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US History > Reconstruction > Flashcards

Reconstruction Flashcards

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1
Q

List some positives of reconstruction
(Legislation and African Americans)

A
  • The reconstruction amendments
  • The rise of elected black officials
  • The Freedmen’s Bureau
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2
Q

Name some key events from the presidency of Lincoln

A
  • Readmission of the Southern States into the union
  • The 13th Amendment
  • The Freedmen’s Bureau
  • Lincoln’s assassination
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3
Q

List some failures of reconstruction
(African Americans, white response, end of reconstruction)

A
  • Problems of the Freedmen’s Bureau
  • White violence
  • Black codes
  • The compromise of 1877
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4
Q

What was Lincoln’s attitude to reconstruction?

A
  • Unclear
  • Did not seem to want to punish the South
  • Did seem to be moving towards more rights for African - Americans
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5
Q

Name some key events from the presidency of Johnson

A
  • Civil Rights Bill 1866
  • The 14th Amendment
  • Attempted impeachment in 1868
  • Congress for Radical Reconstruction (Military Reconstruction Bill, Command of the Army Act, Tenure of Office Act)
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6
Q

What was Johnson’s attitude to reconstruction?

A
  • Very opposed to radical reconstruction
  • Lenient on the South
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7
Q

Name some key events from the presidency of Grant

A
  • White terrorists
  • Legal discrimination
  • Final policies of reconstruction (15th Amendment, Ku klux klan laws, Civil Rights Act 1875)
  • The failure of radical reconstruction
  • Many scandals
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8
Q

What was Grant’s attitude to reconstruction?

A

Supported Reconstruction but not passionately enough

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9
Q

Explain how Reconstruction was not harsh on the South

A

Only 1 execution, no major confiscation of property

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10
Q

What was the overall economic effect of Reconstruction?

A

Positive effect on US economy overall

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11
Q

What were some proposed reasons for Westward expansion?

A
  • No overriding motive
  • Initial settlers were followed by immigrants
  • Deliberate policies of the Federal government
  • Manifest Destiny
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12
Q

What was Manifest Destiny?

A
  • The belief that God had chosen the White Americans to populate the whole of America
  • Incorporation into the US and indoctrination with Christian and Republican values would liberate other American territories
  • Used to justify white colonial expropriation of Native American lands
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13
Q

What were federal territories?

A
  • Land was divide into territories which were subject to US law
  • Settlers were encouraged
  • Once population of a territory reached 60,000 they could apply to become a state
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14
Q

Describe the Homestead Act

A
  • 1862
  • This released 160-acre plots of land, available to farmers for free as long as they promised to farm the land for at least 5 years
    -By 1865, 20,000 homesteaders had arrived on the plains
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15
Q

Describe the Sand Creek Massacre

A
  • 1864
  • 700 poorly disciplined volunteer troops and cavalry attacked an undefended camp of the Cheyenne tribe
  • Men, women and children killed
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16
Q

Describe the Great Sioux War

A
  • 1876
  • Discovery of gold in the Black Hills of Dakota
  • At first, gov tried to keep prospectors out but it proved impossible
  • Next, gov offered Native Americans $6 million for the land
  • NA refused so gov decided they were being unreasonable and demanded all NA return to their reservations by 31st January 1876
  • Some never received the threat, some chose to ignore
  • Gov decided to use the US Army to wipe out all NA from the Blackhills
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17
Q

Describe the Battle of Little Bighorn

A
  • 25th June 1876
  • George Custer and his men were sent to round up Sioux and Cheyenne tribes who had left the reservation and were refusing to return
  • Without waiting for the rest of the force to arrive, Custer and his men attempted to encircle the camp
  • His unit immediately came under attack and all 200 were killed
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18
Q

Describe Reservation Policy

A
  • The policy of forcing Native Americans to live on government controlled reservations
  • This would enable the government to ‘Americanise’ them through conversion to Christianity, a formal education system and training to become farmers
  • Life on the reservations was harsh and reliance on the government was humiliating
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19
Q

Describe how the impact of the Civil war stimulated industrial growth in this period

A
  • Demand for goods developed mass production and ditribution
  • Set up financial infrastructure such as high tariffs, a capital-raising system, paper currency and more developed banking system
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20
Q

Describe how transport stimulated industrial growth in this period

A
  • 1869, first transcontinental railroad to the far west
  • Travel time NY to San Fran went from 6 months to 6 days
  • Amount of railroad track x3, 1860-1880
  • Employed thousands of workers
  • Required roads, steel, coal and engine manufacturing
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21
Q

Describe how availability of land stimulated industrial growth in this period

A
  • Increased westward expansion
  • Railroad development
  • Expansion of farming and increased mechanisation of agriculture
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22
Q

Describe how population growth stimulated industrial growth in this period

A
  • Highly developed stock markets
  • By 1865, annual stock market turnover was $6 billion
  • Increase in investment and shares
  • By 1880, 2nd largest money market in the world
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23
Q

Describe how availability of capital stimulated industrial growth in this period

A
  • Highly developed stock markets
  • By 1865, annual stock market turnover was $6 billion
  • Increase in investment and shares
  • By 1880, 2nd largest money market in the world
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24
Q

Describe how the role of government stimulated industrial growth in this period

A
  • Laissez-faire
  • No taxes on profits
  • No laws restricting working hours
  • Protective tariffs
  • Few/no trade unions
  • During strike, employers recieved government support
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25
Q

Describe how technological innovation stimulated industrial growth in this period

A
  • Carnegie brings ‘Bessemer Converter’ to steel production in the US
  • Technology allowed businesses to keep prices low and reinvest the profits
26
Q

Describe how corporations and trusts stimulated industrial growth in this period

A
  • Corporations buy, sell and own properties
    ‘- Trustees’ avoid state laws that prevent ownership of shares in more than one company or state by owning shares on someone else’s behalf
27
Q

Describe how industrial growth impacted on urbanisation

A
  • Chicago population went from 30,000 (1850) to over 1 million (1890)
  • Manufacturing increased
  • Rapid influx of overcrowded slum housing
  • The ‘Boss’ system
28
Q

Describe how industrial growth impacted on agriculture

A
  • The developement of ‘big agribusiness’ wiped out smaller farms
  • Farmers went into debt trying to afford more land and mechanisation
  • South too dependent on just cotton
  • Prices of goods dropping
29
Q

Describe the Second Gold Rush

A
  • Began in the Black Hills of Dakota in the mid 1870’s
  • Deposits of gold found in Deadwood Gulch in 1875 and thousands of people moved there
  • This violated the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie which recognised the Black Hills as belonging to the Sioux but the government made no intervention
30
Q

Describe how railroads contributed to Westward expansion

A
  • Pacific Railroad Act 1862
  • Railroads lured settlers with ‘buy now, pay later’
  • Train disrupted buffalo herds and brought settlers, disturbing the native americans
  • 1870 = 15,000 passengers a year, 1882 = 1 million passengers a year
31
Q

How did reconstruction effect African American vote?

A
  • Initially held large proportion of the vote in South Carolina and Mississippi
  • 2 black senators and 20 black representatives elected to Congress

However:
- Minority vote in most states
- Even the Republican party put forward white candidates to secure white votes

32
Q

How did reconstruction effect African American employment?

A
  • Little to no land given to ex-slaves
  • 1865, Johnson ordered all confiscated land to be returned to ‘pardoned’ white southeners
  • By 1870’s most ex-slaves became sharecroppers
33
Q

How did reconstruction effect African American social position?

A
  • Increase in black institutions
  • Small no of black men became teachers, lawyers or doctors
  • Seperate schools were inferior but better than nothing
34
Q

How did reconstruction effect African Americans facing white violence?

A
  • KKK set up 1866
  • White League set up 1873
35
Q

Describe the Monroe Doctrine

A
  • 1823
  • US would avoid being involved in European wars unless American interests were involved
  • The ‘American continent’ was not to be colonised by European powers
  • Colonisation would be regarder as an ‘unfriendly’ act
  • Indicated a disinterest in foreign affairs
36
Q

Describe intervention in Mexico

A
  • 1846, US went to war with Mexico to free California from Mexican rule
  • 1866, the French invaded Mexico. US demanded that France withdraw and moved 50,000 troops to the border. - French back down
37
Q

Reasons for isolationism

A
  • US moral superiority
  • US was a nation of immigrants and international intervention would have divided the population
  • US had sufficient raw materials available to not need imports
  • US protected by Pacific and Atlantic Oceans
  • No country on the US land border was considered a major threat
38
Q

Describe expansion in the Far East in this period

A
  • 1867, acquired Midway Island to obtain guano for fertilser and gunpowder
  • 1868 Burlingame Treaty endorsed free movement and free trade betwen US and China
39
Q

Describe expansion in the Dominican Republic in this period

A
  • 1869, DR offered itself for colonisation but Congress refused
  • 1870, federal government attempt to annex DR
    Fear that this might non-white influence in America
    Senate reject annexation
40
Q

Describe expansion in Alaska in this period

A

Purchased from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million
Reasons:
- Alaskan harbours would serve as a stopping place on the way to Northern Asia
- Expand US rule and keep British out
- Maintain good relations with Russia

41
Q

Explain why the US felt they deserved compensation from Britain

A
  • Britain had appeared to support the confederacy during the Civil War
  • Building of Confederate ships in British dockyards
42
Q

Explain how Reconstruction influenced the control of the South

A
  • Democratic party dominant
  • Not much influence by carpetbaggers (northerners were less than 2% of the population of each southern state)
  • Some corruption and bribery but this was true nationwide
43
Q

Explain what adverse effects Reconstruction had on the South

A
  • Temporary loss of Democratic control in Southern states
    1788-1860 = all southerner Presidents, 1864-1914 = one southerner President
  • Southerners dominate Supreme Court to 7/31 Supreme Court judges from South
44
Q

Describe the positive effects Reconstruction had on the southern economy

A
  • Benefited from general prosperity
  • High cotton prices
  • Railroads rebuilt
  • Textile manufacturing expanded
45
Q

Describe the negative effects of Reconstruction on the southern economy

A
  • Did not keep up with the North
  • 1870’s white southerners income was 2/5ths of white northerners
  • Heavily agricultural and highly dependent on cotton (cotton prices fall in the 1870’s)
46
Q

Describe the Timber and Culture Act

A
  • 1873
  • Gave homesteaders an additional 160 acres
  • Provided 40 acres were planted with trees
47
Q

Described the Desert and Land Act

A
  • 1877
  • Offered a further 640 acres at $1.25 an acre
    -Provided some of it was irrigated
48
Q

Describe how the US claimed compensation from Britain

A
  • Wanted to ask for $2 billion or the whole of Canada
  • However, Canada became self-governing in 1867
  • US retaliated by allowing Fenian raids by Irish-American Civil War veterans across the border into Canada 1866-1871
  • Dispute settled 1872, Britain paid $15.5 million to US as Civil War compensation
49
Q

Describe the Pacific Railroad Act

A
  • 1862
  • Authorised Central Pacific and Union Pacific to build a transcontinental railroad which was completed 1869
50
Q

Describe the ‘Boss system’

A

Corrupt local mayor who bought votes by selling housing and other necessities to the highest bidder

51
Q

Describe the Ten Percent Plan

A
  • Introduced by Lincoln in 1864
    Rebel states would be admitted to the union if:
  • 10% of their electorate swore an oath of future allegiance to the USA
  • They supported all existing acts of Congress regarding slavery
  • They allowed AA to vote
52
Q

Describe the Wade-Davis Bill

A
  • 1865
  • Introduced by Radical Republicans who felt the 10% plan wasn’t strong enough
  • Required 50% of electorate to take a much tougher pledge of allegiance of past and future loyalty to the union
  • Excluded all those involved in the Confederacy from any role in future government
  • State constitutions must ban slavery
53
Q

Describe Johnson and the Wade-Davis Bill

A
  • Accepted the oath of loyalty
  • But, ruled that when each former confederate state held a convention to revise their constitutions, those attending would be elected by the 1860 white electorate
54
Q

Describe the 1866 Civil Rights Bill

A
  • Gave some rights to AA
  • Johnson vetoed the bill
  • For the first time ever, congress overturned the presidential veto
55
Q

Describe the Military Reconstruction Bill

A
  • 1867
  • Imposed military rule on the South, apart from Tennessee
  • To return to the Union, states had elect a national convention that would accept black suffrage and the 14th Amendment
56
Q

Describe the Tenure of Office Act

A
  • Prevented Johnson from removing certain office holders
  • Was designed to protect Secretary of State, Stanton, who was a vocal critic and radical Republican
57
Q

Describe the impeachment of Johnson

A
  • 1868
  • Johnson ignored the Tenure of Office Act and dismissed Stanton
  • Congress issues 11 articles of impeachment against Johnson
  • Johnson survived but was only one short of the 2/3rds majority needed to impeach him
58
Q

Describe the 15th Amendment

A
  • 1869
  • ‘The right to vote should not be denied on account of race, colour or previous conditions of servitude’
59
Q

Describe the speculation scandal under Grant

A
  • A group of speculators attempted to influence the government and manipulate the gold market
    Failed and caused the 24th September 1869 financial panic, Black Friday
  • Grant was personally associated with two of the spectators, Fisk and Gould
60
Q

Describe the Whiskey Ring scandal under Grant

A
  • 1875
  • A group of distillers, distributors and public officials working together to evade liquor tax
  • Grant’s private secretary, Babcock, was indicted
  • Grant helped him get acquitted
61
Q

Describe the Colfax Massacre

A
  • 1873
  • Colfax, Louisiana
  • The Republican party narrowly won the Louisiana governor’s race
  • Armed supporters of the Democrats attempted to take Colfax Parish Courthouse as the Republicans defended
  • White supremacists fired on the Republicans, killing 60 to 100 men (most of whom were black)
  • Were initially arrested and charged
  • Were later released as they the law they had broken was ruled unconstitutional by the SC

US History (3 decks)

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