Reconstruction: 1865-1877 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Reconstruction

In 1865, the Civil War ended with the surrender of the South at Appomattox. The period after the Civil War is referred to as Reconstruction because the Union had to reconstruct or rebuild the nation and readmit the South.

Answer: Abraham Lincoln

The Ten Percent Plan was Lincoln's plan to readmit the southern states and reunite the country if 10% of the voters in the Confederate states pledged that slavery was illegal. In this plan, if southerners took an oath of loyalty to the United States and agreed that slavery was illegal, they would be pardoned for any acts considered illegal during the Civil War.

Answer: Thirteenth

Congress ratified Amendment 13 in 1865 which illegalized slavery in the United States. Note: Some believe the Emancipation Proclamation made slavery illegal in the United States, but it only made slavery illegal in the southern, Confederate states. Slavery was still legal in the border and northern states. The 13th Amendment made slavery illegal in all U.S. states.

Answer: Thaddeus Stevens

Thaddeus Stevens, from Pennsylvania, wanted to make the lives of African Americans and poor white southerners better and was a leader of the Radical Republicans.

Answer: Fourteenth

Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment to give citizenship to African Americans to make sure that the Civil Rights Act of 1866 would not be overturned. Note: Citizenship was only given to African Americans. Native Americans were not granted citizenship with this amendment.

Answer: Compromise of 1877

The Reconstruction Acts divided the South into five military districts with military commanders controlling each district. The southern Democrats agreed to support Hayes as the president if the military commanders and federal troops were removed from the South.

Answer: Jim Crow Laws

As Democrats gradually regained control of the South, they passed laws to support their ideas. The Jim Crow laws enforced segregation in the 1880s.

Answer: Wade-Davis Bill

The Wade-Davis Bill mandated that southern males must take an oath of loyalty to the United States.

Answer: Black Codes

Southern states passed laws that made African Ameruicans sign work contracts which made them work in conditions similar to slavery. These laws also prevented African Americans from owning property or guns.

Answer: It made it illegal to deny adult men the vote on grounds 'previous servitude' or race

There is a widespread myth in the US that the 15th Amendment positively enfranchised former slaves. Many Southern states denied the vote to most Blacks on grounds of alleged illiteracy, for example.

Answer: Hiram Revels

Hiram Revels was born in North Carolina as a free person. He was elected in 1870 to the U.S. Senate, taking the seat which was formerly held by Jefferson Davis, the former Confederate president.

Answer: Sharecropping

Some African Americans chose to stay on plantations. The plantation owners would provide the land and tools, and the workers would farm the land and harvest the crop. The workers or sharecroppers would have to give most of the crop back to the landowner. This left most sharecroppers with little money and dependent on the plantation owners.

Answer: Rutherford B. Hayes

The decision of the 1876 Presidential election ended up at the steps of the Supreme Court where the justices and several members of Congress decided to give the contested votes to Hayes, giving him the win by one electoral vote.

Answer: Ulysses S. Grant

After the turmoil surrounding his presidency, Johnson did not run for another term and Ulysses S. Grant became the Republican nominee. He was popular with northerners after leading the North to a victory in the Civil War.
He served from March 1969 to match 1877.

Answer: Carpetbaggers

Many northerners had rushed to the South, packing all their belongings in bags made of carpet. Southerners resented them because they felt they had come south to take advantage of them and profit from the Reconstruction efforts.