Chapter 14 Flashcards
What two forces drove many freed blacks from the South during Reconstruction?
Economic hardship and racial bigotry
What was the effect of the black codes passed in the South following the Civil War?
Free blacks were effectively reenslaved by a separate legal system that restricted them.
The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan was formed in Tennessee in 1865 as a way to
bring together whites of all classes.
Lincoln’s “Ten Percent Plan” during Reconstruction meant that 10 percent of
eligible southern voters were required to pledge allegiance to the United States.
Why did ardent abolitionists, such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, fight against the Fourteenth Amendment?
It described citizens in the Constitution as “male.”
Why did black churches become such important community institutions following the Civil War?
Black churches were large structures that hosted many other organizations.
Why did the federal government use legislation to try to break up the Ku Klux Klan?
Federal legislation could create lasting change.
Which group was disproportionately blamed for increasing taxes during Reconstruction?
Black officials
Why did some slaves not find out about emancipation for months, even years, after the Civil War ended?
Their masters, especially in remote locations, withheld the news.
How did southern whites respond to the end of the Civil War?
With fear and humiliation
The Wade-Davis bill proposed by Congress for reunification of the North and South required
50 percent of southern voters to pledge allegiance to the United States.
What proved to be the number-one priority among newly freed slaves?
Reuniting their families
What message was sent by Lincoln’s plan for reunion and reconstruction?
The country had best move forward and minimize conflict between North and South.
Why was the power to make family decisions so important to newly freed slaves?
African American families were often destroyed under slavery.
What effect did Supreme Court rulings in cases such as Slaughterhouse (1873) and United States v. Cruikshank (1876) have on black civil rights?
These cases narrowed the Fourteenth Amendment, reducing black civil rights.
When southern Democrats referred to a Northerner who had moved to the South following the Civil War as a carpetbagger, it was intended as a
criticism for those who came to plunder the area and then leave.
Newly freed slaves’ expressions of joy caused proslavery southern whites to feel
outraged and insulted by the happiness of the freed people.
What was the result of a loophole in the Fifteenth Amendment?
The law did not deny states the power to restrict suffrage.
According to the following passage, on what basis did the freedpeople of Edisto Island expect that the federal government would allow them to retain the land they were cultivating, and which was formerly owned by slaveholders?
“We have been encouraged by government to take up these lands in small tracts, receiving Certificates of the same — we have thus far Taken Sixteen thousand (16000) acres of Land here on This Island. We are ready to pay for this land When Government calls for it and now after What has been done will the good and just government take from us all this right and make us Subject to the will of those who have cheated and Oppressed us for many years God Forbid! We the freedmen of this Island and of the State of South Carolina — Do therefore petition to you as the President of these United States, that some provisions be made by which Every colored man can purchase land. and Hold it as his own.”
The freedpeople were willing to pay for the land.
As news of emancipation spread across the South after the end of the Civil War, African Americans responded by
celebrating in black churches and slave quarters.
Frederick Douglass, Abby Kelley, and other activists denounced Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s bigotry because she
was not able to see the urgency of the situation for blacks in the South.
Why was education so unobtainable for so many in the South, black or white, following the Civil War?
Funding for teachers and supplies never kept up with demand.
What role did the Freedmen’s Bureau play in the lives of newly freed blacks?
It provided them with economic and legal resources.
Which free blacks were eager to receive an education?
People of all ages
What compelled free blacks to want to read the Bible themselves?
White preachers had claimed that the Bible taught black slavery was God’s will.
Johnson didn’t punish former Confederate leaders for their role in causing the Civil War because he
believed the end of slavery was punishment enough for them.
How did landlords exploit laborers under the sharecropping system that arose following the Civil War?
By charging high fees for goods and supplies
How did the Fourteenth Amendment effectively nullify the Dred Scott decision of 1857?
It extended equal protection and due process to all.
What was the outcome of federal efforts to destroy the Ku Klux Klan?
The Ku Klux Klan was disbanded.
What was achieved by the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution?
Slavery was abolished.
What event effectively brought Reconstruction to an end?
The presidential election of 1876
When did civilian rule return to the former Confederate states, replacing the Reconstruction governments?
1870
Moderate Republicans ultimately did not agree to impeach President Johnson because they believed
his failings did not constitute an unwillingness to uphold the Constitution.
What nickname was given to the many free blacks who left the South to settle en masse in Kansas?
Exodusters
What attitudes prevailed among the Republican Party regarding blacks following the Civil War?
Blacks were not equal to whites but deserved basic protections and due process of law.
Who served as teachers in the roughly 4,000 new schools that opened across the South following the Civil War?
Black and white men and women
The term scalawag, an unflattering term meaning “scoundrels,” was applied to whom during Reconstruction?
Southern whites who supported Republicans
What political position does this flier advocate?
Supporting the Republican president over Congress
Following the Civil War, how did Lincoln plan to treat Confederate officials?
Only the most high-ranking Confederate officials would be punished.
When civilian governments replaced Reconstruction governments in the South, a group of Democrats referred to themselves as “Redeemers” because they saved the
white South from Reconstruction.
Northerners saw the punishment of Confederate leaders following the Civil War as
absurdly lenient, unlike that levied against opponents in other wars.
President Lincoln’s approach to Reconstruction was motivated by a desire to
heal the Union and help southern blacks.
What hardships greeted freed blacks who moved to Kansas to start life over following the Civil War?
Poor-quality land and unpredictable weather
Taxes rose sharply during Reconstruction in order to
support education and social services.
Why were only 25 percent of free blacks literate by 1880?
Opportunities to learn were still very limited.
