CHAPTER 16: RECONSTRUCTION, 1865–1877
Multiple Choice
1. Following the Civil War, most southern whites saw African Americans as __________.
A) adversaries
B) foreigners
C) neutral to their interests
D) equals
2. Which of the following was an act that white southerners interpreted as northern interference?
A) gun laws
B) education for poor children of all races
C) economic reforms
D) assistance to southern blacks
3. Many southerners refused to accept their defeat as divine judgment and believed that God had spared
the South for a greater purpose; they came to view the war as __________.
A) the Lost Cause
B) a Necessary Evil
C) a Time for Retribution
D) a Time to Rebuild
4. Which of the following statements about the Lost Cause is true?
A) It prevented white southerners from moving on with their lives and concentrating on rebuilding their
shattered region.
B) It made southerners angrier towards blacks and more convinced that slavery was just.
C) It demonized the Civil War conflict.
D) It was a historical rationalization that enabled believers to hope for a better future.
5. In the early years of Reconstruction, the Freedmen’s Bureau was successful at __________.
A) permanently securing suffrage for black males
B) stopping all violence committed against ex-slaves
C) reducing black illiteracy by roughly 20 percent
D) convincing southern whites to accept the Wade-Davis Bill
6. By the 1880s, the value of black-owned farms was __________ the value of white-owned farms.
A) a third
B) half
C) two-thirds
D) three-quarters
7. General Sherman’s Field Order No. 15 gave hope to blacks because it __________.
A) set aside plots of southern land for distribution
B) guaranteed all ex-slaves the right to a free education
C) established voting rights for black males in the South
D) indicated that segregation was unconstitutional
8. Sharecropping __________.
A) did not attract many former slaves
B) led many blacks into increasing debt
C) was outlawed by Congress in 1874
D) did not have the support of state governments in the South
9. Which of the following statements about sharecropping is true?
A) Sharecroppers generally gave up 10 percent of their crop to landlords.
B) It forced southern blacks to be more economically independent from whites.
C) Landlords typically owned stores where tenant farmers had to shop.
D) Only blacks were relegated to existence as sharecroppers.
10. After the Civil War, many southern blacks __________.
A) received job training through federal programs
B) voted for Democrats in national elections
C) migrated to southern cities
D) objected to passage of the Fifteenth Amendment
11. The majority of rural southern blacks worked as __________.
A) foremen
B) merchants
C) carriage drivers
D) unskilled laborers
12. The Wade-Davis Bill was rendered ineffective when __________.
A) abolitionist leaders withdrew their support for the bill
B) southern conservatives refused to enact it
C) radical Republicans rejected the plan as too lenient
D) President Lincoln used the presidential option of a pocket veto
13. President Johnson, like most white northerners, believed that African Americans __________.
A) were inferior
B) should have a voice in government
C) lacked a free man’s will
D) deserved reparations
14. The immediate response to President Johnson’s Reconstruction plan included __________.
A) opposition by the majority of northern Democrats
B) resistance by white southerners to various provisions
C) the loss of Johnson’s reputation as a moderate
D) the call for elections in which southern blacks voted
15. How did the Freedmen’s Bureau belie what lay ahead for southern blacks?
A) It made it appear that the government would provide social services to blacks.
B) It gave the impression that freed blacks would experience rapid success.
C) It gave the appearance of eventually allowing blacks to vote and participate in government.
D) It made blacks believe that northerners were genuinely anti-slavery.
16. Congress successfully managed to override President Johnson’s veto of the__________.
A) Thirteenth Amendment
B) Civil Rights Act of 1875
C) American Equal Rights Act
D) Civil Rights Act of 1866
17. Which statement about the Fourteenth Amendment is true?
A) It guaranteed all citizens equality before the law.
B) It weakened the Civil Rights Act of 1866.
C) It was supported by President Johnson.
D) It guaranteed all females the right to vote.
18. The __________ Amendment calls for equality before the law.
A) Thirteenth
B) Fourteenth
C) Fifteenth
D) Sixteenth
19. Which statement would most likely have been said by a radical Republican in 1865?
A) “The Constitution does not grant secession, thus the South has never left the Union.”
B) “Northern hypocrisy shall never determine the destiny of the South’s future.”
C) “The former Confederate states are to be treated as provinces conquered in war.”
D) “It is with no malice in our hearts that we welcome the return of our southern brothers.”
20. The first United States president to be impeached in the House of Representatives was __________.
A) John Adams
B) Andrew Jackson
C) Andrew Johnson
D) Bill Clinton
21. The __________ Amendment protected blacks’ right to vote.
A) Thirteenth
B) Fourteenth
C) Fifteenth
D) Sixteenth
22. The winner of the 1868 presidential election was __________.
A) Rutherford B. Hayes
B) Andrew Johnson
C) Horatio Seymour
D) Ulysses S. Grant
23. The Fifteenth Amendment __________.
A) gave Congress the power to remove presidential cabinet members
B) officially ended slavery in the United States
C) established new rules for the readmission of southern states
D) guaranteed the right of American men to vote
24. Of the following, who was/were most conciliatory to the desires of white southerners to deny rights
and privileges to blacks?
A) President Johnson
B) radical Republicans
C) moderate Republicans
D) abolitionists
25. The radical Republicans’ goals for Reconstruction included __________.
A) the South’s recognition of the benefits of defeat
B) the securing of the freedmen’s right to vote
C) stopping southern states from leaving the Union
D) attempting to strengthen the Republican Party in the North
26. The Tenure of Office Act attempted to __________.
A) dismantle state governments in the Lower South
B) stop the nomination of Ulysses S. Grant for president
C) guarantee the election of Republicans in the North
D) weaken the powers of the president
27. Which statement about black voters in the South during Reconstruction is true?
A) Voter turnout in the black community was low.
B) Ulysses S. Grant was elected president with great support from blacks.
C) The Democratic Party benefited from the increase in black voters.
D) Black voters were not successful in electing many blacks to state offices.
28. Some southerners were drawn to the Republican Party because __________.
A) the Republicans were not serious about supporting black suffrage
B) the Democratic Party had little support among southern whites
C) they were attracted to the party’s emphasis on economic development
D) radical Republicans in Congress offered moderate calls for reform
29. In the South during the Reconstruction, African Americans were an influential voice in __________.
A) implementing the reforms of the Republican Party
B) opposing the Tenure of Office Act
C) achieving universal desegregation of public schools
D) the restructured Democratic Party
30. White southerners used the term carpetbaggers to describe __________.
A) ex-slaves who moved to southern cities
B) southerners who supported the Union
C) powerful northerners who lived in the South
D) Republican leaders in the United States Congress
31. The Colored Monitor Union Club was __________.
A) an organized confederation of northern black religious leaders
B) organized for blacks to have an alternative to the Republican Party
C) a strong voice in favor of universal manhood suffrage
D) a major supporter of separate but equal facilities
32. In the period 1869–1873, the state government of Mississippi succeeded in __________.
A) reducing the state’s budgetary debt
B) their efforts to segregate all public facilities
C) passing education, judicial, and public health reforms
D) opposing federal amendments to the Constitution
33. Southern Democrats realized they could regain their dominance of local power by __________.
A) cooperating with legislatures controlled by the Republicans
B) supporting the candidacy of Ulysses S. Grant
C) making alliances with carpetbaggers and scalawags
D) manipulating racial tensions
34. Which statement about the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction is true?
A) Republican governors never created policies that resulted in the arrest of members.
B) They attempted to stop women from using their right to vote.
C) Blacks and whites who supported democratic reforms were attacked by members.
D) Their acts of terrorism caused Democrats in the U.S. Congress to pass anti-Klan laws.
35. The Liberal Republicans of the early 1870s __________.
A) splintered their party and weakened Reconstruction policies
B) strengthened the national dominance of the Republican Party
C) called for more radical democratic reforms in the South
D) rejected ideas that espoused the “scientific” superiority of whites
36. In the presidential election of 1872, Ulysses S. Grant defeated the former Republican __________.
A) Charles Sumner
B) Horace Greeley
C) Samuel Tilden
D) Horatio Seymour
37. To challenge the state’s Republican government in Louisiana, a group of elite Democrats in New
Orleans organized a military organization called __________.
A) Redeemers
B) Anti-Reconstructionists
C) the White League
D) Orleans for Justice
38. Who were the main candidates in the presidential election of 1876?
A) Ulysses S. Grant and Horace Greeley
B) Horace Greeley and Rutherford B. Hayes
C) Samuel Tilden and Ulysses S. Grant
D) Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden
39. In the 1876 election, Samuel J. Tilden ran strongest in the __________.
A) West
B) Midwest
C) Northeast
D) South
40. In United States v. Cruikshank, the Supreme Court __________.
A) upheld all convictions in the Colfax Massacre
B) held that the Enforcement Act applied to individuals
C) held that the Enforcement Act applied to states
D) essentially overturned the Thirteenth Amendment
41. The Redeemers portrayed themselves as the __________.
A) saviors of the South from the injustices of Republican rule
B) leaders who had saved the Union from Confederate treason
C) true descendants of the abolitionists
D) loyal supporters of Ulysses S. Grant
42. A long-lasting legacy of the ideas of the Redeemers was the __________.
A) commitment to achieving civil rights for all minorities
B) establishment of the “solid South” as a Republican stronghold
C) fostering of antagonistic race relations throughout the South
D) promotion of pro-Union versions of the Civil War
43. Of the following, which one is something that worked in the Democrats’ favor in the election of
1876?
A) the scandals of the Grant administration
B) the background and experience of Samuel J. Tilden
C) northern support for southern Republican governments
D) abating economic depression
44. Which statement best summarizes the outcome of the election of 1876?
A) The Republicans traded the presidency in exchange for railroad monopolies.
B) The Democrats failed to win because Tilden was an unpopular candidate.
C) The South exchanged the presidency in favor of more local autonomy.
D) Northern apathy resulted in the victory of a southern Democrat.
45. The significant outcome of the presidential election of 1876 was that it __________.
A) marked an end of the federal government’s commitment to Reconstruction reforms
B) signaled the beginning of an era in which the Democrats dominated the White House
C) rallied the forces of radical reform in the Republican Party
D) established that southern state laws would not be tolerated by the federal government
46. In his book, The Facts of Reconstruction, John R. Lynch argued that __________.
A) the South had been victimized by an avaricious North
B) the election of 1876 betrayed the state governments of the South
C) Reconstruction included commendable events
D) the “bayonet rule” by the North was the personification of injustice during Reconstruction
47. In the post-Reconstruction period, __________.
A) blacks in the South were relegated to second-class citizenship
B) segregation was established and reinforced in all northern and southern cities
C) the Republican Party increased its efforts to guarantee equality for blacks
D) southern blacks went to desegregated schools, but were segregated in all other areas
48. Overall, regarding Reconstruction constitutional amendments and laws, the Supreme Court in the
latter part of the nineteenth century __________.
A) upheld them to the letter
B) gave them strong support
C) refused to rule on them
D) interpreted them in ways detrimental to blacks
49. In the late 1870s, black economic status __________ while white economic status __________.
A) increased; decreased
B) decreased; increased
C) remained stable; experienced a depression
D) remained unchanged; declined
50. In the two decades following reconstruction, what was the impact of the United States Supreme
Court’s decisions on African Americans?
A) They essentially found that the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments did not apply to blacks.
B) They continued to champion the rights of blacks.
C) They took away the right to vote from all but property-owning freed blacks.
D) They sent mixed messages about the rights of black citizens.
Essay Questions
51. What factors accounted for the rise of the Republican Party in the South, and then the reemergence of
the Democratic Party as the dominant power in the South?
52. Historians are divided in opinion regarding Reconstruction’s events and outcomes. What do you feel
were the events that best expressed the Reconstruction period? Why do you feel Reconstruction reforms
were ended in 1877?
53. Many historians feel that both the promise and disappointment of Reconstruction provided the
foundation for the next 100 years of race relations in the South. In what ways is this idea true?