Chapter 15: Reconstruction

Question 1

Ten Percent Plan

Answer 1

President Abraham Lincoln’s plan for Reconstruction, which allowed Southern states to rejoin the Union when 10% of their voters took an oath of loyalty to the United States.

Question 2

Wade-Davis Bill

Answer 2

A more stringent Reconstruction plan proposed by Congress in 1864, requiring a majority of voters to take a loyalty oath and guaranteeing civil rights for freedmen.

Question 3

Black Codes

Answer 3

Laws enacted by Southern states in the post-Civil War era to restrict the rights and freedoms of African Americans.

Question 4

Freedmen’s Bureau

Answer 4

A federal agency established to assist formerly enslaved individuals with education, employment, and other needs during Reconstruction.

Question 5

Civil Rights Act of 1866

Answer 5

Legislation that defined citizenship and affirmed the rights of all citizens regardless of race, preceding the Fourteenth Amendment.

Question 6

Fourteenth Amendment

Answer 6

A constitutional amendment ratified in 1868 that granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States and guaranteed equal protection under the law.

Question 7

Reconstruction Act of 1867

Answer 7

A set of laws passed by Congress that divided the South into military districts, required new state constitutions guaranteeing black suffrage, and set conditions for reentry into the Union.

Question 8

Fifteenth Amendment

Answer 8

A constitutional amendment ratified in 1870 that prohibited the denial of the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Question 9

American Woman Suffrage Association

Answer 9

An organization advocating for women’s suffrage, led by Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell.

Question 10

National Woman Suffrage Association

Answer 10

An organization advocating for women’s suffrage, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

Question 11

Minor v. Happersett

Answer 11

A Supreme Court case in 1875 that held that the Fourteenth Amendment did not grant women the right to vote.

Question 12

sharecropping

Answer 12

An agricultural system in which landless laborers, often former enslaved individuals, worked on land owned by others in exchange for a share of the crops.

Question 13

Union League

Answer 13

An organization formed during the Civil War and Reconstruction to promote loyalty to the Union and support African American suffrage and civil rights.

Question 14

scalawags

Answer 14

Southern white Republicans who supported Reconstruction and civil rights for African Americans.

Question 15

carpetbaggers

Answer 15

Northerners who moved to the South during Reconstruction, often with the goal of political or economic gain.

Question 16

convict leasing

Answer 16

A system in which state governments leased incarcerated individuals to private companies for labor, often under brutal conditions.

Question 17

Civil Rights Act of 1875

Answer 17

Legislation that prohibited racial discrimination in public places and facilities, although much of it was declared unconstitutional.

Question 18

Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company

Answer 18

A bank established to provide financial services to newly freed African Americans, but it ultimately failed, causing many to lose their savings.

Question 19

classical liberalism

Answer 19

A political and economic philosophy emphasizing limited government intervention in the economy and individual liberties.

Question 20

laissez faire

Answer 20

An economic policy advocating minimal government interference in economic affairs.

Question 21

Crédit Mobilier

Answer 21

A scandal involving fraudulent construction contracts for the building of the First Transcontinental Railroad.

Question 22

“Redemption”

Answer 22

A term used by Southern Democrats to describe the return to power in the South following the end of Reconstruction.

Question 23

Ku Klux Klan

Answer 23

A white supremacist terrorist organization founded in the post-Civil War South to intimidate and oppress African Americans and their white allies.

Question 24

Enforcement Laws

Answer 24

Legislation passed in the early 1870s to combat the activities of the Ku Klux Klan and protect the civil rights of African Americans.

Question 25

Slaughter-House Cases

Answer 25

A series of Supreme Court cases in 1873 that limited the scope of the Fourteenth Amendment’s protection of civil rights.

Question 26

U.S. v. Cruikshank

Answer 26

A Supreme Court case in 1876 that ruled that the federal government could not protect citizens’ civil rights from infringement by individuals.

Question 27

Civil Rights Cases

Answer 27

A group of Supreme Court cases in 1883 that struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1875 and limited the federal government’s ability to combat racial discrimination by private individuals and businesses.