USH recontruction test

chapter 15 

1. Identify the federal government's major challenges in reconstructing the South after the Civil War.

• With the defeat of the Confederacy and the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, the federal government had to develop policies and procedures to address a number of difficult questions: What was the status of the defeated states, and how would they be reintegrated into the nation's political life? What would be the political status of the formerly enslaved people, and what would the federal government do to integrate them into the nation's social and economic fabric?

2. Describe how and why Reconstruction policies changed over time.

• Abraham Lincoln and his successor, Southerner Andrew Johnson, preferred a more lenient and faster Restoration Plan for the southern states. The Freedmen's Bureau attempted to educate and aid formerly enslaved people, negotiate labor contracts, and reunite families. Lincoln's assassination led many Northerners to favor the Radical Republicans, who wanted a more transformative plan designed to end the grasp of the old plantation elite on the South's society and economy. Southern Whites resisted and established Black codes to restrict the lives of formerly enslaved people. Congressional Reconstruction responded by stipulating that to reenter the Union, former Confederate states had to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment (1868) and Fifteenth Amendment (1870) to the U.S. Constitution to expand and protect the rights of African Americans.

3. Assess the attitudes of White and Black Southerners toward Reconstruction.

• Many formerly enslaved people found comfort in their families and the independent churches they established, but land ownership reverted to the old White elite, reducing newly freed Black farmers to sharecropping. African Americans enthusiastically participated in politics, with many serving as elected officials. Along with White southern Republicans (scalawags) and northern carpetbaggers, they worked to rebuild the southern economy. Many White Southerners, however, blamed their poverty on formerly enslaved people and Republicans, and they supported the Ku Klux Klan's violent intimidation of the supporters of these Reconstruction efforts and the goal of "redemption," or White Democratic control of southern state governments.

4. Analyze the political and economic factors that helped end Reconstruction in 1877.

• Scandals during the Grant administration involved an attempt to corner the gold market and the "whiskey ring's" plan to steal millions of dollars in tax revenue. In the face of these troubles and the economic downturn caused by both the Panic of 1873 over railroad defaults and disagreement over whether to continue the use of greenbacks or return to the gold standard, northern support for Reconstruction eroded. Southern White redeemers were elected in 1874, successfully reversing the political progress of Republicans and Blacks. In the Compromise of 1877, Democrats agreed to the election of republican rutherford B hayes, who put an end to the radical republican administration in the southern states

5. Explain the significance of Reconstruction to the nation's future.

• Southern state governments quickly renewed long standing patterns of discrimination against African Americans, but the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments remained enshrined in the Constitution, creating the essential constitutional foundation for future advances in civil rights. These amendments give the federal government responsibility for ensuring equal treatment and political equality within the states, a role it would increasingly assume in the twentieth century.

chapter 16 

1. Explain the primary factors that stimulated unprecedented industrial and agricultural growth in the late nineteenth century.

• During the late nineteenth century, agricultural and industrial production increased sharply. The national railroad network increased to nearly 200,000 miles, the most of any nation in the world. Farmers and industrialists expanded their production for both national and international markets. The Second Industrial Revolution saw the expanded use of electrical power, the application of scientific research to industrial processes, and other commercial innovations that brought new products to market and improved methods for producing and distributing them.

2. Describe the entrepreneurs who pioneered the growth of Big Business, the goals they aimed to achieve, and the strategies they used to dominate their industries.

• Many businesses transformed themselves into limited-liability corporations and grew to enormous size and power in this period, often ignoring ethics and the law in doing so. Leading entrepreneurs like John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and J. Pierpont Morgan were extraordinarily skilled at organizing and gaining control of particular industries. Companies such as Rockefeller's Standard Oil and Carnegie Steel practiced both vertical and horizontal integration. To consolidate their holdings and get around laws prohibiting monopolies, they created trusts and eventually holding companies in an effort to bring "order and stability" to the marketplace.J. Pierpont Morgan and Company, the largest of the new "investment banks," focused on raising capital to enable mega-mergers of large companies.

3. Evaluate the role of the federal government in the nation's economic development during this period.

• The federal government encouraged economic growth after the Civil War by imposing high tarills on imported products, granting public land to railroad companies and settlers in the West, establishing a stable currency, and encouraging the creation of land-grant universities to spur technical innovation and research. Equally important, local, state, and federal governments made little effort to regulate the activities of businesses. This laissez-faire policy allowed entrepreneurs to experiment with new methods of organization but also created the conditions for rampant corruption and abuses.

4. Analyze the ways in which the social class structure and the lives of women changed in the late nineteenth century.

• The huge fortunes of the Gilded Age flowed to a few prominent families, and social class tensions worsened as productivity increased. Business owners and managers showed little concern for workplace safety, and accidents and work-related diseases were common. Industrialization and the rise of Big Business also increased the number of people considering themselves part of the middle class. Middle-class women increasingly went to college, took business and professional jobs, and participated in other public activities despite male resistance.

5. Assess the efforts of workers to organize unions to promote their interests during this era.

•  It was difficult for unskilled workers to organize effectively into unions, in part because of racial and ethnic tensions among laborers, language barriers, and the efforts of owners and supervisors to undermine unionizing efforts. Business owners often hired strikebreakers, usually immigrant workers who were willing to take jobs at the prevailing wage out of desperation. Business owners often relied on the support of political leaders, who would mobilize state and local militias and federal troops against strikers. Nevertheless, several unions did organize and advocate for workers' rights at a national level, Including the Knights of Labor. After the violence associated with the Haymarket Riot (1886), the Homestead Steel Strike (1892), and the Pullman Strike (1894), many Americans grew fearful of unions and viewed them as politically radical. Craft unions made up solely of skilled workers became more successful at organizing, such as the American Federation of labor

chapter 18

1. Understand the effects of urban growth during the Gilded Age, including the problems it created.

• America's cities grew in all directions during the Gilded Age (1860-1896). Electric elevators and new steel-frame construction allowed architects to extend buildings upward, and mass transit both above- and below-ground enabled the middle class to retreat to suburbs. Crowded tenements bred disease and crime and created an opportunity for party bosses to gain power, in part by distributing to the poor the only relief that existed.

2. Describe the "new immigrants" of the late nineteenth century and how they were viewed by American society.

• By 1900, nearly 30 percent of Americans living in major cities were foreign-born, with the majority of new immigrants arriving from eastern and southern Europe rather than western and northern Europe, like most immigrants of generations past. Their languages, culture, and religion were quite different from those of native-born Americans. They tended to be Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, or Jewish rather than Protestant. Beginning in the 1880s, nativists advocated restrictive immigration laws and won passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882).

3. Explain how urban growth and the increasingly important role of science influenced leisure activities, cultural life, and social policy in the Gilded Age.

• Many areas of American life underwent profound changes during the Gilded Age. The growth of large cities led to the popularity of vaudeville and Wild West shows and the emergence of football, baseball, and basketball as spectator sports. Saloons served as local social and political clubs for men, despite the disapproval of anti-liquor groups Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species shocked people who believed in a literal interpretation of the Bible's account of creation. Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner were proponents of social Darwinism, which applied Darwin's theory of evolution to human society by equating economic and social success with the "survival of the fittest." In contrast, Lester Frank Ward supported reform Darwinism, which held that humans should promote social progress with cooperation, not competition.

4. Assess how the nature of politics during the Gilded Age contributed to political corruption and stalemate.

•  The politics of the time was dominated by huge corporations and the money they used to buy political influence. Political power was still concentrated at the state and local levels. Americans were intensely loyal to the two major parties, whose local "bosses" and "machines" won votes by distributing patronage jobs and contracts to members as well as charitable relief. Party loyalties reflected regional, ethnic, and religious differences.

5. Evaluate the effectiveness of politicians in developing responses to the major economic and social problems of the Gilded Age.

• In addition to the money question, national politics in this period focused on tariff reform (1887), the regulation of corporations, and civil service reform. The passage of the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act in 1883 began the professionalization of federal workers. In the 1884 presidential election, Republicans favoring reform, the Mugwumps, helped elect Democrat Grover Clereland. Cleveland signed the 1887 act creating the Interstate Commerce Commission CIC), intended to regulate interstate railroads. In 1890, under President Benjamin Harrison, Republicans passed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, the Sherman Silver purchase Act, and the McKinley Tariff Act.

6. Analyze why the money supply became a major political issue during the Gilded Age, especially among small farmers, and describe its impact on American politics.

• Over the course of the late nineteenth century, the money question had become a central political issue. The supply of money had not increased as the economy had grown. This deflationary trend increased the value of money, which was good for bankers and creditors who could charge higher interest rates on loans, but bad for farmers who faced both more expensive mortgages and declining prices for their products, especially after the devastating Panic of 1893 and the ensuing depression. As a result, farmers banded together economically and increased their participation in politics through groups like the Farmer's Alliance and the Granger movement and helped fuel the growth of a major third party, the People's party (Populists).

Gilded Age (1860-1896)

• An era of dramatic industrial and urban growth characterized by widespread political corruption and loose government oversight of corporations.

new immigrants 

• Wave of newcomers from southern and eastern Europe, including many Jews, who became a majority among immigrants to America after 1890.

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

• Federal law that barred Chinese laborers from immigrating to America.

social Darwinism 

• The application of Charles Darwin's theory of evolutionary natural selection to human society; social Darwinists used the concept of "survival of the fittest" to justify class distinctions, explain poverty, and oppose government intervention in the economy.

party boss 

• A powerful political leader who controlled a "machine" of associates and operatives to promote both individual and party interests, often using informal tactics such as intimidation or the patronage system.

 patronage

•  An informal system (sometimes called the "spoils system") used by politicians to reward their supporters with government appointments or contracts.

civil service reform 

• An extended effort led by political reformers to end the patronage system; led to the Pendleton Act (1883), which called for government jobs to be awarded based on merit rather than party loyalty.

Mugwumps 

• Reformers who bolted the Republican party in 1884 to support Democrat Grover Cleveland for president over Republican James G. Blaine, whose secret dealings on behalf of railroad companies had brought charges of corruption.

Interstate Commerce

Commission (ICC) (1887)

• An independent federal agency established in 1887 to oversee businesses engaged in interstate trade, especially railroads, but whose regulatory power was limited when tested in the courts.

tariff reform (1887)

•  Effort led by the Democratic party to reduce taxes on imported goods, which Republicans argued were needed to protect American industries from foreign competition.

Granger movement 

• Began by offering social and educational activities for isolated farmers and their families and later started to promote "coopera-tives" where farmers could join together to buy, store, and sell their crops to avoid the high fees charged by brokers and other middlemen.

Farmers' Alliances

•  Like the Granger movement, these organizations sought to address the issues of small farming communities; however, Alliances emphasized more political action and called for the creation of a third party to advocate their concerns.

People's party (Populists)

• Political party formed in 1892 following the success of Farmers' Alliance candidates; Populists advocated a variety of reforms, including free coinage of silver, a progressive income tax, postal savings banks, regulation of railroads, and direct election of U.S. senators

PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN

BADGES 

• On the left wings of the "goldbug" and "silverite" badges are McKinley (top) and Bryan (bottom), with their running mates on the right. 

Panic of 1893 

• A major collapse in the national economy after several major railroad companies declared bankruptcy, leading to a severe depression and several violent clashes between workers and management.

money question

•  Late nineteenth-century national debate over the nature of U.S. currency, supporters of a fixed gold standard were generally moneylenders and thus preferred to keep the value of money high, while supporters of silver (and gold) coinage were debtors who owed money, so they wanted to keep the value of money low by increasing the currency supply (inflation).

Second Industrial Revolution

• Beginning in the late nineteenth century, a wave of technological innovations, especially in iron and steel production, steam and electrical power, and telegraphic communications, all of which spurred industrial development and urban growth.

JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER

• The cofounder of Standard Oil Company, Rockefeller sought a monopoly over the oil industry.

Standard Oil Company

• Corporation under the leadership of John D. Rockefeller that attempted to dominate the entire oil industry through horizontal (semi monopoly) and vertical (amazon method of ownership) integration.

monopoly

• Corporation so large that it effectively controls the entire market for its products or services.

trust 

• Business arrangement that gives a person or corporation (the "trustee") the legal power to manage another person's money or another company without owning those entities outright.

holding company 

• Corporation established to own and manage other companies' stock rather than to produce goods and services itself.

Carnegie Steel Company

• Corporation under the leadership of Andrew Carnegie that came to dominate the American steel industry.

J. Pierpont Morgan and Company

• An investment bank under the leadership of J. Pierpont Morgan that bought or merged unrelated American companies, often using capital acquired from European investors.

laissez-faire

•  An economic doctrine holding that businesses and individuals should be able to pursue their economic interests without government interference.

Knights of Labor

•  A national labor organization with a broad reform platform; reached peak membership in the 1880s.

Haymarket Riot (1886) 

• Violent uprising in Haymarket Square, Chicago, where police clashed with labor demonstrators in the aftermath of a bombing.

American Federation of Labor 

• Founded in 1886 as a national federation of trade unions made up of skilled workers.

Homestead Steel Strike (1892)

• Labor conflict at the Homestead steel mill near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, culminating in a battle between strikers and private security agents hired by the factory's management.

• When steel-mill owner Andrew Carnegie and his lieutenant Henry Frick set out to destroy the union, workers went on strike to negotiate improved wages and working conditions.

Pullman Strike (1894)

•  A national strike by the American Railway Union, whose members shut down major railways in sympathy with striking workers in Pullman, Illinois; ended with intervention of federal troops.

Radical Republicans

•  Congressmen who identified with the abolitionist cause and sought swift emancipation of the enslaved, punishment of the Rebels, and tight controls over former Confederate states.

Freedmen's Bureau

•  Federal Reconstruction agency established to protect the legal rights of formerly enslaved people and to assist with their education, jobs, health care, and land ownership.

Johnson's Restoration Plan

• Plan to require southern states to ratify the Thirteenth Amend-ment, disqualify wealthy ex-Confederates from voting, and appoint a Unionist governor.

Black codes 

• Laws passed in southern states to restrict the rights of formerly enslaved people.

Fourteenth Amendment (1866)

• Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing equal protection under the law to all U.S. citizens, including formerly enslaved people.

Congressional Reconstruction

• Phase of Reconstruction directed by Radical Republicans through the passage of three laws: the Military Reconstruction Act, the Command of the Army Act, and the Tenure of Office Act

Fifteenth Amendment (1870)

• Amendment to the U.S. Constitution forbidding states to deny any male citizen the right to vote on grounds of "race, color or previous condition of servitude."

sharecropping 

• A farming system developed after the Civil War by which landless workers farmed land in exchange with the landowner for farm supplies and a share of the crop.

Ku Klux Klan

•  A secret terrorist organization founded in Pulaski, Tennessee, in 1866 targeting formerly enslaved people who voted and held political offices, as well as people the KKK labeled as carpetbaggers(northerners who moved south) and scalawags (white southern republicans)

greenbacks

•  Paper money issued during the Civil War, which sparked currency debates after the war.

Panic of 1873

•  Financial collapse triggered by President Grant's efforts to withdraw greenbacks from circulation and transition the economy back to hard currency.

• The depression in 1873 left millions unemployed and destitute. In this contemporary woodcut, a line of somber men hugs the wall of a New York City hospice, where they hope to get a hot meal.

redeemers 

• Postwar White Democratic leaders in the South who supposedly saved the region from political, economic, and social domination by Northerners and Blacks.

Compromise of 1877

•  Secret deal forged by congressional leaders to resolve the disputed election of 1876; Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, who had lost the popular vote, was declared the winner in exchange for his pledge to remove federal troops from the South, marking the end of Reconstruction.

• This illustration represents the compromise between Republicans and southern Democrats that ended Radical Reconstruction.