**Reconstruction**

Question 1

Bessemer Process

Answer 1

A cheap and efficient process for making steel

Question 2

Transcontinental Railroad

Answer 2

Railroad connecting the west and east coasts of the continental US

Question 3

Reconstruction

Answer 3

the period after the Civil War in the United States when the southern states were reorganized and reintegrated into the Union

Question 4

Radical Republicans

Answer 4

After the Civil War, a group that believed the South should be harshly punished and thought that Lincoln was sometimes too compassionate towards the South.

Question 5

Black Codes

Answer 5

Laws denying most legal rights to newly freed slaves; passed by southern states following the Civil War

Question 6

13th Amendment (1865)

Answer 6

Constitutional Amendment that abolishes and prohibits slavery

Question 7

14th Amendment (1868)

Answer 7

Constitutional Amendment that grants citizenship to anyone born in the US and protects an individual’s rights from abuse by the states. Guarantees equal protection under the law.

Question 8

15th Amendment (1870)

Answer 8

Prohibited voting restrictions based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude (slavery)

Question 9

Sharecropping

Answer 9

• A system used on southern farms after the Civil War in which farmers worked land owned by someone else in exchange for a large portion of their profits
• Instead of owning land, freed African Americans (and some poor whites) had to rent land from plantation owners
• They usually paid an arranged fee along with a percentage of their crops
• The rest of the farm’s profits could be kept by the sharecropper

Question 10

Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

Answer 10

• A white supremacist terrorist organization created after the Civil War as a way to maintain white dominance over African Americans.
• Started by former Confederate soldiers who wanted to keep AA from getting rights

Question 11

Jim Crow Laws

Answer 11

Set of written and unwritten laws, mainly in the South, that enforced racial segregation

Question 12

Grandfather Clause

Answer 12

Law that banned any citizen from voting if his grandfather could not vote.

Question 13

Literacy Test

Answer 13

A test given to persons to prove they can read and write before being allowed to register to vote. Primarily used to keep African Americans from voting.

Question 14

Poll Tax

Answer 14

A requirement that citizens pay a tax in order to register to vote. Another attempt to keep African Americans from voting.

Question 15

Freedman’s Bureau, 1865

Answer 15

A new agency created by congress which helped newly freed African Americans rights; provide food, shelter, land, education and legal support.

Question 16

Compromise of 1877

Answer 16

Compromise that enables Hayes to take office in return for the end of Reconstruction

Question 17

How were southern states able to keep African Americans from voting without violating the 15th Amendment (at least according to the Supreme Court at the time)?

Answer 17

-Literacy test -Poll tax -Grandfather clause

Question 18

How sharecropping keep African Americans from achieving economic independence?

Answer 18

• Freed slaves started with nothing, so they needed to buy seed, tools and animals on top of renting the land
• Cotton prices plunged so many farmers lost money
• Sharecroppers fell deeper into debt, which kept them economically and legally bound to the white land owners
• While some AA were able to make enough to own their own land, most never realized that dream
• Unpredictable - droughts, floods, bad soil, etc

Question 19

How did the KKK play a role in keeping African Americans from realizing their rights?

Answer 19

• Goals: to destroy the Republican Party, to throw out the Reconstruction governments, to aid the planter class, and to prevent African Americans from exercising their political rights
• Killed 20,000 men, women, and children

Question 20

How did the election of 1877 bring an official end to Reconstruction? What affect did that have on African Americans and the laws passed by Congress during Reconstruction?

Answer 20

• Democratic candidate Samuel J. Tilden won the popular vote, but was one vote short of the electoral victory
• Southern Democrats in Congress agreed to accept Hayes if federal troops were withdrawn from the South
• After Republican leaders agreed to the demands, Hayes was elected, and Reconstruction ended in the South
• Amendments remained part of the Constitution — provided the necessary constitutional foundation for important civil rights legislation

Question 21

Be able to describe social, political and economic challenges that African Americans faced during Reconstruction.

Answer 21

-

Question 22

Be able to explain the pros and cons of Reconstruction

Answer 22

• Pros:
  
  • While in office: created system of public education, civil rights legislation, helped remove restrictions on black workers
  • 13th, 14th, 15th amendment
  • AA legalized marriage, sought out family members, churches, right to education
  • Paid for work, own their own land
• Cons:
  
  • White southern criticism of AA in government
  • Grandfather clause, literacy tests, poll tax
  • Jim Crow Laws
  • Rise of KKK
  • No 40 acres
  • Sharecropping

Question 23

How did Congress try to enforce new laws in the South?

Answer 23

Sending Union soldiers down south to enforce the laws