Theme 1 - The changing Geography of Civil Rights Issues, 1850 - 2009

Question 1

Where did black Americans live in 1850?

Answer 1

South-East of the USA, the old south.

Question 2

What happened in 1861?

Answer 2

Just over half of the states had abolished slavery, and become ‘free states’.

Question 3

What happened as a result of the election of Abraham Lincoln?

Answer 3

7 southern slave states left the USA and formed their own country, the Confederate States of America.

Question 4

What date had slavery been abolished altogether?

Answer 4

January 1865.

Question 5

What did the abolition of slavery allow?

Answer 5

Black Americans from the old south to migrate north and seek new economic opportunities and try to escape racial discrimination.

Question 6

By the time the USA held its first census in 1790, roughly how many black Americans lived in America?

Answer 6

700,000 black Americans.

Question 7

Name some of the states in the SouthEast where slavery existed.

Answer 7

Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri and Texas.

Question 8

By 1850, how many black slaves were there living in America?

Answer 8

3.2 million.

Question 9

When was the US constitution written and approved?

Answer 9

1787.

Question 10

Why was cotton the most valuable crop before the Civil War?

Answer 10

Provided raw material for Britain’s cotton manufacturing industry.

Question 11

What was the 1850s conflict over?

Answer 11

Potential expansion of slavery beyond southern states.

Question 12

What did the Kansas-Nebraska Act call for?

Answer 12

Popular sovereignty.

Question 13

Why was there an armed conflict in the late 1850s?

Answer 13

Clash between contrasting sides - pro-slavery and anti-slavery.

Question 14

What did the Republican party oppose the creation of?

Answer 14

The creation of any new slave states in the west.

Question 15

When was Abraham Lincoln elected 16th president of the USA?

Answer 15

1860.

Question 16

How many states seceded to form their own country, the Confederate States of America?

Answer 16

11.

Question 17

Why did the abolition of slavery within Confederate-held areas become a northern war aim?

Answer 17

To prevent Britain and France from joining on the side of the Confederates.

Question 18

By the end of the civil war, how many black Americans had served in the US armed forces?

Answer 18

300,000.

Question 19

What was granted by the Fourteenth Amendment?

Answer 19

All US citizens equal protection under the law.

Question 20

What were the problems associated with the Southern Homestead Act, 1866?

Answer 20

Few slaves had the money to buy land/ farm equipment. Many were prevented from buying land/ equipment by the southern whites.

Question 21

How many black Americans lived in the north and west at the beginning of our period?

Answer 21

500,000 free black citizens.

Question 22

Why did black Americans begin to move to the north and west after the emancipation?

Answer 22

Harsh economic conditions/ continued racial discrimination.

Question 23

What percentage of black Americans were still living in the old south by 1910, and why?

Answer 23

89% - cost too much to move.

Question 24

What was the ‘underground railroad’?

Answer 24

A route for those escaping slavery/ a network of secret routes leading slaves to relative freedom of northern states and Canada.

Question 25

Why did many black Americans move to cities like New York and Detroit?

Answer 25

Offered job opportunities (jobs that were readily available), had large black communities, and the north, for many black Americans, was the ‘promised land’.

Question 26

How many black Americans left the old south (1914-1918)?

Answer 26

400,000.

Question 27

How did WW1 lead to migration?

Answer 27

Land of opportunity.

More permanent shifts in population occurred.