Reconstruction (1865 - 1877)

Question 1

Define or explain what is meant by Reconstruction.

Answer 1

Reconstruction lasted from the end of the Civil War (1865) until 1877. During this time, the United States was put back together again, after the 11 states in the Confederacy lost the Civil War, the southern economy was in ruins, and millions of former slaves were now free.

Question 2

This group of people controlled the Congress of the United States and wanted to be in charge of Reconstruction. They were much more harsh toward the South than Lincoln or Johnson and wanted to punish the South.

Answer 2

Radical Republicans

Question 3

What was the nickname of Lincoln’s Reconstruction plan? WHY was it called that?

Answer 3

The Ten Percent Plan. Under Lincoln’s plan, a Southern state could re-join the Union once 10% of its voters took a loyalty oath to the United States.

Question 4

This man took over as President after John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln in April 1865.

Answer 4

Andrew Johnson.

Question 5

Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton are the only two Presidents to face what process found in the US Constitution?

Answer 5

Impeachment.

Question 6

What does impeachment mean?

Answer 6

Impeachment means to be formally accused or charged of a crime. It does NOT mean removal from office. Impeachment is a necessary first step toward removal from office.

Question 7

What are the three ‘Reconstruction Amendments’ to the US Constitution?

Answer 7

The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments.

Question 8

This amendment granted citizenship rights to former slaves AND contains the important “Equal Protection Clause” which states that all people are guaranteed that the law treats them equally.

Answer 8

The 14th Amendment (ratified in 1868)

Question 9

This amendment granted black men the right to vote, stating that the right to vote (suffrage) should NOT be denied because of race, color or previous condition of servitude (being a slave).

Answer 9

The 15th Amendment (ratified in 1870)

Question 10

This amendment formally abolished or ended slavery.

Answer 10

The 13th Amendment (ratified in 1865)

Question 11

This government agency was created in 1865 to offer assistance to former slaves, now free. It offered schools, food, medicine, and other necessary items to help the former slaves.

Answer 11

The Freedmen’s Bureau

Question 12

This system of labor developed in the South after the Civil War. It developed in part to make sure the South had a subservient labor force (workers who would have no choice but to do as they were told!).

Answer 12

Sharecropping

Question 13

Explain how sharecropping worked.

Answer 13

Sharecroppers would be allowed to live on land (often a former plantation) and farm a portion of that land. In exchange, they had to “share their crops” with the landowner, who was often a former master of slaves who is now acting as a landlord. This created a system of debt that the sharecroppers could rarely escape from.

Question 14

Laws that sought to limit the rights of African Americans and to keep them as landless workers were called ______.

Answer 14

Black Codes

Question 15

What tactics did Southern states use to limit the ability of African Americans to vote in the South, even after the 15th Amendment was ratified giving them the right to vote

Answer 15

Grandfather Clauses, Literacy Tests, Poll Taxes…and the Ku Klux Klan - which terrorized African Americans and chased them from the voting booth!

Question 16

Five of these were created by the Radical Republicans in Congress which divided up the South during Reconstruction and put the military in charge of each zone.

Answer 16

Military Districts which were a part of the Radical Republicans’ Military Reconstruction Plan.

Question 17

What was a Carpetbagger?

Answer 17

Northerners who relocated to the South. They went south seeking to improve their economic or political situations or to help make life for freedmen better. The South viewed them as trying to profit off a bad situation. This name comes from the inexpensive carpet-cloth suitcase often carried by the these people.

Question 18

Southern whites that sided with the Reconstruction efforts of the north and the Federal government were termed this negative nickname by Southerners.

Answer 18

Scalawags. This means “scoundrels”

Question 19

What does the term “the solid south” mean?

Answer 19

Once white southern Democrats started to take back control of the Southern state governments (toward the end of Reconstruction and afterward), the entire South tended to vote as one solid block…and they voted consistently for Democratic candidates for President and sent Democratic candidates to Congress. Hence the term “Solid South.”

Question 20

What does the term “Jim Crow” mean in one word?

Answer 20

Segregation. Jim Crow Laws were laws that created or enforced segregation (separation) of the races from drinking fountains to public buses to movie theaters.

Question 21

The opposite of SEGREGATION is _________________.

Answer 21

INTEGRATION.

Question 22

What was the Compromise of 1877?

Answer 22

A deal struck between Northern Republicans and Southern Democrats that ended Reconstruction. In the disputed election results of 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes was allowed to become President IF he agreed to remove US soldiers stationed in Southern states since the end of the Civil War. When the troops are removed, Reconstruction basically ends.