Flashcards: Government Expansion (Periods 6–8)

Reconstruction (1865–1877)

13th Amendment (1865) abolished slavery; 14th (1868) granted citizenship; 15th (1870) protected Black male voting. Freedmen’s Bureau provided aid; military enforced laws in South leading to expansion of new federal agencies, military oversight, and constitutional protections. White Southerners resisted. Significance: DBQ on federal power vs. states’ rights. Outside Evidence: Civil Rights Act of 1866, Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).

Homestead Act (1862) and Transcontinental Railroad (1869)

Homestead Act gave 160 acres to settlers; Pacific Railway Acts funded railroads. This expanded federal land redistribution and infrastructure subsidies. Benefited settlers/railroads, displaced Native Americans. Significance: DBQ on federal economic role. Outside Evidence: Dawes Act (1887), Indian Wars.

Progressive Era Reforms (1890s–1920)

Sherman Antitrust Act (1890) curbed monopolies; Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) protected consumers; 16th, 17th, 19th Amendments expanded federal authority with new regulatory agencies and constitutional changes like income tax, direct Senate election and women's suffrage. Significance: DBQ comparing Progressive federalism to Gilded Age laissez-faire. Outside Evidence: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire (1911), muckrakers.

World War I Mobilization (1917–1918)

War Industries Board coordinated production; Espionage and Sedition Acts (1917–1918) curbed dissent; government took over railroads. Centralized economic control and expanded federal powers over speech/industry. Significance: DBQ on wartime federal overreach. Outside Evidence: Schenck v. United States (1919).