Age of Reconstruction and Civil War Review

Comprehensive practice flashcards covering the Reconstruction Era (1865–1877) and key Civil War background events, including presidential and congressional plans, constitutional amendments, political developments, and restrictions on civil rights.

What did Abraham Lincoln's Ten Percent Plan require for a Southern state to rejoin the Union?

10% of a state's voters had to pledge loyalty to the Union and support emancipation.

What were the main provisions of the Radical Republicans' Wade-Davis Bill?

It required 50% of a state's voters to take a loyalty oath, guaranteed civil rights for freedmen, punished Confederate leaders, and restructured Southern society and politics.

How did Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction plan compare to the plans of Lincoln and the Radical Republicans?

It was the most lenient plan, allowing Southern states to rejoin the Union quickly with few conditions.

What did the 13th Amendment guarantee, and in what year was it ratified?

It officially made slavery illegal across the United States in 1865.

What rights were guaranteed by the 14th Amendment upon its ratification in 1868?

It guaranteed citizenship, due process, and equal protection under the law to all persons born in the United States.

What right did the 15th Amendment guarantee when ratified in 1870?

It guaranteed all men the right to vote regardless of race.

What was the primary mission of the Freedmen's Bureau between 1865 and 1872?

To help formerly enslaved people with schools, jobs, housing, and legal aid.

What was the difference between a carpetbagger and a scalawag during Reconstruction?

A carpetbagger was a Northerner who moved South for money or office, while a scalawag was a Southerner who supported the Union and Reconstruction.

What were Black Codes in the Reconstruction-era South?

Laws passed across the South to restrict the movement, labor, and property rights of African Americans, recreating conditions close to slavery.

How did sharecropping lead to debt peonage for freedpeople?

Lacking capital or land, freedpeople worked plantation land for a share of the crop and became trapped in cycles of debt.

How did President Ulysses S. Grant combat the violence of the Ku Klux Klan?

He used the Enforcement Acts (1870–1871) to deploy federal troops to prosecute Klan violence.

Who was Hiram Revels?

The first African American U.S. Senator, elected in 1870 representing Mississippi.

Who was Joseph Rainey?

The first African American member of the U.S. House of Representatives, elected in 1870 representing South Carolina.

Who was Josiah T. Walls?

Florida's first Black member of Congress, elected in 1870.

How many African Americans were elected to the Florida state legislature in 1868?

19 out of 53 members.

What did the 1866 Reconstruction Treaties require of the Five Tribes?

The Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole nations were forced to abolish slavery within their nations and cede land in Indian Territory.

Why did the 14th Amendment fail to grant citizenship to members of tribal nations in 1868?

The 14th Amendment explicitly excluded "Indians not taxed" from birthright citizenship.

How did the Compromise of 1877 resolve the disputed presidential election of 1876?

A special commission awarded 20 disputed electoral votes to Rutherford B. Hayes in exchange for the withdrawal of federal troops from the South, ending Reconstruction.

What period in U.S. history do historians refer to as "the Nadir" of American race relations?

The period from 1877 into the 1920s marked by the rise of Jim Crow laws, legal segregation, and widespread disenfranchisement.

What were the three key provisions of the Missouri Compromise of 1820?

Missouri entered as a slave state, Maine entered as a free state, and slavery was prohibited in the Louisiana Purchase north of the 36°30'N latitude line.

Which 1852 novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe helped create moral outrage against slavery across the North?

Uncle Tom's Cabin.

What event marked the official start of the Civil War on April 12, 1861?

Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter, a federal fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.

What percentage of the popular vote did Abraham Lincoln win in the election of 1860?

39% of the popular vote.

Who was elected President of the Confederate States of America upon Southern secession?

Jefferson Davis.