How far did the geographical distribution of black Americans change in the years 1850-2009?

Question 1

How many slaves and black Americans were there in 1850?

Answer 1

• By 1850, there were 3.2 million black slaves and 400,000 black Americans

Question 2

What was the Missouri Compromise?

Answer 2

o 1819 - Missouri Compromise added Missouri as a slave state in return for Maine being added as a free state

Question 3

What was the Kansas Nebraska Act?

Answer 3

• The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 created a possibility to expand slavery to the West
o Decided any state created which was made up of Kansas-Nebraska territory could choose whether to be free or a slave
♣ Decided by adult white males, called popular sovereignty

Question 4

Describe the beginnings of the Republican Party

Answer 4

♣ Republican party created in the same year (1854) which opposed the creation of new slave states
• In 1860, Abraham Lincoln of the Republican Party established as the sixteenth president of the USA

Question 5

Describe the beginnings of the Civil War?

Answer 5

o Within a month of his inauguration, in March 1961, Civil War broke out
o Southern states saw Lincoln’s election as a threat to slavery and the consequent wealth• South Carolina was the first state to secede in December 1860
o 10 other states left and created the Confederate States of America

Question 6

Describe the north’s opinion of the civil war.

Answer 6

o The north believed the US was an indissoluble union so fought the war to preserve the union, calling the war the Great Rebellion and the confederates the rebels

Question 7

Describe the south’s opinions of black Americans during the Civil War.

Answer 7

o In 1862, the Confederate Congress issued a declaration that any former slaves and their officers in the army would be executed
♣ BAs could not join the Confederate army until April 1865
♣ Confederate armies tried to kill black Union troops at Fort Pillow and the Battle of the Crater

Question 8

January 1863

Answer 8

1. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which declared all slaves under confederate control free

Question 9

1870

Answer 9

1870 - all US male citizens given the right to vote - the 15th Amendment

Question 10

1865

Answer 10

1865 - Thirteenth Amendment of the US Constitution declared slavery to be abolished

Question 11

1868

Answer 11

1. 1868 - Fourteenth Amendment granted all US citizens equal protection from the law

Question 12

Evidence to suggest that, after the war, BAs equal to WAs.

Answer 12

3.5 million had been removed from slavery
1863-77 - the federal government made numerous attempts to assist black Americans in becoming freedmen
Freedmen’s Bureau established

Question 13

Evidence to suggest that, after the war, BAs were not equal to WAs

Answer 13

Very few Black Americans could own land as they did not have the money
Sharecropping began - old plantations split into little farms rented by BAs and poor WAs where they paid rent by giving a portion of their crops - led to debt

Question 14

When did the slow drift north and west last from?

Answer 14

1865-1917

Question 15

By 1910…

Answer 15

• 89% of BAs still lived in former confederate states, and 80% of these still in rural areas

Question 16

Specific areas there was migration to during the slow drift?

Answer 16

New York, Philadelphia, Detroit and Cleveland

Question 17

How many left the south-east during the Great Migration?

Answer 17

• 1.6 million left the south east at this time

Question 18

Between 1910 and 1930…

Answer 18

• Between 1910 -1930, the BA population increased by 40% in the northern states

Question 19

What are the factors which led to movement during the Great Migration?

Answer 19

1. WW1
2. The economic boom of the 1920s
3. The Great Depression and the New Deal
4. The rise of discrimination and violence
5. Slump in the cotton industry

Question 20

Describe WW1 as a factor.

Answer 20

400,000 BAs left the Old South 1916-18 to take advantage of the opportunities from the war
Less white migration and Allies needed supplies
Chicago Defender lied about opportunities in the north
Black people could join the army (though had to be in separate regiments)

Question 21

Describe the economic boom of the 1920s.

Answer 21

Boom in 1922
Car industry responsible because of the mass production and factory lines, especially Detroit
General Motors and Ford flourished
Problems with agriculture made this seem better

Question 22

Describe the Great Depression and the New Deal.

Answer 22

Many trade unions banned BAs
Social security denied to BAs
Some companies in the north allocated 10% of their budgets for BAs (but they were 20% of the poor) e.g. National Youth Administration, Works Progress Administration
The federal government established federal agencies through which BAs got jobs

Question 23

Describe the rise of discrimination and violence.

Answer 23

Lynching
KKK revived 1915
1890 - white dominated southern state governments took away civil rights e.g. made it hard for BAs to vote in the Grandfather clause

Question 24

Describe the slump in the cotton industry.

Answer 24

Boll weevil appeared in the cotton fields of Texas, killed crops
Slump in prices after WW1 - 42 cents a pound in 1920, 10 cents 1921, 5 cents 1932

Question 25

Describe unemployment rates under Roosevelt.

Answer 25

• When Roosevelt came to power 1933, there were 12.8 million out of work, 25% of the population
• By 1940, after 6 years of the New Deal, unemployment fell to 8.1 million
• By 1945, it had fallen to 1 million

Question 26

How many new jobs did the war create?

Answer 26

17 million new jobs

Question 27

How many Americans moved permanently because of the war?

Answer 27

• 15 million Americans moved permanently because of the war

Question 28

By 1945…

Answer 28

• By 1945, more BAs lived in urban areas than rural areas

Question 29

By 1970…

Answer 29

• By 1970, BAs were more urbanised than the average American population - 80% compared to 70% and only 53% of BAs lived in the south

Question 30

Why was there migration back into the south?

Answer 30

o Fleeing life in the cities because of the crime rates and limited job opportunities
o Old South had better job opportunities - the Sun Belt (Florida, Georgia, Texas) had job opportunities
o The Rust Belt - north east - had no jobs (especially in Detroit)
o Family and economic reasons led to people moving to the south