Deck 15: The Realities of Rural America

Question 1

Between 1860 and 1900, farmers

A) used few new machines.
B) rose in number as immigrants and city dwellers moved to the plains.
C) contributed to national wealth with an increase from one-quarter to one-third.
D) represented a smaller percentage of the labor force.

Answer 1

represented a smaller percentage of the labor force.

Question 2

An important factor in transforming the nature of American agriculture after the Civil War was

A) the scarcity of land in the Great Plains.
B) a decrease in the size of the average American farm.
C) increasing utilization of machinery.
D) a decline in international markets for American farm products.

Answer 2

increasing utilization of machinery.

Question 3

In general, American agriculture in the second half of the nineteenth century became

A) increasingly diversified.
B) less reliant on government intervention.
C) less dependent on market forces.
D) more dependent on market forces.

Answer 3

more dependent on market forces.

Question 4

By the mid-1880s, cattle raising in the American West

A) remained highly successful using open-range techniques.
B) had precluded settlement of the area by farmers.
C) faced numerous problems from both man and nature.
D) proved highly profitable for the legendary cowboys.

Question 5

Between 1865 and 1900, immigrants to the United States who settled on the Great Plains

A) came chiefly from the Soviet Union.
B) came largely from Germany, the British Isles, and Canada.
C) came primarily to make their fortunes and return to their native countries.
D) usually migrated as single males.

Question 6

The development of agriculture in California during the late nineteenth century was characterized by

A) small family farms.
B) a concentration on the production of cotton.
C) large profits for the original Mexican landholders.
D) large-scale farming.

Question 7

In the last three decades of the nineteenth century, Indians on the Great Plains

A) accepted their removal to reservations without resistance.
B) eagerly abandoned their nomadic ways for the sedentary ways of the whites.
C) often fiercely resisted white settlement in the area.
D) generally believed that the U.S. government had dealt fairly with them.

Question 8

An important factor in the white man's defeat of the Plains tribes was

A) general agreement among the Indians not to resist white settlements in the area.
B) destruction of the buffalo herds.
C) the inability of the Indians to use guns.
D) the Indians' refusal to use the horse.

Question 9

The federal government's Indian policy between 1876 and 1900 was characterized by a(n)

A) concern for the preservation of a tribal lifestyle among the Indians.
B) movement to end Indian power and culture.
C) program to protect and maintain the buffalo herds.
D) attempt to compensate the Indians for past mistreatment.

Question 10

In the years following the Civil War, weekly and monthly magazines

A) soared in number as illiteracy decreased and the publishing industry advanced.
B) appealed only to highly educated and cultured urban dwellers.
C) suffered decreasing popularity.
D) contained few, if any, illustrations.

Question 11

The Dawes Act was designed to

A) provide Indians with individual land ownership.
B) compensate Indians for past abuses by the whites.
C) guarantee blacks 40 acres and a mule.
D) help the Indian preserve tribal traditions.

Question 12

Those Indians who followed the Ghost Dance movement believed that

A) tribal unity would prevent the white man from taking Indian lands.
B) the buffalo would return and bring greatness to the tribes.
C) the Indians could defeat the white man militarily.
D) natural disasters would destroy the whites, but not the Indians.

Question 13

The philosophy of the New South advocates stressed

A) rejection of northern investments in the South.
B) a policy promoting industrialization of the southern economy.
C) a return to the South's agricultural past.
D) a move toward a socialist economy.

Question 14

Following the Civil War and Reconstruction, the southern economy

A) expanded as southerners took advantage of industrial opportunities.
B) sputtered and remained dependent on the North.
C) grew as the industries established earlier matured.
D) flourished as cotton fields became productive again.

Question 15

In the period after the Civil War, southern industrial progress

A) failed to occur at all.
B) made the South more industrial than the North.
C) was impeded by southern loyalty to the past.
D) brought general prosperity to the poor people of the South.

Question 16

Under the leadership of the New South advocates, the South

A) still remained economically dependent on the North.
B) rejected all of its older values.
C) reaped many of the benefits of industrialization.
D) improved its economic position in manufacturing relative to the North.

Question 17

In the period from 1865 to 1900, southern factory workers

A) seldom included children in their ranks.
B) generally were required to work fewer than 40 hours a week.
C) earned wages higher than similar workers in the North.
D) often earned wages insufficient to support their families adequately.

Question 18

In the late nineteenth century, southern agriculture

A) generally abandoned the cultivation of cotton.
B) abandoned the crop lien system.
C) remained dependent on cotton cultivation.
D) was characterized by a trend toward diversification of crops.

Question 19

During the late nineteenth century, the Supreme Court

A) declared the concept of "separate but equal" to be unconstitutional.
B) strongly defended the rights of blacks under the Constitution.
C) decided no important cases involving black rights.
D) gradually abandoned support of black rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

Question 20

According to the Plessy v. Ferguson decision,

A) black voters could be disfranchised through the "good character" clause.
B) the races could be separated but equal accommodations must be provided.
C) separate facilities for blacks and whites were illegal.
D) segregation laws violated the Fourteenth Amendment.

Question 21

Between 1865 and 1900, black workers in the South

A) found more opportunities in the industrializing southern cities.
B) were often excluded from industrial jobs.
C) seldom engaged in agricultural labor.
D) increased among the skilled laborers.

Question 22

Chief leader of the moderate approach to achieving black rights within American society was

A) Ida B. Wells.
B) W.E.B. Du Bois.
C) T. Thomas Fortune.
D) Booker T. Washington.

Question 23

What were the main tenets of the Afro-American League?

A) independent voting
B) desegregation
C) anti-lynching
D) All of the above.

Question 24

In December of 1890, the National Alliance gathered in Ocala,

A) South Carolina.
B) Florida.
C) North Carolina.
D) Virginia.

Question 25

Which of the following groups were not welcome in the People's Party in the South?

A) African Americans.
B) Irish Americans.
C) British Americans.
D) Canadians

Question 26

To contribute to the Grange movement, black farmers in 1888 founded the

A) National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
B) Afro-American League.
C) Colored Farmer's Alliance.
D) Citizen's Equal Rights Association.

Question 27

What did the Ocala Platform call for?

A) the direct election of senators
B) a lower tariff
C) a subtreasury system
D) All of the above.

Question 28

All of the following describe the functioning of the Interstate Commerce Commission EXCEPT

A) thousands of cases overwhelmed its tiny staff.
B) the ICC proved to be highly effective.
C) the ICC brought offenders into federal court for lengthy proceedings.
D) the ICC's authority was limited to commerce that crossed state lines.

Question 29

"Jim Crow" laws in the South imposed segregation in

A) transportation.
B) education.
C) recreation.
D) All of the above.

Question 30

In 1900, roughly 84 percent of African Americans worked in

A) the hotel industry.
B) manufacturing.
C) agriculture.
D) shipping.

Question 31

In the mid-1880s, African American workers in the South enthusiastically joined the

A) Knights of Labor.
B) American Federation of Labor.
C) Populist Party.
D) Democratic Party.

Question 32

Ed Coy, like more than 1,400 black men in the 1890s, was killed by a southern white

A) firing squad.
B) lynch mob.
C) sheriff.
D) child.

Question 33

The stories of the Leepers and Ebbesons illustrate some of the problems confronting rural America in the last part of the nineteenth century.

Question 34

During the late nineteenth century, international conditions had little effect on the American farmer.

Question 35

Those who settled the Great Plains generally found life easy and free from major problems.

Question 36

Blacks founded all-black towns in the Midwest, West, and even in Mexico, and most towns are still going strong today.

Question 37

At the Tuskegee Institute, founded by Booker T. Washington, blacks received a highly disciplined education based on the skilled and unskilled trades.

Question 38

Frederick Douglass, who helped defeat slavery and cement blacks to the Republican party, died in 1875.

Question 39

Many farmers, black and white, realized after the Civil War that labor gains could be made only through solitary and individual action.

Question 40

The Depression of the 1870s helped to galvanize the nation's southern and western farmers into action.

Question 41

In 1887, Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act to regulate railroad rates.

Question 42

The Interstate Commerce Act created the nation's first regulatory commission, the Interstate Commerce Commission.

Question 43

Discuss the major problems that the American farmer faced during the last half of the nineteenth century.

Question 44

Discuss the major changes that occurred in American agriculture during the last half of the nineteenth century.

Question 45

Discuss the conditions and developments that affected the cattle industry during the last half of the nineteenth century.

Question 46

Contrast the white perspective toward the Indians living on the Great Plains during the late nineteenth century with the Indians' view of white settlement in that area during the same period.

Question 47

Discuss the concept of the Ghost Dance and explain why you think that some Indians ultimately resorted to it in their confrontation with white settlers on the Great Plains during the late nineteenth century.

Question 48

Discuss the goals of the New South advocates and evaluate the extent to which the South achieved those goals during the last half of the nineteenth century.

Question 49

Imagine that you were a white tenant farmer in the South during the late nineteenth century. Describe the conditions of your existence at that time.

Question 50

Describe the conditions of blacks in the South during the late nineteenth century and discuss how blacks and their leaders attempted to cope with those circumstances.

Question 51

Trace the attempts of the farmers to organize during the late nineteenth century as a means of confronting the economic and social problems they faced during that period.

Question 52

Discuss how magazines shaped (or reflected) the American public's image of the West.

Question 53

Most of the longhorn cattle slaughtered for the urban markets of the East came originally from the state of ________.

Question 54

Frederick Jackson Turner considered the end of the ________ a milestone in United States history.

Question 55

The tactic of seeking out Indians who divided into small groups during the winter in order to exterminate them was introduced by ________.

Question 56

When a band of Sioux Indians left their reservation in December 1890, many of them were massacred by the U.S. Army at ________.

Question 57

In the 1890s, black leaders lobbied to make the ________ an all-black state.

Question 58

In 1894, Bishop Henry Turner founded the ________.

Question 59

The first ________ Conference was held in London in 1900.

Question 60

W.E.B. Du Bois became the first black man to receive a Ph.D. from ________.

Question 61

In 1903, Du Bois published ____________a major analysis of race in America.

Question 62

The first attempt to collectively organize farmers came in 1867 when ________ founded the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry.

Question 63

The most valuable crop in California in the late 1800s was ________.

Question 64

The first and best-known mining discovery in the United States took place in ________.

Question 65

John Muir helped to establish ________ National Park.