The Era of Reconstruction Trivia Quiz

Answer: James Buchanan

James Buchanan was one of our worst presidents. When the Confederate States left the Union, his natural response was to twiddle his thumbs. Of course, this is the only kind of man who could get elected in 1856.

Answer: Ex-rebels with property worth more than $20,000

Andrew Johnson hated aristocrats, so he would not grant automatic pardons to anyone worth more than $20,000. Nativism was just as common north as it was south. Southern journalists were not looked upon as having an impact on the success or failure of the Confederacy.

Although generals were punished and blacklisted, the common Confederate soldier was not punished for his role in the Civil War, unless you count how many of them likely felt about Reconstruction itself.

Answer: Dred Scott

The Dred Scott decision asserted that blacks were not, nor ever had been, citizens. The Fourteenth Amendment refutes that point blank.

Answer: The Tenure of Office Act

He violated this law by removing Edward M. Stanton from office without the consent of the Senate. The law was created almost explicitly so Johnson would violate it and was clearly unconstitutional.

Answer: Male

The Fourteenth Amendment punished states who did not enfranchise all males by removing the non-franchised males from the tally used to determine representation in Congress.

Answer: Military occupation of the South

Military occupation of the South helped to quell the terrorist acts of the Klan that were designed to help 'redeemer' (Democratic) congresses gain control of the Southern states, (especally in states like South Carolina where blacks were a majority). However, as the military occupation stopped assisting states in quelling such things, largely because there was dampening support for the continuing supression of the South within the Northern states, redeemer congresses took control.

This would eventually lead to the conditions surrounding the Election of 1876, in which the election was disputed and the (eventually) elected Hayes removed the military from the South in order to placate the dispute over the election that Democrats felt was 'stolen' from his opponent, Samuel Tilden.

Answer: Mississippi

All of the disputed states went to Hayes, giving him the election. This was not the result of actual investigation so much as the fact that the commission resolving the matter was comprised of eight Republicans and seven Democrats. Mississippi, however, went to Tilden without any questions.

Answer: The execution of most high-ranking Confederates

Surprising, isn't it?

Answer: South Carolina

Coincidentally, South Carolina was one of the last state governments to be 'redeemed'.

Answer: A massive northern migration of blacks

Although there was a great deal of racism in the South, most blacks did not migrate North. Indeed, the massive migration of the era was by Northerners to the South. These people were stereotyped as 'Carpetbaggers'.

Answer: Account for the 15th Amendment

The 15th Amendment forced the Jim Crow laws, which came later, to use the loophole in the 15th Amendment to deny blacks the right to vote on account of literacy tests or other stipulations which would required that one's grandfather to have been enfranchised in order to have voting rights.

Answer: Expulsion laws

Expelling blacks would be contradictory to forcing them to do labor. Vagrancy laws forced blacks to be employed or go to jail, at which point they would enter the convict lease system and be forced to do work. The taxes forced them to work in agriculture.

Answer: Sumner

He was beaten with a cane by Preston Brooks, a congressman from South Carolina, in retaliation for remarks made by Sumner against Andrew Butler, a senator representing South Carolina, and Preston Brooks' uncle.

Answer: Emancipation made the three fifths clause of the Constitution irrelevant

Answer: Vagrancy laws

Sharecropping ensnared whites as well as blacks and created a virtual serfdom in the South. Vagrancy laws were unnecessary because of liens and the debt that sharecroppers were pushed into by receding cotton prices.