Reconstruction

Question 1

What does reconstruction mean?

Answer 1

Reconstruction refers to the period immediately after the Civil War from 1865 to 1877 when several United States administrations sought to reconstruct society in the former Confederate states in particular by establishing and protecting the legal rights of the newly freed black population.

Question 2

What was the purpose of reconstruction?

Answer 2

The Reconstruction Era lasted from the end of the Civil War in 1865 to 1877. Its main focus was on bringing the southern states back into full political participation in the Union, guaranteeing rights to former slaves and defining new relationships between African Americans and whites.

Question 3

Who is Andrew Johnson?

Answer 3

What is Andrew Johnson most known for? Andrew Johnson is most known for being the president to take over after Abraham Lincoln was killed. He is also known for being one of the three presidents to be impeached. Andrew grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Question 4

What is Frederick Douglass most famous for?

Answer 4

Frederick Douglass was a formerly enslaved man who became a prominent activist, author and public speaker. He became a leader in the abolitionist movement, which sought to end the practice of slavery, before and during the Civil War

Question 5

What really started the Civil War?

Answer 5

A common explanation is that the Civil War was fought over the moral issue of slavery. In fact, it was the economics of slavery and political control of that system that was central to the conflict. A key issue was states’ rights.

Question 6

What did Special Field Order #15 do?

Answer 6

Sherman issued Field Order No. 15 in January 1865, calling for the redistribution of confiscated Southern land to freedmen in forty-acre plots. The order was rescinded later that same year, and much of the land was returned to the original white owners.

Question 7

What did the Freedmen’s Bureau do?

Answer 7

On March 3, 1865, Congress passed “An Act to establish a Bureau for the Relief of Freedmen and Refugees” to provide food, shelter, clothing, medical services, and land to displaced Southerners, including newly freed African Americans. The Freedmen’s Bureau was established in March of 1865 to help freed people achieve economic stability and secure political freedoms. Many white Southerners, as well as President Andrew Johnson, challenged the Bureau’s legitimacy, sparking racial violence in the South and the ultimate failure of the Bureau.

Question 8

What was the Freedmen’s Bureau and why did it fail?

Answer 8

The Freedmen’s Bureau was established in March of 1865 to help freed people achieve economic stability and secure political freedoms. Many white Southerners, as well as President Andrew Johnson, challenged the Bureau’s legitimacy, sparking racial violence in the South and the ultimate failure of the Bureau.

Question 9

What was the South’s role in the Civil War?

Answer 9

Confederate States of America, also called Confederacy, in the American Civil War, the government of 11 Southern states that seceded from the Union in 1860–61, carrying on all the affairs of a separate government and conducting a major war until defeated in the spring of 1865

Question 10

What happened in the South after the Civil War?

Answer 10

For many years after the Civil War, Southern states routinely convicted poor African Americans and some whites of vagrancy or other crimes, and then sentenced them to prolonged periods of forced labor. Owners of businesses, like plantations, railroads and mines, then leased these convicts from the state for a low fee

Question 11

How did the South recover after the Civil War?

Answer 11

The Union did a lot to help the South during the Reconstruction. They rebuilt roads, got farms running again, and built schools for poor and black children. Eventually the economy in the South began to recover. Some northerners moved to the South during the Reconstruction to try and make money off of the rebuilding.

Question 12

What was General Howard famous for?

Answer 12

From May 1865 to July 1874, General Howard was commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau (the Army’s Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands), where he played a major role in the Reconstruction era, and had charge of integrating freedmen (former slaves) into American society.

Question 13

sharecropping

Answer 13

Sharecropping is a system where the landlord/planter allows a tenant to use the land in exchange for a share of the crop. This encouraged tenants to work to produce the biggest harvest that they could, and ensured they would remain tied to the land and unlikely to leave for other opportunities.

Question 14

How did sharecropping help slaves?

Answer 14

With the southern economy in disarray after the abolition of slavery and the devastation of the Civil War, sharecropping enabled white landowners to reestablish a labor force, while giving freed Black people a means of subsistence.

Question 15

What is the crop-lien system?

Answer 15

In the post-Civil War South, the crop lien system allowed farmers to obtain supplies, such as food and seed, on credit from merchants; the debt was to be repaid after the crop was harvested and brought to market

Question 16

proclamation of amnesty and reconstruction

Answer 16

December 08, 1863
1833-1916: Abraham Lincoln, Tuesday, December 08, 1863 (Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction)

Question 17

What does Civil Rights Act of 1866 prohibit?

Answer 17

1866 prohibits discrimination in housing because of race or color. The Civil Rights Act of 1968, Title VIII, and the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1989 prohibit discrimination in housing because of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, disability, and familial status

Question 18

black codes

Answer 18

Black Codes restricted black people’s right to own property, conduct business, buy and lease land, and move freely through public spaces. A central element of the Black Codes were vagrancy laws. States criminalized men who were out of work, or who were not working at a job whites recognized.

Question 19

reconstruction acts

Answer 19

The Reconstruction Act of 1867 outlined the terms for readmission to representation of rebel states. The bill divided the former Confederate states, except for Tennessee, into five military districts.

Question 20

What’s an example of a black code?

Answer 20

Former slaves were forbidden to carry firearms or to testify in court, except in cases concerning other blacks. Legal marriage between African Americans was provided for, but interracial marriage was prohibited.

Question 21

What is meant by convict leasing?

Answer 21

After the Civil War, slavery persisted in the form of convict leasing, a system in which Southern states leased prisoners to private railways, mines, and large plantations. While states profited, prisoners earned no pay and faced inhumane, dangerous, and often deadly work conditions.

Question 22

How was peonage similar to slavery?

Answer 22

Another way that blacks were forced into labor was through a system known as “peonage.” Peonage, also called debt slavery or debt servitude, was a system where an employer compelled a worker to pay off a debt with work. Peonage had been in use in New Mexico Territory before the Civil War.

Question 23

Lynching

Answer 23

collective violence hanging murder lynch law
lynching, a form of violence in which a mob, under the pretext of administering justice without trial, executes a presumed offender, often after inflicting torture and corporal mutilation. The term lynch law refers to a self-constituted court that imposes sentence on a person without due process of law. Both terms are derived from the name of Charles Lynch (1736–96), a Virginia planter and justice of the peace who, during the American Revolution, headed an irregular court formed to punish loyalists.

Question 24

Ku Klux Klan

Answer 24

The Ku Klux Klan (/ˌkuː klʌks ˈklæn, ˌkjuː-/),[c] commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Catholics, and Native Americans[38][39] as well as immigrants, leftists, homosexuals,[40][41] Muslims,[42] abortion providers[43][44] and atheists.[45][46]

Question 25

Why was the Ku Klux Klan created?

Answer 25

Founded in 1865, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) extended into almost every southern state by 1870 and became a vehicle for white southern resistance to the Republican Party’s Reconstruction-era policies aimed at establishing political and economic equality for Black Americans. Its members waged an underground campaign of intimidation and violence directed at white and Black Republican leaders. Though Congress passed legislation designed to curb Klan terrorism, the organization saw its primary goal–the reestablishment of white supremacy–fulfilled through Democratic victories in state legislatures across the South in the 1870s.

Question 26

Define the Civil Rights Act of 1875. Why was it overturned?

Answer 26

1. This act prohibited racial discrimination in juries, forms of transportation, and public accommodations. Schools were not included because many felt it would be ruled as unconstitutional.
2. This act was overturned in 1883 because the Supreme Court ruled that, except for juries, Congress had no authority to legislate against discrimination by individuals, but had the authority to legislate only against discrimination by states.

Question 27

What is the 14th Amendment in simple terms?

Answer 27

The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1868, granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States—including former enslaved people—and guaranteed all citizens “equal protection of the laws.” One of three amendments passed during the Reconstruction era to abolish slavery and…

Question 28

What was the result of the Dred Scott decision?

Answer 28

The Court ruled that no African American could be a citizen and that Dred Scott was still a slave. The court also ruled that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was unconstitutional

Question 29

three fifths compromise

Answer 29

Three-fifths compromise, compromise agreement between delegates from the Northern and the Southern states at the United States Constitutional Convention (1787) that three-fifths of the slave population would be counted for determining direct taxation and representation in the House of Representatives.

Question 30

What is radical Reconstruction?

Answer 30

Radical Reconstruction, also called Congressional Reconstruction, process and period of Reconstruction during which the Radical Republicans in the U.S. Congress seized control of Reconstruction from Pres. Andrew Johnson and passed the Reconstruction Acts of 1867–68, which sent federal troops to the South to oversee the establishment of state governments that were more democratic.

Question 31

What amendments did the Radical Republicans pass?

Answer 31

The Radical Republicans passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the First Reconstruction Act, the Second Reconstruction Act, the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, the Civil Rights Act of 1875, and the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments.

Question 32

radical reconstruction officially began when

Answer 32

The 1866 Congressional elections turned on the issue of Reconstruction, producing a sweeping Republican victory in the North and providing the Radical Republicans with sufficient control of Congress to override Johnson’s vetoes and commence their own “Radical Reconstruction” in 1867.

Question 33

What was General Ulysses S. Grant best known for?

Answer 33

In 1865, as commanding general, Ulysses S. Grant led the Union Armies to victory over the Confederacy in the American Civil War. As an American hero, Grant was later elected the 18th President of the United States (1869–1877), working to implement Congressional Reconstruction and to remove the vestiges of slavery.

Question 34

What is the 15th Amendment in simple terms?

Answer 34

The 15th Amendment guaranteed African-American men the right to vote. Almost immediately after ratification, African Americans began to take part in running for office and voting.

Question 35

What is the 15th Amendment in simple terms?

Answer 35

The 15th Amendment guaranteed African-American men the right to vote. Almost immediately after ratification, African Americans began to take part in running for office and voting.

Question 36

What was the real purpose of poll taxes literacy tests and the grandfather clause?

Answer 36

Literacy tests, along with poll taxes, residency and property restrictions, and extra-legal activities (violence and intimidation) were all used to deny suffrage to African Americans. The first formal voter literacy tests were introduced in 1890.

Question 37

Black officeholders during reconstruction:

Answer 37

C) helped ensure a degree of fairness and treatment of African American citizens

Question 37

Black officeholders during reconstruction:

Answer 37

C) helped ensure a degree of fairness and treatment of African American citizens

Question 38

carpetbaggers

Answer 38

Carpetbaggers were people who had rushed to the South carrying all their possessions in bags made of carpeting. Scalawags were people who the Democrats believed who had betrayed the South by voting for the Republican party. Scalawags are also referred to as greedy rascals.

Question 39

scalawags

Answer 39

In United States history, the term scalawag referred to white Southerners who supported Reconstruction policies and efforts after the conclusion of the American Civil War. As with the term carpetbagger, the word has a long history of use as a slur in Southern partisan debates.