Deck 13: The Meaning of Freedom: the Failure of Reconstruction, 1868-1877

Question 1

Which of the following statements is not true about black officeholders during Reconstruction?

A) They were always well-qualified for their office.
B) Only a small minority had attended college.
C) Some had been free before the war; some had been slaves.
D) Farmers and workers were well represented.

Answer 1

They were always well-qualified for their office.

Question 2

How did class and social status divide blacks during Reconstruction?

A) Leaders who had been slaves were often worried about land and labor issues.
B) Leaders who had been free were often worried about civil rights issues.
C) Leaders who had been slaves were often worried about land and labor issues, and leaders who had been free were often worried about civil rights issues.
D) This is a myth: leaders were completely united about how to deal with education during Reconstruction.

Answer 2

Leaders who had been slaves were often worried about land and labor issues, and leaders who had been free were often worried about civil rights issues.

Question 3

What was the highest state office to which a black man was elected in the South during Reconstruction?

A) Governor
B) State senator
C) Lieutenant Governor
D) Blacks were not elected to any state offices.

Answer 3

Lieutenant Governor

Question 4

Which was not a problem faced by Republicans in establishing schools during Reconstruction?

A) White parents often refused to have their children go to integrated schools.
B) Many states in the South had little money to give.
C) Some parents opposed compulsory education laws.
D) Northerners proved very willing to allocate generous funding to black schools if the south did not.

Question 5

Some black legislators tried to regulate wages for blacks. What effect did this have?

A) an enormous effect; blacks were able to make enough money to survive for a short time
B) no effect at all, generally, since Democrats were able to get the laws repealed very quickly
C) wage regulation at this time was the beginning of the minimum wage laws we have now
D) very little, since most Republicans did not believe that the state had the right to regulate wages or prices

Question 6

Which former Confederate state had the least number of blacks holding office during Reconstruction?

A) Texas
B) South Carolina
C) Tennessee
D) Delaware

Question 7

______________ College was the first historically black state university, founded in 1872.

Question 8

What happened to the University of South Carolina when black leaders insisted it include black students?

A) White students accepted the blacks, and helped them adjust to college life.
B) Most of the white students and faculty left.
C) Whites discriminated against the black students, making life very difficult for them.
D) The governor of South Carolina shut the school down.

Question 9

Why were black political leaders not more successful in their goals?

A) They were unskilled in politics.
B) They were generally uneducated, lower-class men.
C) They faced overwhelming opposition, not only from Democrats, but also from white Republicans on a number of issues.
D) They refused completely avoided issues that were important to their constituents.

Question 10

The number of blacks elected to office in the former Confederate states during Reconstruction generally depended on _____________________.

Question 11

Who were the carpetbaggers and the scalawags?

A) Carpetbaggers were Republicans from the North; scalawags were white southerners who supported the Republicans.
B) Scalawags were Republicans from the North; carpetbaggers were white southerners who supported the Republicans.
C) Carpetbaggers were black Democrats from the South; scalawags were white northerners who supported the Republicans.
D) Carpetbaggers were Democrats from the North; scalawags were black southerners who supported the Republicans.

Question 12

What was the first opportunity for many black men to participate in politics in the South?

A) black men had no opportunity to participate in politics in the South
B) constitutional conventions during Reconstruction
C) the presidential election of 1872
D) elections for the state senate seats, in which many blacks also ran for office

Question 13

What is true about the constitutions developed by the Republican-dominated conventions?

A) They allowed all blacks to vote.
B) They did not disfranchise huge numbers of former Confederates.
C) They generally provided few guarantees to blacks.
D) None of these are true.

Question 14

Why were many of the delegates to the constitutional conventions in 1867 and 1868 Republicans?

A) The Republican Party was well liked and accepted among southerners.
B) White Democrats boycotted the elections to protest Congress's Reconstruction plan and the effort to give blacks the vote.
C) The Republicans bribed blacks to support them, thereby gaining the upper hand at the conventions.
D) President Johnson issued an executive order stating that Republicans had to be a certain percentage of the delegates.

Question 15

How did black leaders feel about segregation in American society?

A) They thought that it was merely a passing phase.
B) They thought that it was acceptable, as long as they made other political gains.
C) They found it unacceptable, and fought it through lawsuits and protests.
D) They ignored segregation entirely, and went about their lives as before the war.

Question 16

Which former Confederate state had the most blacks holding office during Reconstruction?

A) South Carolina
B) Alabama
C) Virginia
D) Texas

Question 17

Approximately what percentage of the delegates to the constitutional conventions were black?

A) 5%
B) 1%
C) 25%
D) 40%

Question 18

How did some black legislators try to gain land for blacks?

A) by forcing large property holders to give land to the state, so that blacks could have it
B) by making taxes on large landowners so high that they would have to sell their land
C) black legislators never felt they had enough power to even think about giving blacks land
D) some black legislators advocated violence as a way to gain land during Reconstruction

Question 19

What was the purpose of "stay laws"?

A) They attempted to force blacks to stay in one place, rather than migrate elsewhere.
B) They tried to assist blacks by prohibiting state authorities from taking property.
C) They had the effect of reducing blacks' political power in the state of Tennessee.
D) All of these answers are correct.

Question 20

What industry or business was a main source of interest in the South during Reconstruction?

A) the railroads
B) the new chemical industry
C) furniture and construction companies
D) the tobacco industry

Question 21

Which three states were still unredeemed in 1876?

A) Florida, Georgia, and Alabama
B) Alabama, Mississippi, and South Carolina
C) Mississippi, Tennessee, and Georgia
D) Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana

Question 22

What is true about the end of Reconstruction?

A) Whites learned that intimidation and violence would not reduce the amount of black voting.
B) Republicans regained control of southern legislatures.
C) It left few lasting benefits for blacks.
D) The high level of violence completely ended.

Question 23

________________ is the right to be brought before a judge and not be arrested or jailed without cause.

Question 24

Which of the following statements is not true about the actions of the KKK?

A) It was generally only popular among the poor whites who resented both elite whites and blacks.
B) It frequently helped to eliminate Republican leadership.
C) They conducted campaigns of violence, murder, and terrorism against blacks.
D) Other organizations with different names had similar goals and tactics in the South.

Question 25

What was the "Shotgun Policy"?

A) a policy adopted by African-American leaders in Louisiana to defend themselves against whites
B) a massive campaign of violence against blacks in Mississippi to bring the state back under "civilized" white control
C) a policy frequently adopted in the Reconstruction South, requiring marriage if a woman became pregnant
D) the "Shotgun Policy" required the quartering of federal troops in areas that were considered Klan strongholds

Question 26

Why did the Freedmen's Savings Bank fail?

A) The bank's black board of directors had little direct knowledge of banking practices.
B) The bank had no support from the black community.
C) The stock market at that point was very weak and fluctuated wildly.
D) The white leaders of the bank invested unsoundly, and lost everything in the Panic of 1873.

Question 27

Where was the Klan most powerful in the South?

A) where blacks were a huge majority of the population
B) where blacks were a large minority of the population
C) where blacks were a small minority of the population
D) the KKK was very powerful in all areas of the South

Question 28

What provoked the Hamburg Massacre?

A) an incident between two white men and the black militia of the town
B) the rape of a white woman by a black man
C) several African Americans attempting to vote
D) the theft of a large number of cattle from a prominent white businessman's ranch

Question 29

How did Congress react to repeated southern attempts to stop blacks from exercising political power?

A) They passed the Sixteenth Amendment.
B) They passed the Fifteenth Amendment.
C) They did very little, since Congress was tired of dealing with the South's misbehavior.
D) Congress responded by expelling southern congressmen and senators.

Question 30

What did Republican Rutherford B. Hayes promise in order to win the election of 1876?

A) He promised he would allow redemption to occur in South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana.
B) He promised blacks that they would win their right to vote, although he never followed through.
C) He promised that he would add more slave territory to the United States, at whatever the cost.
D) He stated that he would work specifically to deny blacks rights, and push them back into a semi-slavery status.

Question 31

Which of the following is not a reason why northerners began to lose interest in black issues in the mid-1870s?

A) Economic troubles came up, including the serious Panic of 1873.
B) Some northern whites felt that they had done enough for blacks over the course of Reconstruction.
C) Blacks were generally happy with the results of the Enforcement Acts as well as the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments. They thought they should be able to work things through on their own.
D) Actually, northerners continued to have a lot of interest in and focus on black issues, but southern racism was stronger.

Question 32

What did southerners mean when they said they wanted to "redeem" their states?

A) They wanted to be in power, and have the Republicans be a minority group.
B) They wanted to remove all blacks to Africa.
C) They wanted to restore religious feeling and true Christianity to their state.
D) They wanted to not only remove blacks and Republicans from political office, but from being able to wield any political power or hold any office.

Question 33

Where was the KKK founded?

Question 34

What effect did the Enforcement Acts have?

A) The government moved quickly against the Klan, but few of its members were prosecuted severely.
B) None-southern governments laughed at northern attempts to get rid of the Klan.
C) The Enforcement Acts actually shielded Klan members, since many of them were leaders of the community.
D) None of these answers are correct.

Question 35

What was the result of the Civil Rights Act of 1875?

A) It eliminated all discrimination in public places on the basis of race.
B) It was championed by both Republicans and Democrats.
C) It was eventually overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
D) It was never passed by either house of Congress.

Question 36

Why were elected offices in the South so bitterly contested by so many people?

A) Many were interested in the modest, steady salary politicians obtained.
B) Elected officials in the South wielded huge amounts of power.
C) Elected officials always rose up in the ranks to higher offices and higher pay.
D) At that time, elected officials were provided with a residence and numerous other benefits.

Question 37

How did the outcome of Mississippi's "Shotgun Policy" differ from South Carolina's?

A) They were basically the same law.
B) President Grant sent federal troops to South Carolina, but not to Mississippi, to stop the violence.
C) South Carolina's shotgun law was never enforced, and blacks were allowed to peacefully assemble and demonstrate against segregation.
D) Mississippi never had a shotgun law.

Question 38

What was often the problem with enforcement of laws against the actions of the Klan?

A) Since no terrorist groups had existed before, there were no laws to deal with them.
B) Many times, local law enforcement or white troops sided with the Klan against the blacks.
C) There were only a very small number of men in the Klan, and they always remained secret and hidden from prosecution.
D) The Klan's actions were almost invisible, since no one reported news of the terrorism.

Question 39

Which of the following is not true about the Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871?

A) They made it a federal crime to interfere with someone's right to vote.
B) They authorized the president to send in federal troops if necessary.
C) They authorized the president to suspend the writ of habeas corpus if necessary.
D) They were actually not put into effect because of white racism in the South.