Deck 17: Reconstructing the Union 1865-1877

Question 1

The chapter introduction tells the story of Benjamin Montgomery to make the point that

A) former slaves who really tried could achieve a measure of prosperity in the postwar South.
B) Reconstruction clearly hinged on northern rather than southern actions after the war.
C) Reconstruction was an impossible task, for neither northerners nor southerners wanted African Americans to gain political and economic opportunity.
D) for former slaves to attain meaningful lives as free citizens, they would need economic power, which in turn required political power.

Answer 1

for former slaves to attain meaningful lives as free citizens, they would need economic power, which in turn required political power.

Question 2

According to your text, what two issues lay at the heart of Reconstruction?

A) whether the federal or state government was ultimately sovereign, and whether African Americans or Native Americans were the most oppressed minority group
B) which party would gain the ascendancy, and how the government could regulate the economy
C) the future of political and economic power for African Americans, and the future of North-South economic and political relations
D) rebuilding the North's shattered economy, and restoring the South's shattered society

Answer 2

the future of political and economic power for African Americans, and the future of North-South economic and political relations

Question 3

During the war, congressional leaders felt that Lincoln's plan ________, so they passed ________.

A) would cost them votes in the North; a program designed to attract white support in the South
B) ignored the reality of slavery; the Thirteenth Amendment over the president's objections
C) was too lenient; the more stringent Wade-Davis bill, which Lincoln pocket-vetoed
D) was acceptable; its essential provisions, but shifted primary responsibility to Congress

Answer 3

was too lenient; the more stringent Wade-Davis bill, which Lincoln pocket-vetoed

Question 4

The Radical Republicans in Congress approached Reconstruction with the conviction that

A) to heal the nation, the South should be treated with generosity and compassion.
B) to avoid any recurrence of southern resistance, the power of the planter class should be restored, with full land ownership.
C) to complete the task of the war, slavery must be totally and irrevocably abolished.
D) to keep faith with the antislavery crusade, the rights of freedmen must include rights for white and black women.

Question 5

Under new president Andrew Johnson, presidential Reconstruction

A) would implement a harsher program on the South than Lincoln had called for.
B) adhered substantially to the views of congressional leaders.
C) made it possible for former high-ranking Confederates to assume positions of power in the reconstructed southern governments.
D) was never implemented, because Congress passed its own program before Johnson's could go into effect.

Question 6

Which of the following is true about the Radical-dominated Reconstruction Congress?

A) The central focus of its program was to protect the land rights of blacks.
B) It sought to build Republican Party support in the South by winning the black vote and curtailing the power of the planter class.
C) Its influence grew when Johnson's vetoes drove moderates into the Democratic Party.
D) Its influence waned when northern voters repudiated Radical congressmen at the polls in 1866.

Question 7

The North interpreted black codes as

A) evidence that the South sought to keep freedmen in an economically dependent and legally inferior status.
B) evidence that the South, by granting limited rights such as allowing jury service, was slowly accommodating to an improved status for former slaves.
C) a realistic solution by the South to the problems created by sudden emancipation.
D) a dangerous experiment by the South that could lead to social equality for blacks in the North.

Question 8

The congressional Reconstruction program enacted in 1866-1867 provided for all of the following EXCEPT

A) citizenship and suffrage for former slaves.
B) a requirement that southern states ratify the Fourteenth Amendment before readmission.
C) military occupation.
D) a land reform measure that would grant small tracts of farmland to deserving freedmen.

Question 9

Which of the following most accurately explains the meaning of the refusal of Congress to convict Johnson?

A) Johnson's influence in Congress was increasing.
B) The power of the Radicals in Congress was waning.
C) The country's support for Johnson was increasing.
D) Radicals in Congress feared counteraction by the Supreme Court if they convicted Johnson.

Question 10

African Americans who held political office in southern Reconstruction governments generally

A) alienated whites by pushing for social equality and land reform.
B) were more radical in their views than the black population at large.
C) manipulated the Freedmen's Bureau to impose unequal labor contracts on white planters.
D) were educated professionals, independent landowners, or otherwise from the ranks of black elites.

Question 11

What is true about southern economic redevelopment?

A) Northerners known as "scalawags" came south to exploit the South's economic vulnerability.
B) Republican-dominated Reconstruction governments sought to encourage southern industry.
C) Unlike the North, southern governments became notorious for corruption, which explains the skyrocketing public debt.
D) One success of the postwar South was in laying as much railroad track as the rest of the nation combined.

Question 12

After emancipation, the most important institutions for African Americans as they tried to establish their own independent family and community life were

A) the Freedmen's Bureau and the Supreme Court.
B) the black-controlled state legislatures and the land reform program.
C) the sharecrop system and the black codes.
D) the schools and the churches.

Question 13

For southern whites, the old idea of ________ in master-slave relationships was replaced by ________.

A) close paternalistic ties; the distance of purely economic relationships
B) religious duty; an ideology of class conflict
C) terrorizing blacks into submission; artfully persuading them of the wisdom of letting whites govern for them
D) enforced segregation of the races; more complex and subtle social interactions

Question 14

Which of the following is an accurate explanation of the South's "redemption"?

A) Gradually, conservative and racist white Democrats regained political control in the former Confederate states.
B) A fresh wave of evangelical revivals spread across "the Bible Belt."
C) Southern acceptance of the end of slavery meant northern acceptance of the South as a restored section.
D) Southern states gradually came to experience economic prosperity and development.

Question 15

Ultimately, wartime ideals and the goals of a real Reconstruction were scuttled by a deep-seated ________ in America.

Question 16

Contrast the terms of Lincoln's program of Reconstruction with Johnson's program.

Question 17

What were the black codes? What role did they play in the early stages of Reconstruction?

Question 18

Explain why four of the following issues were important to freed people after the Civil War: marriage, family, names, travel, labor contracts, and work done by women and children.

Question 19

What were the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment?

Question 20

Why did Republicans in Congress impeach Johnson? Was this action justified?

Question 21

How did the election of Rutherford Hayes, a Republican, signal the end of Reconstruction?

Question 22

What were the advantages and disadvantages of sharecropping to black laborers? To white landowners?

Question 23

Describe how everyday life changed for former slaves after emancipation. How did the agricultural system of labor change in the South?

Question 24

Consider this statement: "The persistence of racism, in both the North and the South, lay at the heart of Reconstruction's failure."Agree or disagree, and explain why.

Question 25

List three major achievements of the radical governments in the South. Which do you think was the most important, and why?

Question 26

Some northerners wished to provide for a distribution of southern lands to former slaves. Describe that plan and the fate it met. Do you think Reconstruction might have had a chance of succeeding without some form of land redistribution? Why or why not?

Question 27

Why did religion and education play such a key role in African American culture in the South during the Reconstruction era? Give examples of how both areas were important to black life.

Question 28

Outline the three stages of Reconstruction, providing specific details on each stage of development.

Question 29

Explain the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. How was the act of impeachment legal? How was it illegal?