar educated African American elite.
B) Most were self-educated individuals who rose from slavery.
C) Many came from the North.
D) Most were illiterate and uneducated.

Question 9

In order to have the truly independent, self-sufficient life they wanted, many freedmen sought

A) a fair employer.
B) the chance to move North.
C) land of their own.
D) social equality.

Question 10

Which of the following statements is true concerning the experience of freedmen on the Sea Islands near the end of the Civil War?

A) Former slaves rejected attempts by northern educators to establish schools on the Sea Islands.
B) Freedmen were not interested in working with each other in pursuit of common objectives.
C) Most northerners believed that plantation lands should be confiscated and given to former slaves.
D) Northern reformers and government tax officials gave little or no help to former slaves who wanted to obtain land.

Question 11

"Members [of Congress] joined in the shouting and kept it up for some minutes. Some embraced one another, others wept like children. I have felt ever since the vote, as if I were in a new country." This statement was made in response to

A) the impeachment of President Johnson.
B) creation of the Freedmen's Bureau.
C) passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1866.
D) approval of the proposed Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

Question 12

Many freedmen saw emancipation as the opportunity to

A) punish their former masters.
B) take advantage of the economic opportunities offered them by northern factory owners.
C) create their own institutions free of white control.
D) demand passage of legislation outlawing social, economic, and political discrimination on the basis of race.

Question 13

The section of the Fourteenth Amendment that had the greatest legal significance in subsequent years was the section that

A) guaranteed the war debt of the United States.
B) conferred citizenship on freedmen and prohibited states from abridging of their constitutional rights.
C) withheld political power from prominent Confederates.
D) penalized states that did not allow African Americans to vote.

Question 14

Freed slaves, after the Civil War,

A) fought hard to establish racially integrated public schools.
B) showed a great desire for education as the means of escaping the ignorance of slavery.
C) concentrated solely on providing primary school education for their children.
D) disappointed northern reformers with their apparent lack of interest in education.

Question 15

Which of the following was true of Andrew Johnson?

A) Although from Tennessee, he remained in the Senate after his state seceded from the Union.
B) He was one of the founders of the Republican Party.
C) Although he disagreed with the Radicals on many issues, he supported the concept of an activist federal government.
D) He favored civil rights for African Americans, but did not believe that blacks should have the right to vote.

Question 16

With respect to the question of black suffrage in the South, Andrew Johnson believed that

A) the right to vote should be extended to African Americans through an amendment to the Constitution.
B) the federal government could never force the southern states to extend voting rights to African Americans.
C) the southern states, before being allowed to re-enter the Union, should guarantee the right to vote to African American males.
D) African Americans were not citizens and should not be allowed to vote.

Question 17

A basic economic problem in the South in the post-Civil War period was

A) a labor shortage.
B) inflation.
C) overdependence on cotton.
D) declining prices for food crops.

Question 18

Soon after proposing his initial plan for Reconstruction, Andrew Johnson surprisingly helped subvert his own plan by

A) withdrawing the Union Army from the South.
B) granting pardons to many wealthy southerners.
C) establishing martial law throughout the South.
D) dissolving the newly elected state constitutional conventions.

Question 19

Passed by Congress over President Johnson's veto, the Civil Rights Act of 1866

A) forced state courts in the South to practice equality by placing them under the watchful eye of the federal judiciary.
B) guaranteed equality of economic opportunity by barring discrimination in employment on the basis of race.
C) was the first attempt by Congress to desegregate educational facilities in the South.
D) guaranteed the right to vote to all adult males with the equivalent of a third-grade education.

Question 20

Which of the following correctly states the belief of Thaddeus Stevens and other congressional Republicans who criticized Lincoln's approach to Reconstruction?

A) The South's plantation elite erred in establishing the Confederacy, but the Union itself was never broken and endured through the Civil War.
B) The Reconstruction process outlined in the Constitution should be closely followed.
C) The president has sole responsibility for Reconstruction.
D) The Confederate states, by seceding and making war against the United States, lost their status as states and should now be treated as conquered territories.

Question 21

Which of the following is true of Johnson's impeachment trial?

A) Ironically, Johnson was saved by the Radical Republicans, who argued that impeachment should not be used as a political weapon.
B) Because of public outrage at the way Johnson was being forced out of office, the Senate voted to acquit him.
C) Johnson's acquittal by the Senate established the idea that Congress could not use impeachment as a political weapon against the President.
D) Although Johnson was found guilty, his appeal to the Supreme Court prevented his removal from office.

Question 22

In Congressional debates concerning Reconstruction of the former Confederate states, Thaddeus Stevens argued that

A) freedmen should not be extended the right to vote.
B) southern property should be confiscated and used to give freedmen homesteads and a chance at economic independence.
C) all freedmen should be given forty acres from confiscated southern land.
D) the Fourteenth Amendment should extend the right to vote to women as well as to African Americans.

Question 23

When Congress, in 1866, decided to base its Reconstruction plan on the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment by the former Confederate states, the amendment was

A) supported by President Johnson.
B) rejected by all southern legislatures except Tennessee's.
C) approved by the southern states and then withdrawn by Congress.
D) supported by prominent women's rights activists but received little additional support.

Question 24

The outcome of the congressional elections of 1866

A) gave the Democrats effective control of both houses of Congress.
B) represented an endorsement of the Reconstruction plans of the Republican congressional leaders.
C) deepened the split between Conservative and Radical Republicans.
D) demonstrated public support for Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction program.

Question 25

In his 1868 presidential campaign, Grant

A) endorsed African American suffrage in the South but not in the North.
B) supported the principles of the Radical Republicans.
C) urged Congress to pass antilynching legislation.
D) denounced the Ku Klux Klan as a terrorist organization.

Question 26

The First Reconstruction Act

A) recognized the legitimacy of existing southern state governments.
B) extended federal support for the education of freedmen in the South.
C) guaranteed freedmen the right to vote in elections for state constitutional conventions and in subsequent elections.
D) confiscated large southern plantations and divided them into smaller plots of land.

Question 27

The Fifteenth Amendment

A) stipulated that states could not deny the right to vote on the basis of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
B) guaranteed African Americans equal protection under the law.
C) extended the right to vote to women and blacks.
D) was immediately ratified by all northern states.

Question 28

In the Slaughter-House cases, the Supreme Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment

A) only prohibited the states from abridging those rights associated with U.S. citizenship.
B) brought individual rights under federal protection.
C) defined state citizenship and national citizenship as being one and the same.
D) did not differentiate between state citizenship and national citizenship.

Question 29

The 1868 indictment handed down by the House Judiciary Committee against President Johnson concentrated on his

A) violation of the Tenure of Office Act.
B) attempts to limit the powers of military commanders in the South.
C) effort to prevent enforcement of the Military Reconstruction Act of 1867.
D) attempts to repeal the Fourteenth Amendment.

Question 30

The refusal of most of the former Confederate states to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment in 1866

A) caused most northerners to support the Radicals' demand that more economic opportunity be extended to freedmen.
B) caused a thorough restructuring of southern society.
C) led to general land reform in the South.
D) forced congressional Republicans to abolish the "Johnson governments" in the South, form new governments, and extend the vote to freedmen.

Question 31

Which of the following is true of northerners who settled in the South immediately after the Civil War?

A) They constituted the largest group holding political office in the South during Reconstruction.
B) For the most part they were greedy, scheming politicians who came to loot the South in its most desperate hour.
C) Most came because they were seeking business opportunities or a warmer climate.
D) Knowing that industrialization of the South was impractical, they were primarily interested in bringing mechanized agribusiness to the region.

Question 32

In an attempt to limit President Johnson's powers and safeguard its own Reconstruction plan, Congress

A) proposed a constitutional amendment that would strip the president of his veto power.
B) established a House committee to approve all candidates for political office in the former Confederate states.
C) passed legislation requiring the president to issue military orders through the General of the Army.
D) placed responsibility for the appointment of the president's cabinet in the hands of a joint Congressional committee.

Question 33

African American leaders in the South during Reconstruction

A) argued that voting rights should be permanently denied to former Confederates.
B) dominated the legislatures in several southern states.
C) led efforts to establish public schools in the region.
D) advocated the confiscation and redistribution of land.

Question 34

In response to the Panic of 1873, many debtors and unemployed workers advocated

A) easy money policies, which they hoped would spur economic expansion.
B) federal monetary grants to freedmen so they could open their own businesses and banks.
C) a federal loan program to finance industrial development in the South.
D) federal loans to the freedmen so they could buy their own land.

Question 35

Reconstruction governments in the South

A) encouraged investment in industry.
B) lowered taxes.
C) imposed severe economic penalties on former slaveowners.
D) passed civil rights legislation outlawing racial discrimination in employment and housing.

Question 36

The term scalawag was used to describe

A) homeless unemployed freedmen in the South.
B) native white southerners who cooperated with the Republicans.
C) former plantation owners who had lost their lands.
D) Union soldiers who occupied the South during Reconstruction.

Question 37

In some cases white conservatives in the South attempted to defeat Congress's Reconstruction plans by

A) actively and openly calling for secession.
B) bribing federal poll watchers.
C) defying laws designed to redistribute land throughout the South.
D) boycotting the polls.

Question 38

Which of the following is viewed by modern scholars as President Johnson's most serious and indictable offense?

A) His decision to fire Secretary of War Stanton
B) His losing battle with alcoholism
C) His advice to southern states that they reject the Fourteenth Amendment
D) His systematic efforts to block enforcement of the Reconstruction Act of 1867

Question 39

In decisions after the Civil War, the Supreme Court

A) upheld the efforts of the Radicals to punish the South.
B) led the drive to guarantee full equality for the former slaves.
C) repeatedly overruled actions taken by Union generals during the military occupation of the South.
D) participated in the northern retreat from the Reconstruction commitment to equality for the freedmen.

Question 40

After the Civil War, the main purpose of the Ku Klux Klan in the South was to

A) persecute African Americans.
B) close integrated schools.
C) maintain law and order.
D) use intimidation and violence to weaken the Republican coalition so that a Democratic majority could be returned to power.

Question 41

In United States v. Cruikshank the Supreme Court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment

A) left the power to protect the equal rights of citizens solely to the states.
B) did not guarantee that all southern public facilities would be integrated.
C) protected African Americans in the full exercise of their civil rights.
D) guaranteed the vote to all property-holding African Americans.

Question 42

The outcome of the disputed presidential election of 1876 was significant because it

A) signaled the demise of the second party system.
B) brought an end to Reconstruction.
C) marked the beginning of a long era of Democratic presidents.
D) demonstrated that African American voters held the balance of power in southern politics.

Question 43

In Bradwell v. Illinois the Supreme Court held that

A) impairment of property rights by statute did not violate due process.
B) state laws barring women from certain occupations did not violate the privileges and immunities clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
C) the Fourteenth Amendment barred individual acts of discrimination as well as acts undertaken by a state.
D) it was unconstitutional for a state to secede from the Union.