Political and Legislative (1865-1890)

Question 1

What was the statement where President Lincoln established the abolition of slavery?

Answer 1

The Emancipation Proclamation (1863)

Question 2

When was the Reconstruction Period?

Answer 2

1865 to 1877

Question 3

When did the Civil War end? Who was successful?

Answer 3

The Union (Northern states) won the US Civil war on the 9th April 1861 - Lincoln assassinated a week later.

Question 4

What was the Abolitionist movement?

Answer 4

It was a movement supported by the Northern states which aimed to abolish slavery.

Question 5

13th Amendment

Answer 5

Passed on January 31st 1865 and ratified on December 6th 1865 - this officially abolished slavery within the US.

Question 6

14th Amendment

Answer 6

Passed and ratified in 1868 - this established the citizenship of all those borne or naturalised in the US. Overturned rulings such as Dredd Scott v Sandford (1857) which denied AA’s citizenship.

Question 7

15th Amendment

Answer 7

Passed and ratified in 1869 - this extended the suffrage to all US citizens (therefore due to the 14th Amendment this included AA’s).

Question 8

What were black codes?

Answer 8

Laws passed in separate states to enforce segregation.

Question 9

What were the Jim Crow Laws?

Answer 9

A series of laws which enforced racial segregation and discrimination.

Question 10

What was the first state to institute laws that abolished African American’s full civil rights?

Answer 10

Mississippi

Question 11

When was the Freedman’s Bureau passed? And when was its power renewed?

Answer 11

It was passed on March 3rd 1865 and renewed in 1866.

Question 12

Evidence suggesting aiding African Americans was not at the foresight of President Johnson

Answer 12

Johnson used his presidential veto against the renewal of the Freedman’s Bureau and the introduction of the Civil Rights Act in March 1866.

Question 13

What was the de’facto of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 which granted African American’s equal protection by the law as white people?

Answer 13

The de’facto was that many states had black codes which led to black Americans being treated as second-class citizens.

Question 14

How was Andrew Johnson a key part of the failure of Radical Reconstruction?

Answer 14

The Radical Republican popular opinion was to instil laws which ensured the protection of African Americans - unlike this Johnson, an ex-Democrat and southern sympathiser, was lenient and often opposed laws which aimed to better the lives of ex-slaves.

Question 15

What civil liberties did the Civil Rights Act of 1866 outline?

Answer 15

All citizens had the right to:
Make contracts
Own and sell property
Receive equal treatment under the law

Question 16

Who came to power in the midterm election of 1866? What was their aim?

Answer 16

The Radical Republicans - their aim was to punish the South

Question 17

What were 3 ways that Johnson failed the Radical Reconstruction?

Answer 17

1) Freedman’s Bureau failure
2) Vetoed Civil Rights Act of 1866
3) Claimed to strongly believe in states’ rights and therefore limited federal intervention - following Civil war was this really clever?

Question 18

How did the Freedman’s Bureau fail?

Answer 18

Johnson, a southerner himself, hated the plantation aristocracy system and therefore opposed the idea of many farmers lands being seized (as they had following Civil War). Therefore he granted much of the seized land back to its pre-war white southerner owners. This limited the success of the Freedman’s Bureau - the aim was outlined by General William T Sherman as the ‘40 Acres and a Mule’ order in which 400,000 acres of land was supposed to be districuted between over a million ex-slaves.

Question 19

What was the Civil Rights Act of 1866?

Answer 19

This Act established the equal rights of African Americans under the law in the US.

Question 20

What were the Enforcement / KKK Acts?

Answer 20

The Enforcement Acts / Ku Klux Klan Acts, were a series of federal laws in response to widespread violence targeting African Americans in the South. These acts aimed to combat the activities of white supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and to protect the civil and voting rights of African Americans.
They represented a concerted federal effort to combat the systemic violence and intimidation directed against African Americans in the South during Reconstruction and to protect their rights as citizens. While the Enforcement Acts helped to suppress Klan violence and ensure some measure of protection for African Americans, their enforcement faced challenges, and Klan activity persisted in various forms for many years.

Question 21

What was the 1st Enforcement Act?

Answer 21

Enforcement Act of 1870: This act aimed to enforce the 15th Amendment, which granted voting rights to African American men. It empowered federal authorities to supervise and monitor elections in the South, particularly in areas where voter intimidation and violence were prevalent. The act authorised the use of federal troops to protect voting rights and to suppress any attempts to interfere with the exercise of those rights.

Question 22

What was the 2nd Enforcement Act?

Answer 22

Enforcement Act of 1871 (also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act): This act was a response to the widespread violence and intimidation perpetrated by the Ku Klux Klan against African Americans and their allies. It specifically targeted the activities of the KKK and other white supremacist groups by making it a federal offense to conspire to deprive any person of their civil rights or to prevent them from exercising their rights under the Constitution. The act authorised the President to use military force to suppress Klan violence and to suspend the writ of habeas corpus in areas affected by Klan activity.

Question 23

What was the 3rd Enforcement Act?

Answer 23

Civil Rights Act of 1871: This act complemented the Second Enforcement Act by providing additional legal tools to combat Klan violence and intimidation. It allowed individuals who had been deprived of their civil rights by conspiracies or acts of violence to sue for damages in federal court. The act also authorised the President to employ the armed forces and suspend the writ of habeas corpus to enforce its provisions.

Question 24

What was the Compromise of 1877?

Answer 24

A political agreement following dispute about the results of the election in 1876 (due to issues such as voter suppression in the South). Congress formed an electoral commission containing 15 members to decide who would be president. With the conditional agreement the southern Democrats - Hayes was deemed President of the US.

Question 25

What were the conditions of the Compromise of 1877?

Answer 25

1) Removal of Federal Troops from the South - effectively ending Reconstruction
2) Appointment of Southern Democrats to Cabinet.
3) Federal Aid for Southern Infrastructure - e.g., railroad through the south.
4) The principle of states’ rights and local self-government in the South, allowing Southern Democrats greater autonomy in governing their states.

Question 26

Name 2 scandals during the presidency of Grant.

Answer 26

The Black Friday Gold Scandal.
The Crèdit Mobilier Scandal.

Question 27

The Black Friday Gold Scandal

Answer 27

The Black Friday Gold Scandal is structured around the 24th of September 1869 where Jay Gould and Jim Fisk conspired with the help of other powerful figures to inflate the prices of gold. On the 24th of September 1869 gold which was once worth $100 in Wall Street Gold Rooms was now reaching prices of $160. Ulysses Grant resolved this issue by selling $4 million worth of gold from the US Treasury, in one day. This led to the price of gold plummeting to $133 – however this led to a dip in the stock market and destroyed some venerable firms and companies. Farmers also struggled seeing their prices drop by about 50%.

Question 28

The Crèdit Mobilier Scandal

Answer 28

The involvement of Shuyler Colfax (Vice President to Grant) in the Crèdit Mobilier scandal (which stole upwards of $44 million from the US government by overcharging for railroad construction) reduced the confidence of the US population in the government but also exposed the political corruption within the US, even so high up within the government.

Question 29

The Civil Rights Cases of 1883

Answer 29

These were 5 cases brought by black lawyers against the use of segregation in the southern states - they claimed this violated the 1875 Civil Rights Act (which enforced that every man has equal rights). All 9 justices excluding John Harland deemed that the CRA of 1875 was unconstitutional.

Question 30

Give an example of state prevention of African Americans voting.

Answer 30

The Mississippi Convention in 1890 was used to revise the states constitution. Laws that imposed grandfather clauses, poll taxes and literacy tests were included and later ratfiied by Congress.

Question 31

How many states were added to the Union from 1867 to 1912?

Answer 31

12 new states

Question 32

How many of those states were added to the Union from 1889 to 1890?

Answer 32

6 new states