APUSH Learning Curve Chapter 15

During Reconstruction, where in the South did African Americans become officeholders?

Across the South → Over the course of Reconstruction, twenty African Americans served in state administrations as governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, or lesser offices. More than six hundred served as state legislators and sixteen served as congressmen.

Which adjective accurately describes Republican state governments in the Reconstruction South?

Ambitious in goals → Reconstruction governments were ambitious indeed, trying to undertake impressive reforms in public education, family law, social services, commerce, and transportation.

How do scholars now view Freedmen's Bureau officials?

As dedicated and idealistic → Scholars now view Bureau officials as dedicated and often idealistic men who tried valiantly to reconcile opposing interests.

How was Reconstruction taught in American children schools at least until the 1960s?

As the illegitimate regime of lazy blacks → After "Redemption," generations of schoolchildren were taught that ignorant, lazy blacks and corrupt whites had imposed illegitimate Reconstruction "regimes" on the South.

What triggered the 1873 depression in the United States?

Bankruptcy of the Northern Pacific Railroad → Hopes for economic growth were dashed in 1873 by the sudden onset of a severe worldwide depression. In the United States, the initial panic was triggered by the bankruptcy of the Northern Pacific Railroad, backed by leading financier Jay Cooke.

What former slave became Mississippi's second black U.S. senator in 1874?

Blanche K. Bruce → In 1874, Blanche K. Bruce became Mississippi's second black U.S. senator.

What did the presidential candidates of 1876, Samuel J. Tilden and Rutherford B. Hayes, have in common?

Both supported the idea of southern home rule. → New York governor Samuel J. Tilden was a Wall Street lawyer who favored home rule for the South. Hayes did, too, just more discreetly.

Under President Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction plan, how could high-ranking Confederate military officers regain their property and win amnesty?

By petitioning the president → Johnson demanded that high-ranking officials go beyond the oath he required of everyone else and petition directly to him for a pardon.

How did the Supreme Court ruling in U.S. v. Cruikshank (1876) weaken the Fourteenth Amendment?

By saying it did not apply to the actions of private citizens → In Cruikshank, the Court ruled that voting rights remained a state matter unless the state itself violated those rights. If former slaves' rights were violated by individuals or private groups (including the Klan), that lay beyond federal jurisdiction.

How did sharecropping develop as an agricultural system in the post-Civil War South?

By way of strained, need-based negotiations between landlords and freedmen → Sharecropping emerged as a system negotiated between whites who had little cash for wages and blacks who wanted to work their own land but could not afford to purchase it.

What did the Democrats and former Confederates of the South label northerners who participated in rebuilding the South?

Carpetbaggers → Ex-Confederates viewed the Union League, Freedmen's Bureau, and Republican Party as illegitimate forces in southern affairs, and they resented the political education of freedpeople. They denounced northern whites as carpetbaggers, self-seeking interlopers who carried all their property in cheap suitcases called carpetbags.

Which institutions were a central focus of African American culture in the Reconstruction South?

Churches → Independent churches quickly became central community institutions, as blacks across the South left white-dominated congregations, where they had sat in segregated balconies, and built churches of their own.

What law was struck down in the Civil Rights Cases (1883) decision by the Supreme Court?

Civil Rights Act of 1875 → The Civil Rights Cases (1883) struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1875, paving the way for later decisions that sanctioned segregation.

Why did Congress believe it was important for military commanders in the occupied South to supervise new state constitutional conventions?

Congress wanted to ensure that new constitutions guaranteed black suffrage. → Under the Reconstruction Act of 1867, southern states would rewrite their constitutions while under military occupation. Part of the military's objective was to prevent ex-Confederates from resuming leadership and to ensure that African Americans had protected access to political participation.

What position did Frederick Douglass assume on the issue of women's voting rights during Reconstruction?

Douglass asked women to allow black male suffrage to take priority. → At a convention of the Equal Rights Association, Douglass pleaded for white women to understand the plight in which former slaves found themselves, and to allow black male suffrage to take priority, saying, "When women, because they are women, are hunted down, . . . dragged from their homes and hung upon lampposts, . . . then they will have an urgency to obtain the ballot equal to our own."

With what was President Andrew Johnson charged when he was impeached in 1868?

Engaging in misconduct and infringing on the powers of Congress → The Republican majority in the House of Representatives brought eleven counts of misconduct against Johnson, most relating to infringement of the powers of Congress.

Why did some African Americans in the Reconstruction South resist the idea of desegregated schools?

Fear for children's safety → Although some black leaders pressed for desegregation, they were keenly aware of the backlash this was likely to provoke. Other blacks made it clear that they preferred their children to attend all-black schools, especially if they encountered hostile or condescending white teachers and classmates. Many had pragmatic concerns. Asked whether she wanted her boys to attend an integrated school, one woman in New Orleans said no: "I don't want my children to be pounded by dem white boys. I don't send them to school to fight, I send them to learn."

What incident proved to be the final outrage for Republicans in Congress that convinced them that they had to tighten the rules of Reconstruction under Andrew Johnson in 1866?

Georgians elected Confederate vice president Alexander Stephens to Congress. → When Georgians elected Alexander Stephens, former vice president of the Confederacy, to represent them in Congress, many outraged Republicans saw this as the last straw.

Which of the following best assesses the role of Ulysses S. Grant in the impeachment crisis of 1868?

Grant had stepped down as secretary of war in favor of Edwin Stanton, precipitating the crisis. → Andrew Johnson had suspended Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, a Radical Republican, and replaced him with Union General Ulysses S. Grant. But when the Senate overruled the suspension, Grant resigned and asked Stanton to resume his post. Johnson's subsequent firing of Stanton led to the vote to impeach him.

Why did Republicans nominate Rutherford B. Hayes for the presidential election of 1876?

He came from the important swing state of Ohio. → Rutherford B. Hayes, a former Union general, was untainted by corruption and hailed from the key swing state of Ohio.

By the late 1870s, how did the majority of freedmen and freedwomen in the South live?

In poverty with uncertain political rights → The majority of freedpeople remained in poverty, and by the late 1870s, their political rights were also eroding.

What was radical about the Fourteenth Amendment?

It defined citizenship in national rather than state terms. → In a stunning increase of federal power, the Fourteenth Amendment declared that when people's essential rights were at stake, national citizenship henceforth took priority over citizenship in a state.

What statement describes Abraham Lincoln's Ten Percent Plan for Reconstruction?

It included general amnesty to all but high-ranking Confederates willing to pledge loyalty to the Union. → Lincoln's plan was a generous attempt to avoid violence and prolonged conflict while the South began the process of reintegrating its political and economic systems with the North. It included a general amnesty to all but high-ranking Confederates willing to pledge loyalty to the Union and required that only 10 percent of white males take a loyalty oath for readmission.

Why did the Grant administration's reaction to the depression that began in 1873 deepen resentment toward Washington Republicans?

It rejected calls for providing relief for debt and unemployment. → Grant's officials deepened public resentment toward their party when they rejected pleas to increase the money supply and provide relief from debt and unemployment.

Who assassinated Abraham Lincoln in April 1865?

John Wilkes Booth → Booth, a southern sympathizer, shot Abraham Lincoln.

In early 1877, who replaced Supreme Court Justice David Davis on the electoral commission empowered to settle the disputed presidential election of 1876?

Joseph P. Bradley → Republican justice Bradley made it possible for the election commission to cast its vote on the president and, on party lines, voted 8 to 7 for Hayes.

What was the name of the paramilitary force that was founded in Tennessee and used violence against Republicans and blacks across the South?

Ku Klux Klan → The Ku Klux Klan was a paramilitary force that was founded in Tennessee and used violence against Republicans and blacks across the South.

Why did wage labor not become common in cotton-producing areas of the South?

Landowners did not have the cash to pay wages. → Cotton planters lacked money to pay wages, and sometimes, in lieu of a wage, they offered a share of the crop. Freedmen, in turn, paid their rent in shares of the harvest.

Nathan Bedford Forrest was best known during the Civil War for commanding southern troops that carried out what action?

Massacring black Union troops at Fort Pillow → Confederate General Forrest on April 12, 1864, led his troops to commit one of the war's worst atrocities, the massacre of unarmed black Union troops at Fort Pillow, Tennessee. Forrest's troops refused to take prisoners, instead shooting down black soldiers as they tried to surrender.

Race riots that occurred in 1866 in which of the following cities increased Republicans' determination to reform the South?

Memphis → In Memphis in April 1866, when some black veterans celebrated the end of their army service by drinking, violence broke out. For three days, whites burned black neighborhoods, churches, and schools, raped several African American women, and killed dozens of black residents. These race riots increased Republican determination to reform the South.

As of 1876, which state no longer had any U.S. military units remaining?

Mississippi → Democratic "redeemers" took control of Mississippi by 1875.

The Black Codes instituted by southern state governments created under Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction plan aimed to achieve what goal?

Place African Americans in a situation as close to slavery as possible → Whites in the South tried to construct a system that was as close to slavery as possible, enacting laws known as the Black Codes that were designed to drive former slaves back to the plantations and deny them elementary civil rights.

What was significant about the results of the 1866 congressional elections?

Republicans won enough seats to override President Andrew Johnson's vetoes. → Johnson opposed ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, but public opinion had swung against him. In the 1866 congressional elections, voters gave Republicans a three-to-one majority in Congress, enough votes to override Johnson's vetoes on many questions.

In an 1865 published letter to his former master in Tennessee, Jourdon Anderson asked "if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane. . . . I would rather stay here and starve—and die, if it come to that—than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters." Judging by this statement, what was one of the most important benefits of black freedom after the Civil War?

Safety from a master's sexual violence → Anderson's letter to his master derides the latter for his past violence and exploitation, and this particular passage points to the relief African Americans—women as well as their fathers and husbands—must have felt at being able to escape the violence and sexual assaults of their masters.

Who was Rutherford B. Hayes's Democratic opponent, who defeated him in the popular vote in the 1876 election?

Samuel J. Tilden → Tilden was Hayes's Democratic opponent

African Americans constituted a majority in the lower house of which state legislature in 1868?

South Carolina → As the reconstructed governments began to function in 1867, African American politicians increased their advocacy to reform the South. Although never proportionate to their numbers in the population, blacks became officeholders across the South. In South Carolina, African Americans constituted a majority in the lower house of the legislature in 1868.

What did American women's rights leaders hope to gain from Reconstruction?

Suffrage → Northern women had played key roles in the antislavery movement and the Union victory. Women's rights leaders, who had campaigned for women's voting rights since the Seneca Falls convention of 1848, fervently hoped that Reconstruction would bring votes for women as well as for black men.

African American colleges and universities, like Fisk, Tougaloo, and the Hampton Institute, which formed during Reconstruction, first focused on training freedmen for what purpose?

Teaching → These institutions focused first on training teachers. By 1869, there were over three thousand teachers instructing freedmen in the South. More than half were themselves black.

Which statement best describes the constitutional revolution associated with Reconstruction?

The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments laid the foundation for the civil rights movement of the twentieth century. → Reconstruction had shaken the legal and political framework that had made the United States a white man's country. Although hostile courts and political opponents undercut it, the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments were never repealed, and the civil rights movement of the twentieth century would later build on this framework.

Which of the following can be inferred from this political cartoon from the weekly magazine The Judge?

The artist sympathized with the anger and frustration of women. → Although the harsh way in which the woman is drawn suggests that the artist did not see political activism as compatible with femininity, the racist images of African Americans and Asians suggests that the artist did not think blacks should have the vote if educated white middle-class women were left out.

According to the Fourteenth Amendment, which of the following granted U.S. citizenship?

The federal government → By identifying a nationwide birth right to citizenship, the Fourteenth Amendment for the first time created a national standard for citizenship.

Which provision did the Senate remove from the original civil rights bill of 1870 when it passed the law in 1875?

The requirement for integration of churches → Some sympathetic Republicans feared a backlash if the federal government tried to regulate churches. In the end, the Senate removed Sumner's provision for integrated churches, and the House removed the clause requiring integrated schools.

Why did the economic troubles brought on by the panic of 1873 hit southern governments particularly hard?

The southern economy had already been growing slowly before the downturn. → The South's economy grew more slowly than Republicans had hoped during Reconstruction, and after 1873, growth screeched to a halt. State debts mounted rapidly, and as crushing interest on bonds fell due, public credit collapsed.

What set classical liberals apart from other Republicans in the early 1870s?

They believed in free trade, small government, and limited voting rights. → Classical liberals objected to the activist federal government that had emerged with Reconstruction and called for a small government, free trade, and an end to the expansion of suffrage.

Why were the odds stacked against freedmen who became sharecroppers?

They could not escape debt. → Starting out penniless, sharecroppers had no way to make it through the first growing season without borrowing for food and supplies. Once indebted—typically to a storeowner—sharecroppers became easy targets for exorbitant prices, unfair interest rates, and crooked bookkeeping. As cotton prices declined in the 1870s, more and more sharecroppers fell into permanent debt.

Which statement describes Republican governments of the Reconstruction South?

They depended on the federal government for protection. → Southern Republican governments relied on federal troops for protection against the former Confederates and Klan terrorism; once their pleas were ignored, they were overthrown. On their own, they were not able to protect black voters.

Why are the Republican Reconstruction governments of the South categorized as reforming governments?

They expanded education and health care. → Republicans viewed education as the foundation of a true democratic order. By 1875, over half of black children were attending school in Mississippi, Florida, and South Carolina. In addition, they outlawed established hospitals and asylums for orphans and the disabled.

What does the map suggest about the nature of southern black institutions during Reconstruction?

They had to form beyond the borders of plantations. → The central institutions of the black community—the church and the school—were built outside the boundaries of the Barrow Plantation.

Why did some Republicans begin to revolt against the Grant administration in the early 1870s?

They lost faith in their party because of the economic depression. → Economic troubles and disappointments with an increasingly activist state prompted some Republicans to reject Grant and advocate a classical liberalism of minimum government and individualism.

What did Republicans in Congress do in 1865 to block implementation of President Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction plan?

They refused to admit southern delegates to Congress. → Under the Constitution, Congress is "the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members" (Article 1, Section 5). With this power, Republican majorities in both houses simply refused to admit southern delegations elected under Johnson's Reconstruction plan when Congress convened in December 1865.

What characteristics did the freedmen and scalawags of the Republican governments of the South share?

They were both southern born and opposed ex-slaveholders' power. → Freedmen and scalawags were both southern born and opposed the political and economic power of the ex-slaveholders. They were Republicans and played an important role in Reconstruction politics because they could vote.

Which provision was part of the Wade-Davis Bill of July 1864, the first congressional plan for Reconstruction?

Those who had fought against the United States could not form new governments. → The Wade-Davis Bill provided that new governments could only be formed by those who had never taken up arms against the North.

During Reconstruction, the term "scalawag" referred to what group of southern whites?

Those who supported Reconstruction → Ex-Confederates viewed the Republican Party as illegitimate in southern affairs and viewed southern whites who supported Reconstruction as scalawags, an ancient Scots-Irish term for worthless animals.

Who was the first historian to challenge white supremacist interpretations of Reconstruction?

W. E. B. Du Bois → In Black Reconstruction in America (1935), Du Bois meticulously documented the history of African American struggle, white vigilante violence, and national policy failure, but other historians ignored his work for decades. Not a single scholarly journal reviewed Du Bois' important book.

In which scandal did President Grant appear to have perjured himself to protect Orville Babcock, his private secretary, from conviction?

Whiskey Ring → The Whiskey Ring scandal was a network of liquor distillers and treasury agents who defrauded the government of millions of dollars of excise taxes on whiskey. The ringleader was Grant's private secretary, Orville Babcock. Others went to prison, but Grant stood by Babcock, possibly perjuring himself to protect Orville Babcock from conviction.

In the South of the late 1800s, sharecroppers found themselves tied to the land and in debt to landlords and merchants in a system of forced labor known as

peonage. → Sharecroppers found themselves tied to the land and in debt to landlords and merchants in a system of forced labor known as peonage.