Reconstruction era - Quiz
Reconstruction era
  • 1. The Reconstruction era followed which major historical event?
A) The Great Depression
B) American Civil War
C) War of 1812
D) World War I
  • 2. How many amendments were added to the Constitution to grant citizenship and equal rights to freed slaves?
A) Two
B) Five
C) Four
D) Three
  • 3. What methods did former Confederate states use to prevent Black citizens from voting?
A) Age restrictions and land ownership
B) Religious test oaths
C) Poll taxes and literacy tests
D) Required military service
  • 4. Which institution played a vital role in establishing a free labor economy in the South?
A) The Supreme Court
B) The United States Army
C) The Freedmen's Bureau
D) The Red Cross
  • 5. What was the purpose of the Freedmen's Bureau?
A) To collect taxes from the South
B) To conduct military trials
C) To provide food and shelter to freed slaves
D) To manage the Confederate government
  • 6. Which plan for readmission of states did Abraham Lincoln favor?
A) Ten percent plan
B) Radical reconstruction plan
C) The Redeemers plan
D) Wade-Davis Bill
  • 7. Who succeeded Abraham Lincoln as President after his assassination?
A) Ulysses S. Grant
B) Rutherford B. Hayes
C) William Seward
D) Andrew Johnson
  • 8. What were the restrictive laws passed by Southern states during Andrew Johnson's presidency called?
A) Black Codes
B) Confederate Statutes
C) Jim Crow Laws
D) Reconstruction Acts
  • 9. Which political group gained majorities in Congress in the 1866 midterm elections?
A) Moderates
B) Whigs
C) Radical Republicans
D) Democrats
  • 10. What groups engaged in paramilitary insurgency and terrorism to disrupt Reconstruction governments?
A) Ku Klux Klan, White League, and Red Shirts
B) The Union Army and Navy
C) Freedmen's Committees
D) Congressional delegates
  • 11. What was the result of Andrew Johnson's impeachment by the House of Representatives?
A) He resigned immediately
B) He was removed from office
C) He was not convicted by the Senate
D) He was sent to prison
  • 12. Which legislation was enacted under President Ulysses S. Grant to enforce civil rights?
A) Wade-Davis Bill
B) Ten percent plan
C) Ku Klux Klan Act
D) Confiscation Act
  • 13. What event effectively ended the Reconstruction era?
A) The Civil War
B) The impeachment of Johnson
C) Election of 1866
D) Compromise of 1877
  • 14. Who won the presidential election of 1876?
A) Andrew Johnson
B) Rutherford B. Hayes
C) Ulysses S. Grant
D) Abraham Lincoln
  • 15. What did the failure of the Lodge Bill in 1890 signify?
A) The start of the Civil War
B) The end of efforts to enforce federal civil rights in the South
C) The beginning of the Freedmen's Bureau
D) The election of Andrew Johnson
  • 16. What was a primary goal of the 'Redeemers' in the South?
A) To restore white supremacy
B) To enforce the Wade-Davis Bill
C) To support the Radical Republicans
D) To assist the Freedmen's Bureau
  • 17. What legislation provided the precedent for the Emancipation Proclamation?
A) Lodge Bill
B) Confiscation Acts
C) Black Codes
D) Ku Klux Klan Act
  • 18. What period of time does the American Civil War span?
A) 1861–1865
B) 1850–1860
C) 1865–1877
D) 1877–1890
  • 19. What does the text suggest is one of the positive legacies of Reconstruction?
A) The immediate end of all violence
B) Establishing a legal framework for racial equality
C) The total replacement of Southern elite
D) The total elimination of poverty
  • 20. What did the Reconstruction Acts of 1867–68 dictate?
A) Restrictions on federal spending
B) Terms for presidential impeachment
C) Conditions for ending slavery
D) Terms for readmission of former Confederate states
  • 21. Which historian proposes 1863 as the start date of Reconstruction?
A) Heather Cox Richardson
B) Fritzhugh Brundage
C) Manisha Sinha
D) Eric Foner
  • 22. What was the significance of November 7, 1861, for the Gullah population?
A) They gained the right to vote
B) They became free overnight
C) They were relocated to the North
D) They formed a new government
  • 23. Heather Cox Richardson argues that Reconstruction ended in 1920 with the election of which president?
A) Rutherford B. Hayes
B) Abraham Lincoln
C) Warren G. Harding
D) Ulysses S. Grant
  • 24. According to the text, what happened after the Battle of Port Royal?
A) Federal troops were defeated
B) The Lodge Bill was introduced
C) The Emancipation Proclamation was signed
D) Slaveholders fled the area
  • 25. What event in 1860 does Manisha Sinha link to the beginning of Reconstruction?
A) Lincoln winning the presidency
B) The start of the Civil War
C) The ratification of the 13th amendment
D) The Battle of Port Royal
  • 26. How many Southern states seceded from the United States following Lincoln's election?
A) Thirteen
B) Seven
C) Eleven
D) Nine
  • 27. What event prompted Lincoln to raise an army to quell the South?
A) The collapse of the plantation economy
B) The secession of South Carolina
C) The Emancipation Proclamation
D) The assault on Fort Sumter
  • 28. How many named battles were fought during the American Civil War?
A) 300
B) 500
C) 150
D) 237
  • 29. What type of jobs were Black women largely confined to after the war?
A) Railroad construction
B) Domestic work
C) Legal advocacy
D) Lumber mill management
  • 30. What economic system replaced the plantation system following the war?
A) Sharecropping
B) Industrial manufacturing
C) State-run collective farming
D) Mercantilism
  • 31. According to David W. Blight, which vision emphasized full citizenship and constitutional equality?
A) The white supremacist vision
B) The plantation revival vision
C) The emancipationist vision
D) The reconciliationist vision
  • 32. Which vision of Reconstruction focused on coping with the death and devastation of the war?
A) The white supremacist vision
B) The emancipationist vision
C) The industrialization vision
D) The reconciliationist vision
  • 33. What happened to the value of the Confederate dollar by early 1865?
A) It increased in value due to gold backing
B) It remained stable
C) It doubled in purchasing power
D) It had nearly zero value
  • 34. How many cities in the Confederate States were occupied by Union forces at some point?
A) 162
B) 835
C) 11
D) 297
  • 35. Which of these cities was noted for being destroyed or severely damaged by military action?
A) Montgomery
B) Savannah
C) Atlanta
D) New Orleans
  • 36. What percentage of Southern livestock had been killed by the end of the war?
A) 60%
B) 25%
C) 40%
D) 10%
  • 37. What became a high priority for Reconstruction state governments?
A) Expanding the banking system
B) Building new military forts
C) Increasing farm mechanization
D) Restoring the infrastructure
  • 38. How much of the South's railroad infrastructure was in areas reached by Union armies?
A) Exactly half
B) Nearly all
C) Over two-thirds
D) Less than one-quarter
  • 39. What fraction of Southern White men of military age died during the Civil War?
A) Over a quarter
B) One-half
C) One-tenth
D) One-third
  • 40. To what amount did the per capita income for White Southerners decline by 1879?
A) $100
B) $50
C) $125
D) $80
  • 41. Who led the unionist government in Virginia that was recognized by the United States during the Civil War?
A) Wade Davis
B) Andrew Johnson
C) Abraham Lincoln
D) Francis Harrison Pierpont
  • 42. Which state was formed after the Pierpont government separated the northwestern counties of Virginia?
A) Louisiana
B) Arkansas
C) West Virginia
D) Tennessee
  • 43. On what date did Lincoln issue the Emancipation Proclamation?
A) December 8, 1863
B) January 16, 1865
C) January 1, 1863
D) April 14, 1865
  • 44. Who issued Special Field Orders No. 15 on January 16, 1865?
A) Ulysses S. Grant
B) Andrew Johnson
C) Robert E. Lee
D) William Tecumseh Sherman
  • 45. Who did Robert E. Lee surrender to on April 9, 1865?
A) Ulysses S. Grant
B) Abraham Lincoln
C) William Tecumseh Sherman
D) Andrew Johnson
  • 46. Who assassinated President Lincoln on April 14, 1865?
A) Edwin Stanton
B) Robert E. Lee
C) Andrew Johnson
D) John Wilkes Booth
  • 47. Which state was the first to be readmitted to the Union on July 24, 1866?
A) Louisiana
B) South Carolina
C) Tennessee
D) Georgia
  • 48. What event took place in New Orleans on July 30, 1866?
A) A riot at a constitutional convention
B) The surrender of Robert E. Lee
C) The passing of the Enforcement Act
D) The impeachment of Andrew Johnson
  • 49. When was the Fourteenth Amendment ratified?
A) May 31, 1870
B) December 6, 1865
C) February 3, 1870
D) July 9, 1868
  • 50. What was the final Confederate state to be readmitted to the Union?
A) Tennessee
B) Georgia
C) Louisiana
D) South Carolina
  • 51. When did the Ku Klux Klan Act become law?
A) May 31, 1870
B) February 28, 1871
C) April 20, 1871
D) May 22, 1872
  • 52. What was the required percentage of White males needed to take the Ironclad Oath in the Wade–Davis Bill?
A) 51%
B) 25%
C) 75%
D) 10%
  • 53. What policy did Lincoln announce in his second inaugural address?
A) Immediate enfranchisement of all freedmen
B) Total revolution of Southern institutions
C) Malice toward none
D) Punishment for all Confederates
  • 54. Who insisted that Reconstruction must revolutionize Southern institutions, habits, and manners?
A) The Copperheads
B) Thaddeus Stevens
C) Abraham Lincoln
D) Andrew Johnson
  • 55. On what date did Andrew Johnson veto the Civil Rights Act?
A) December 1, 1865
B) April 15, 1865
C) March 27, 1866
D) January 1, 1866
  • 56. Which group did Johnson align himself with during the political warfare with Congress?
A) The Unionists
B) The Radical Republicans
C) The Democrats
D) The Whigs
  • 57. Which 1866 event was used as evidence of violence against Black people?
A) The Boston Tea Party
B) The Kansas-Nebraska uprising
C) Memphis riots
D) The Civil War draft riots
  • 58. How did Stevens view the status of Southern states after secession?
A) As fully restored Union members
B) Like new territories
C) As sovereign nations
D) As unaffected entities
  • 59. In what year were the Reconstruction Acts passed by Congress?
A) 1877
B) 1865
C) 1867
D) 1869
  • 60. Which amendment were Southern governments required to accept to be readmitted?
A) Fourteenth Amendment
B) Thirteenth Amendment
C) Twelfth Amendment
D) Fifteenth Amendment
  • 61. What status did constitutional amendments grant to all African Americans?
A) Military exemption
B) Land ownership
C) Tax immunity
D) Full citizenship
  • 62. Who were the primary individuals moving from the North to aid freedmen?
A) European immigrants
B) Educated Blacks
C) Confederate refugees
D) Southern plantation owners
  • 63. What was the derogatory term used by White Democrats for Southerners supportive of the Union?
A) Loyalists
B) Scalawags
C) Carpetbaggers
D) Mugwumps
  • 64. What was the derogatory term used by White Democrats for Northerners who migrated to the South?
A) Freedmen
B) Scalawags
C) Carpetbaggers
D) Unionists
  • 65. What tool did Radical Republicans repeatedly use to try to prevent former Confederates from voting?
A) The Bill of Rights
B) The Reconstruction Act of 1867
C) The Emancipation Proclamation
D) The Ironclad Oath
  • 66. How many freedmen were to be counted as citizens according to the census debates?
A) 4 million
B) 2 million
C) 8 million
D) 1 million
  • 67. What was the approximate White illiteracy rate in North Carolina in 1880?
A) 9%
B) 33%
C) 70%
D) 25%
  • 68. When did women finally gain the right to vote through a Constitutional amendment?
A) 1867
B) 1890
C) 1920
D) 1908
  • 69. What mechanism did some Southern states use to allow illiterate Whites to vote while disenfranchising Blacks?
A) Poll taxes
B) Literacy tests administered in private
C) Grandfather clauses
D) Wealth requirements for Blacks only
  • 70. Which department ordered the meeting of the Southern Treaty Commission?
A) State Department
B) Interior Department
C) Treasury Department
D) Department of War
  • 71. What did the Congress statute allow the president to suspend if a tribe was in hostility to the U.S. government?
A) Migration patterns
B) Sovereign rights
C) Trade routes
D) Appropriations
  • 72. Who was the Attorney General responsible for the poor enforcement of the Confiscation Acts?
A) John C. Frémont
B) Abraham Lincoln
C) Edward Bates
D) David Hunter
  • 73. What happened to Major General John C. Frémont after refusing to rescind his emancipation order?
A) Sent to negotiate with Native Americans
B) Given a formal reprimand but kept his post
C) Promoted to commander in Washington
D) Terminated from active duty
  • 74. What territory was created as a de facto result of the treaties negotiated by the Southern Treaty Commission?
A) The Western Reconstruction Zone
B) The Missouri Territory
C) The Arkansas District
D) Unorganized Oklahoma Territory
  • 75. Where did Lincoln advocate for compensated emancipation in a conference?
A) Washington D.C.
B) Gettysburg
C) Hampton Roads
D) Appomattox
  • 76. Where did Lincoln urge African American leaders to colonize in August 1862?
A) Europe
B) Central America
C) Canada
D) Australia
  • 77. Which prominent activist criticized Lincoln's colonization plans?
A) Benjamin Flanders
B) Andrew Johnson
C) Frederick Douglass
D) Edward Stanly
  • 78. How many Black colonists were sent to Chiriqui?
A) 453
B) 2000
C) 1000
D) 50
  • 79. Who did Lincoln appoint as military governor of Louisiana?
A) Edward Stanly
B) Andrew Johnson
C) George Foster Shepley
D) John S. Phelps
  • 80. What reason did Lincoln give for his authority to strike at slavery in July 1862?
A) Public opinion polls
B) Congressional mandate
C) A military necessity
D) International pressure
  • 81. How many days did the preliminary proclamation give the rebels to return to the Union?
A) 60 days
B) 100 days
C) 30 days
D) 120 days
  • 82. Which of these states was not included in the Emancipation Proclamation because it had not seceded?
A) Alabama
B) Kentucky
C) Mississippi
D) South Carolina
  • 83. What prevented Lincoln from appointing a commissioner for the Freedmen's Bureau?
A) The end of the war
B) Congressional opposition
C) Lack of qualified candidates
D) His assassination
  • 84. Which specific area of Washington, D.C. transport did Lincoln outlaw discrimination in?
A) Public railroads
B) Horse-drawn carriages
C) Public street cars
D) Public ferries
  • 85. Which Confederate official attended the Hampton Roads conference?
A) Alexander H. Stephens
B) Robert E. Lee
C) Stonewall Jackson
D) Jefferson Davis
  • 86. What country did the Southern delegation suggest a joint attack on?
A) France
B) Canada
C) Mexico
D) Great Britain
  • 87. Who was the Emperor of Mexico at the time of the Hampton Roads conference?
A) Porfirio Diaz
B) Maximilian I
C) Benito Juarez
D) Napoleon III
  • 88. What did Lincoln propose regarding the costs of freedom for slaves?
A) Confiscation of Southern property
B) Taxation of the South
C) Compensated emancipation
D) Foreign loans
  • 89. How did Lincoln characterize the future of slavery during the conference?
A) Slavery must continue
B) Slavery is essential
C) Slavery is doomed
D) Slavery is a state issue
  • 90. What was the final outcome of the Hampton Roads peace conference?
A) A joint attack on Mexico was planned
B) No agreements were settled
C) A truce was signed
D) The Confederacy surrendered
  • 91. What was the tone of the meeting at Hampton Roads?
A) Violent
B) Hostile
C) Cordial
D) Secretive
  • 92. Which individual was the commandant of the Andersonville prison camp?
A) Henry Wirz
B) Benjamin Franklin Perry
C) Champ Ferguson
D) Jefferson Davis
  • 93. What labor system did freed people prefer over gang labor?
A) Family-based labor groups
B) Plantation slavery
C) Industrial factory work
D) State-run labor camps
  • 94. Who provided a harsh assessment of the conditions for freedmen along the Gulf Coast?
A) Carl Schurz
B) Benjamin Franklin Perry
C) Andrew Johnson
D) Henry Wirz
  • 95. What was the primary goal of the county courts regarding Black defendants?
A) Fair trial
B) Rehabilitation
C) Legal education
D) Fast conviction
  • 96. Who was the provisional governor of South Carolina appointed by Johnson?
A) Henry C. Magruder
B) Carl Schurz
C) Jefferson Davis
D) Benjamin Franklin Perry
  • 97. Who was the Senate leader of the Radical Republicans?
A) Lyman Trumbull
B) James Schouler
C) Thaddeus Stevens
D) Charles Sumner
  • 98. How many members were on the Joint Committee on Reconstruction?
A) 10
B) 15
C) 12
D) 20
  • 99. Who led the moderate Republicans in the Senate?
A) Lyman Trumbull
B) Andrew Johnson
C) Thaddeus Stevens
D) Charles Sumner
  • 100. What was the House vote count for the Civil Rights Bill?
A) 15–0
B) 111–38
C) 50–50
D) 33–12
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