Chapter 1 - Reconstruction: 1865-1877

Question 1

Describe the Main Tenets of the Reconstruction Myth.

Answer 1

1) Abe Lincoln Wanted a Kind and Forgiving Post-War Settlement (True)
2) Radical Republicans Ruined This Settlement and Imposed an Unforgiving Reconstruction Agenda.
3) White Southerns Were Stripped of Political Rights
4) Incompetent Former Slaves Gained Political Power and Destroyed the South
5) The Legal System Didn’t Protect Southerns Against the Injustices of Freedmen
6) The KKK helped redeem the South from Negro Misrule
7) The Souther Regained Home Rule by 1877.

Question 2

Why did the Reconstruction Myth become widely accepted as truth?

Answer 2

1) Movies (Like the Birth of a Nation) Told This Story

2) Most major historians were Southerners

Question 3

Did Reconstruction actually happen?

Answer 3

No. Republicans lost the battle to implement their reforms.

Question 4

What issues did Reconstruction target?

Answer 4

1) Political Leadership in the South (Oligarchy)
2) A Diversified Southern Economy.
3) Social Reform To Give Slaves Equal Rights and Education.

Question 5

What Republican policies were proposed to reform Southern Political Leadership?

Answer 5

1) Deny Confederate Leaders the Ability to Hold Office or Vote

Question 6

What Republican policies were proposed to reform Souther Economic Operations?

Answer 6

1) A Movement towards the wage-labor system under capitalism.

Question 7

What Republican Policies Were proposed to reform Souther Social Attitudes?

Answer 7

1) Educating Former Slaves
2) Granting Slaves Equal Civil Rights Before the Law
3) Protecting the Legal Standing of Former Slaves in Courts
4) Giving Black Males the Right to Vote
5) Short-Term Government Loans
6) Forty-Acres and a Mule Plan

Question 8

Did Reconstruction begin in 1865?

Answer 8

No, policies of this sort were debated during the civil war well before Appomattox Courthouse.

Question 9

Describe Each of the North’s War Goals and The Era When These Goals Existed.

Answer 9

1) The North’s Initial War Goal - To Only Restore the Union (Not to Abolish Slavery)
2) The North’s Expanded War Goal - To Abolish Slavery.
3) The North’s Ultimate War Goal - ToSee the South Fundamentally Restructured Socially, Politically, and Economically.

Question 10

Describe what the Emancipation Proclamation did.

Answer 10

Only freed slaves in Southern States that had seceded and would not return to the Union. Had all the Souther States returned they would have been able to keep their slaves and Northern States who had slaves could keep them.

Question 11

What was the motivation of changing the goal of the war to abolishing slavery?

Answer 11

1) To prevent Britain and France from entering the war.
2) It ennobled the war effort.
3) Slaves Leaving Would Crash the Southern Economy and By Extension the Southern War Effort.

Question 12

What policies were post-war Republicans able to agree upon?

Answer 12

1) The Abolition of Slavery
2) Reintegration of the South into the Union
3) The Equal Rights of African Americans Before the Law
4) African Americans Should Have the Right to Vote

Question 13

What became the main vision for post-war policy and why?

Answer 13

The Radical Republicans policy - Because Lincoln was assassinated and Johnson was not able to revive that dream.

Question 14

What was Lincoln’s goal for Reconstruction?

Answer 14

To reintegrate the South into the North as quickly and painlessly as possible.

Question 15

What was the First Part of Lincoln’s Plan?

Answer 15

The Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction (PAR)

Question 16

What did the PAR do?

Answer 16

1) Required Only 10% of a state’s voters had to take an oath to the Constitution and the Union in order to be readmitted.
2) Gave Most People in State A Presidential Pardon (Except Confederate Government Offices, Congressmen, and those who committed war atrocities.)
3) Every Legitimate Southern Government had to swear to support all federal laws relating to the emancipation of slaves.

Question 17

How did Congress respond to the PAR?

Answer 17

By passing the Wade-Davis bill to impose tougher conditions for readmittance into the Union.

Question 18

What did the Wade-Davis Bill do?

Answer 18

1) Increased the loyalty pledge number to 50% of the State’s voters.
2) Only Southerns who swore they had not supported secession could participate in State Constitutional Conventions.
3) Had to Abolish Slavery, Deny Political Rights to High Ranking Southern Officials, and repudiate all Confederate War Debts

Question 19

Who took the Presidency after Lincoln’s assassination?

Answer 19

Andrew Johnson

Question 20

What was Johnson’s political party and stance on slavery?

Answer 20

Democrat and Pro-Slavery.

Question 21

What were the major differences between Johnson and Lincoln?

Answer 21

Lincoln - Pacific and Practical

Johnson - Bellicose and Theoretical

Question 22

Why did Johnson think the Southern States Should Be Admitted Quickly?

Answer 22

Because since secession was unconstitutional, the Southern States had never really left the Union.

Question 23

How was Johnson’s PAR carried out?

Answer 23

Southern states returned Confederate Officers to Power and Only Begrudgingly Offered Blacks Few Civil Rights

Question 24

How did the South attempt to curtail the potential freedom of former slaves?

Answer 24

By implementing the Black Codes.

Question 25

What did the Black Codes do?

Answer 25

1) Restricting the freedom of Negros in the South

Question 26

What caused the people to side with the Radical Republicans instead of Johnson?

Answer 26

Johnsons Inflammatory Remarks and Inability to Compromise

Question 27

Why did Northerners Leave the Democratic Party?

Answer 27

1) The Democratic Party Was Seen as the Pro-South Party

2) Since most wartime copperheads had been Democrats, it made the party seem unpatriotic.

Question 28

What were the five acts that Congress passed despite Johnson’s Veto and what did each act do?

Answer 28

1) Civil Rights Act - Attempted to Eliminate Southern Black Codes
2) Extended the Life of the Freedman’s Bureau
3) The Military Reconstruction Act - Divided the South into Districts With Each Administered by a Military Officer
4) The Command of the Army Act
5) The Tenure of Office Act - Prevented the President from Removing Anyone Who Congress Appointed

Question 29

Who did Johnson attempt to replace and with whom did he try to replace hm?

Answer 29

Johnson attempted to replace Radical Republican Edwin Stanton from his cabinet and replace him with Ulysses S. Grant.

Question 30

How did Congress respond to Johnson’s attempt to replace Stanton?

Answer 30

By passing articles of impeachment

Question 31

What effect did the Article of Impeachment have on the conflict between the President and Congress?

Answer 31

Johnson stopped fighting Congress.

Question 32

Who did Andrew Johnson issue the last Presidential Pardon of his term to?

Answer 32

Jefferson Davis.

Question 33

How many Southern States had met the conditions for readmission to the Union by mid-1868?

Answer 33

Seven.

Question 34

What states did not comply with the standards for readmittance?

Answer 34

1) Texas
2) Virginia
3) Mississippi

Question 35

What state had its admission revoked and why?

Answer 35

Georgia. Because it refused to seat 28 elected freedmen to office and allowed former Confederate officials to hold office.

Question 36

What did Georgia have to do in order to gain reentry into the Union?

Answer 36

1) Seat the Freedmen
2) Remove the Confederate Officers
3) Ratify the Fifteenth Amendment

Question 37

What did the Reconstruction Accomplish?

Answer 37

1) Freed Slaves Worked Sharecropping But Had Access to Freedman’s Schools and Black Churches and Clubs
2) Blacks Wielded A Measure of Political Influence But Elected Conservative Northern Blacks who wanted political but not social equality.
3) Key Positions in Post-Civil War Governments were given to Northern and Southern Collaborators Termed Carpetbaggers and Scalawags Respectively But Was Not Poorly Mismanaged as the South Claimed
4) Southerns Who Resented Their New Governments Formed the KKK to Suppress Freedman and Northern Participation in Politics.
5) The KKK diminished the North’s Ambition to Fight to Reform the South Socially.

Question 38

What was the impact of the KKK on Voter-Turnout in Mississippi?

Answer 38

Major African American Counties Polled Less Than 20 Votes.

Question 39

Who became President after Andrew Johnson?

Answer 39

Ulysses S. Grant

Question 40

What contributed to the poor performance of the Grant Administration?

Answer 40

His poor choice of unscrupulous advisors.

Question 41

Describe the difference between a hard money and soft money policy?

Answer 41

A soft money policy would inflate the money supply and lower the value of currency, making debts easier to pay. A hard money policy would keep the money supply fix and cause deflation, making it harder to repay loans.

Question 42

What monetary policy did the Grant Administration adopt?

Answer 42

A hard money policy.

Question 43

What was the result of Grant adopting a hard money policy?

Answer 43

Many yeoman farmers were alienated from the Republican Party and joined the Democratic Party.

Question 44

Name the Four Scandals that occurred during the Grant Administration?

Answer 44

1) An Attempt by His Advisors to Corner the Gold Market.
2) The Credit Mobile Scandal that Produced Massive Profits For Right-Wing Supporters and Politicians
3) Grant’s Secretary of War accepted bribes.
4) Grant’s Personal Secretary Received Kickbacks for Insider Information.

Question 45

What economic disaster was triggered by Grant’s hard money policies?

Answer 45

The Panic of 1873

Question 46

How long did the depression that follow the Panic of 1873 last?

Answer 46

Six Years.

Question 47

When did Democrats win control of the House?

Answer 47

1874.

Question 48

What four factors killed Reconstruction?

Answer 48

1) White Southern Intransigence made the reconstruction process difficult for the North.
2) The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment’s ideas failed to be implemented. Republicans weren’t willing to force the South to comply with them.
3) The Grant Administration’s Fumbles Sapped Northerner’s Determination to Reform the South
4) Northerners Were alarmed at the use of military power to dictate the affairs of Southern States

Question 49

Who won the popular vote in the 1876 Presidential Election?

Answer 49

Democrat Samuel Tilden.

Question 50

Who won the 1876 Election by the Electoral College?

Answer 50

Rutherford B. Hayes

Question 51

What three states electoral college votes were under contention?

Answer 51

South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana.

Question 52

How did the Commission’s Democrats Consent to Hayes?

Answer 52

By eliciting informal concessions from Republicans. Most notably to end reconstruction.

Question 53

Describe the actions taken in the Compromise of 1877?

Answer 53

Hayes was elected President in exchange for:

1) Ending Reconstruction
2) Removing Federal Troops From the South
3) A Southerner Would Get Named To The Position of Post-Master General
4) Increase in Money Allocated to the South for Internal Improvements.

Question 54

Why is the view of Reconstruction provided in Birth of a Nation Highly Inaccurate?

Answer 54

1) Little Economic Reconstruction Came to the South. (Sharecropping Replaced Slavery and the South Focused on Agriculture.)
2) The South Endured Little Political Reconstruction. Freedman Stopped Holding Office By 1900 and Laws Prevented Blacks From voting.
3) Little Social Transformation Came to the South. Black Codes Still Treated Freedman as Less Than Human and Suppressed Their Liberty and SCOTUS’s weak interpretations of the 14th and 15th Amendments legitimized segregation.
4) Miscegenation was not a live issue in the post-civil war era as no one favored full social equality for freedmen.
5) Northern Policies did not impose poverty on the South. The South’s lack of economic diversity Brought their economy to a grinding halt.