US HISTORY II Flashcards
black codes
laws some southern states designed to maintain white supremacy by keeping freed people impoverished and in debt
carpetbagger
term used for northerners working in the South during Reconstruction; it implied that
these were opportunists who came south for economic or political gain
Compromise of 1877
the agreement between Republicans and Democrats, after the contested election of
1876, in which Rutherford B. Hayes was awarded the presidency in exchange for withdrawing the last of
the federal troops from the South
crop-lien system
a loan system in which store owners extended credit to farmers for the purchase of
goods in exchange for a portion of their future crops
Freedmen’s Bureau
the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, which was created in
1865 to ease blacks’ transition from slavery to freedom
Ironclad Oath
an oath that the Wade-Davis Bill required a majority of voters and government officials in
Confederate states to take; it involved swearing that they had never supported the Confederacy
Ku Klux Klan
a white vigilante organization that engaged in terroristic violence with the aim of
stopping Reconstruction
Radical Republicans
northern Republicans who contested Lincoln’s treatment of Confederate states and
proposed harsher punishments
Reconstruction
the twelve-year period after the Civil War in which the rebel Southern states were
integrated back into the Union
Redeemers
a term used for Southerner whites determined to roll back the gains of the reconstruction
ten percent plan
Lincoln’s Reconstruction plan, which required only 10 percent of the 1860 voters in
Confederate states to take an oath of allegiance to the Union
Union Leagues
fraternal groups loyal to the Union and the Republican Party that became political and
civic centers for blacks in former Confederate states
What was Lincoln’s primary goal immediately
following the Civil War?
reunifying the country
In 1864 and 1865, Radical Republicans were
most concerned with ________.
securing civil rights for freed slaves
What was the purpose of the Thirteenth
Amendment? How was it different from the
Emancipation Proclamation?
The proclamation did not clarify the statuses of slaves that were to be freed. The amendment clarified this and made do on the promises within the proclamation
Which of the following was Not one of the functions of the Freedmen’s Bureau?
collecting taxes
Which person or group was most responsible
for the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment?
Radical Republicans in Congress
What was the goal of the black codes?
To maintain the social and economic culture of the enslaved south without actual slavery.
Under Radical Reconstruction, which of the
following did former Confederate states
not
need
to do in order to rejoin the Union?
revise their state constitution
The House of Representatives impeached
Andrew Johnson over ________.
the Tenure of Office Act
What were the benefits and drawbacks of the
Fifteenth Amendment?
It helped secure the rights of black men to vote, which the fourteenth amendment could not promote. But it excluded language about poll taxes and literacy tests, which the southerners most often used to prevent black men from voting.
Which of the following is
not
one of the
methods the Klu Klux Klan and other terrorist
groups used to intimidate blacks and white
sympathizers?
petitioning Congress
Which of the following was the term
southerners used for a white southerner who tried
to overturn the changes of Reconstruction?
redeemer
Why was it difficult for southern free blacks
to gain economic independence after the Civil
War?
Many laws like the black codes were passed to keep blacks from becoming equals to the whites in the south.
How do you think history would have been different if Lincoln had not been assassinated? How might
His leadership after the war differed from that of Andrew Johnson?
I do not think he would have been impeached like Johnson was. And he probably would not have antagonized against the already indignant radical republicans. I’m not sure if the fourteenth or fifteenth amendment would have been made, though. Who knows.
Was the Thirteenth Amendment a success or a failure?
I think it was somewhat successful because it set up the basis for the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments. The emancipation proclamation, to the 13th, to the 14th, to the 15th. It clearly began freeing the slaves.
Consider the differences between the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. What does the
Fourteenth Amendment does that the Thirteenth does not?
The 13th only talks about freeing the slaves, but the 14th starts to clarify the rights of a freedman. It gives protection under both federal and state law.
Consider social, political, and economic equality. In what ways did Radical Reconstruction address
and secure these forms of equality? Where did it fall short?
It created several amendments and notified the rights of freedmen. But it did not stop the loopholes which the South exploited and created further laws to harm the ex-slaves.
Americanization
the process by which an Indian was “redeemed” and assimilated into the American
way of life by changing his clothing to western clothing and renouncing his tribal customs in exchange
for a parcel of land
Battle of Wounded Knee
an attempt to disarm a group of Lakota Sioux Indians near Wounded Knee,
South Dakota, which resulted in members of the Seventh Cavalry of the U.S. Army opening fire and
killing over 150 Indians
bonanza farms
large farms owned by speculators who hired laborers to work the land; these large farms
allowed their owners to benefit from economies of scale and prosper, but they did nothing to help small
family farms, which continued to struggle
California Gold Rush
the period between 1848 and 1849 when prospectors found large strikes of gold in
California, leading others to rush in and follow suit; this period led to a cycle of boom and bust through
the area, as gold was discovered, mined, and stripped
Comstock Lode
the first significant silver find in the country, discovered by Henry T. P. Comstock in
1859 in Nevada
Exodusers
a term used to describe African Americans who moved to Kansas from the Old South to
escape the racism there
Fence Cutting War
this armed conflict between cowboys moving cattle along the trail and ranchers who
wished to keep the best grazing lands for themselves occurred in Clay County, Texas, between 1883 and
1884
las Gorras Blancas;
the Spanish name for White Caps, the rebel group of Hispanic Americans who fought
back against the appropriation of Hispanic land by whites; for a period in 1889–1890, they burned farms,
homes, and crops to express their growing anger at the injustice of the situation
Manifest Destiny
the phrase, coined by journalist John O’Sullivan, which came to stand for the idea that
white Americans had a calling and a duty to seize and settle the American West with Protestant
democratic values
Sand Creek Massacre
a militia raid led by Colonel Chivington on an Indian camp in Colorado, flying
both the American flag and the white flag of surrender; over one hundred men, women, and children
were killed
sod house
a frontier home constructed of dirt held together by thick-rooted prairie grass that was
prevalent in the Midwest; sod, cut into large rectangles, was stacked to make the walls of the structure,
providing an inexpensive, yet damp, house for western settlers
Which of the following does
not
represent a
group that participated significantly in westward
migration after 1870?
former Southern slaveholders seeking land
and new financial opportunities
Which of the following represents an action
that the U.S. government took to help Americans
fulfill the goal of western expansion?
the passage of the Homestead Act
Why and how did the U.S. government
promote western migration in the midst of
fighting the Civil War?
It was in part because of the fear that the Confederates would go out west and make the empty land used with slaves.
What specific types of hardships did an
average American farmer
not
face as he built his
homestead in the Midwest?
hostile Indian attacks
What accounts for the success of large,
commercial “bonanza farms?” What benefits did
they enjoy over their smaller family-run
Counterparts?
The development of the technology made it possible for these farms to grow wheat with 20,00 excess acres of land. But smaller farms struggled because it cost about $1000 dollars to build a farm.
How did everyday life in the American West
hasten equality for women who settled the land?
They worked tirelessly just like the men, and this made them viewed as equal partners as opposed in the east.
Which of the following groups was
not
impacted by the invention of barbed wire?
illegal prostitutes
The American cowboy owes much of its model
to what other culture?
Mexicans
How did mining and cattle ranching transform
individual “get rich quick” efforts into “big
business” efforts when the nineteenth century
came to a close?
The development of settlements. The invention of barbed wire. Regular wages for miners.
Which of the following was
not
a primary
method by which the American government dealt
with American Indians during the period of
western settlement?
appeasement
What did the Last Arrow pageant symbolize?
the final step in the Americanization
process
What brought the majority of Chinese
immigrants to the U.S.?
gold
How were Hispanic citizens deprived of their
wealth and land in the course of western
settlement?
land seizures
Compare and contrast the treatment of
Chinese immigrants and Hispanic citizens to that
of Indians during the period of western
Settlement.
While 25,000 Mexicans were offered citizenship after the Mexican American war, none of the Chinese immigrants were ever made citizens through naturalization. Mexicans were displaced from their land while the Chinese were kept from gaining any. Both tried to rebel and make claims for themselves, but racist laws denied them that.
Describe the philosophy of Manifest Destiny. What effect did it have on Americans’ westward
migration? How might the different groups that migrated have sought to apply this philosophy to their
individual circumstances?
It is the concept that God intended for the United states to rule the continent. And with incentive from the government, hundreds of thousands of people migrated west. Along with people from other countries arriving too. The gold rush made people think they could get rich quickly. Many were displaced from their homes and forced to move into remote areas.
Compare the myth of the “Wild West” with its reality. What elements of truth would these stories
have contained, and what was fabricated or left out? What was life actually like for cowboys, ranchers, and
the few women present in mining towns or along the cattle range?
There was not as much violence as the media portrays. While in certain unmanned towns, there were criminals who did commit murder and robbery, most of it was for ranching, mining, farming. Most of the women there were prostitutes, and most cowboys were single males in their twenties, nearly a third were latinos and blacks, set to hard work.
Haymarket affair
rally and subsequent riot in which several policemen were killed when a bomb
was thrown at a peaceful workers rights rally in Chicago in 1866
holding company
a central corporate entity that controls the operations of multiple companies by
holding the majority of stock for each enterprise
horizontal integration
method of growth wherein a company grows through mergers and acquisitions of similar companies
Molly Maguires
a secret organization made up of Pennsylvania coal miners, named for the famous Irish patriot, which worked through a series of scare tactics to bring the plight of the miners to public attention
monopoly
;the ownership or control of all enterprises comprising an entire industry
scientific management
mechanical engineer Fredrick Taylor’s management style, also called “stop-
watch management,” which divided manufacturing tasks into short, repetitive segments and encouraged factory owners to seek efficiency and profitability over any benefits of personal interaction
social Darwinism
Herbert Spencer’s theory, based upon Charles Darwin’s scientific theory, which held that society developed much like plant or animal life through a process of evolution in which the most fit and capable enjoyed the greatest material and social success
trust
a legal arrangement where a small group of trustees have legal ownership of a business that they operate for the benefit of other investors
