Q&A Hero

Q: What was the main reason most people moved west between 1870 and 1900? A) to seek freedom from religious persecution B) to escape the drab routine of factory life C) to escape the diseased conditions of crowded eastern cities D) to improve their economic situation E) to escape from invading Native American groups

Q: All of the following were part of the national government's policy toward Native Americans from the early 1870s to the mid-1880s EXCEPT ________. A) signing separate peace treaties with specific Indian tribes B) trying Native Americans in federal courts C) giving individual Native Americans parcels of land D) assimilating Native Americans into urban life E) establishing Native American schools

Q: How did the Dawes Severalty Act of 1877 try to "civilize" Native Americans? A) by turning them into landowning ranchers and farmers B) by making public education compulsory on reservations C) by threatening to exterminate Indians if they refused to adopt white culture D) by sending Christian missionaries to convert Indians E) by arranging for their children to be fostered out to white families

Q: Why did American reformers argue against segregating Native Americans on reservations? A) They thought Native Americans should be sent to the North where they could live freely. B) They felt that reservations took too much land away from white settlers. C) They felt that Native Americans should be allowed to live their traditional lifestyles in the West. D) They believed that Native Americans should be assimilated into white American culture. E) They felt that reservations should include both Native Americans and white settlers.

Q: Which of the following statements describes government policy toward Native Americans in the 1860s? A) It ignored or opposed tribal organization. B) It was consistent but not successful because of tribal organization. C) It was formulated by humanitarians who wanted to preserve tribal organization. D) It was a failure because the Indians insisted on being farmers. E) It was based on a system of hierarchy toward various groups.

Q: Which of the following was NOT a factor in the U.S. government's abandonment of the policy of one large reservation for Native Americans after 1851? A) Wagon trains hoped to cross the Great Plains without hindrances. B) Prospectors kept finding more gold and silver all over the West. C) Indians had traditional rivalries and needed to be kept apart. D) A transcontinental railroad was being planned across the land. E) The government wanted to clear the way for settlement.

Q: Which statement best describes the Plains Indians? A) They were organized into one large and powerful tribal group. B) They were an insignificant proportion of the total Native American population in the United States in 1870. C) They were a complex of tribes, cultures, and bands that assigned most work on the basis of gender. D) They were at a distinct disadvantage when fighting whites because of their weapons. E) They had advanced farming techniques and complex building structures.

Q: What were some of the challenges of settling the land west of the Mississippi River in the late 1800s? A) The region got little rainfall, and there was little lumber available for housing. B) The region was frequently flooded by its rivers, which made farming difficult. C) The Great Plains had many deserts and this made travel and farming difficult. D) The region had various Native American groups who would not leave their land. E) The Great Plains were known for their severe and unpredictable weather patterns.

Q: Who was Frederick Jackson Turner? A) the founder of the National Grange B) the historian who first developed the frontier thesis C) the most notorious of the western badmen D) the discoverer of the Comstock Lode E) a famous wagon train boss

Q: Where did the "final fling" of settlement on the western frontier occur? A) California B) Oklahoma C) Missouri D) Oregon E) Arizona

Q: Approximately 50 percent of cowboys driving the great herds from Texas to city markets in the 1870s were ________. A) Asian Americans B) African Americans and Mexicans C) Europeans D) Native Americans E) women

Q: Who was largely responsible for the idea of driving cattle from Texas to railheads? A) William Hickok B) Joseph G. McCoy C) Charles Goodnight D) Henry Comstock E) Hank Chisholm

Q: Where did the techniques of the western cattle industry originate? A) Mexico B) Spain C) New England D) the plantation South E) the Midwest

Q: Which of the following industries was the first to attract large numbers of people to the West? A) cattle ranching B) farming C) fur trapping D) herding E) mining

Q: Which federal law in 1902 used the proceeds from land sales to finance irrigation projects in the West? A) the National Reclamation Act (Newlands Act) B) the Timber Culture Act C) the Timber and Stone Act D) the Homestead Act E) the Western Watering Act

Q: Which of the following were the West's largest landowners? A) railroad companies B) immigrants C) eastern settlers D) Native Americans E) Mexicans

Q: What was a common sight for pioneers heading west on the Oregon and other trails? A) the bleached bones of those who had gone before B) menacing bands of hostile Indians C) piles of trash discarded by previous travelers D) towns in which gambling and drinking predominated E) cattle drives heading north

Q: The control of what became a dominant issue in the western Great Plains? A) gold and silver mines B) grazing rights C) water D) the land E) the routes of the great cattle drives

Q: The first movement west ________. A) headed for the Middle Plains region B) focused on the Southwest C) rushed to Oregon and California D) followed the traditional path of earlier settlers E) steered toward the Great Lakes region

Q: What was considered the final blow to the Plains Indians' way of life? A) the deaths of the major Native American leaders B) the extermination of the buffalo herds C) incessant tribal warfare D) the reservation system E) the introduction of crop farming

Q: In 1871, Congress ________. A) stopped dealing with Native American tribes as sovereign nations B) started dealing with Native American tribes as sovereign nations C) tried to restore lands to Native Americans D) rejected the Dawes Act E) began a systematic slaughter of all Native Americans still living in tribes

Q: By 1890, many of the Teton Sioux turned to the ritual of ________, hoping that it would bring back Native American lands. A) the Ghost Dance B) the Sun Dance C) human sacrifice D) Catholicism E) the Great White Father

Q: Which of the following involved the largest Native American army ever assembled in the United States? A) the Battle of Wounded Knee B) the Battle of Sand Creek C) the Battle of the Little Bighorn D) the Fetterman Massacre E) the "Trail of Tears"

Q: Who led the massacre at Sand Creek in 1864? A) William J. Fetterman B) George A. Custer C) William Sherman D) John Chivington E) Joseph Smith

Q: In the 1850s, government policy changed toward Native Americans in that now the government ________. A) exterminated them B) defined boundaries for each tribe C) gave each Native American "40 acres and a mule" for farming D) provoked intertribal warfare E) ignored them and hoped they would eventually die out

Q: Besides buffalo, what other animal was central to the Plains Indians' economy and culture? A) the dog B) the elks C) deer D) the horse E) the jackrabbit

Q: What was the center of the socioeconomic life of the Plains tribes? A) the sun B) grain cultivation C) the buffalo D) the elk E) war

Q: What is the best way to characterize the Plains tribes? A) as sedentary and pacific B) as fishermen and farmers C) as nomadic and warlike D) as practitioners of human sacrifice E) as builders of great cities

Q: Which of the following tribes were not Plains Indians? A) the Hopi B) the Cheyenne C) the Sioux D) the Comanche E) the Arapaho

Q: By 1880, about how many Native Americans lived in California? A) 20,000 B) 30,000 C) 40,000 D) 50,000 E) 60,000

Q: Which of the following Native American groups were peaceful farmers and herdsmen? A) the Sioux B) the Kiowa C) the Seminole D) the Pueblo peoples E) the Comanche

Q: In 1865, about how many Native Americans were living in the western half of the United States? A) 10,000 B) 250,000 C) 500,000 D) 750,000 E) 1,000,000

Q: How did mapmakers refer to the Great Plains region of the United States between 1825 and 1860? A) the Barren Plains B) the Rockies Region C) the Great American Desert D) the Great Frontier E) Indian Country

Q: The federal agency designed to assist former slaves in making the economic adjustment to freedom was known as the _______. A) Freedmen's Bureau B) Department of Education C) African-American Rights Association D) Liberty Association E) Southern Reconstruction Agency

Q: Which of the following constitutional amendments attempted to ensure the civil rights of former slaves? A) Thirteenth B) Fourteenth C) Fifteenth D) Sixteenth E) Seventeenth

Q: Which of the following constitutional amendments was opposed by Andrew Johnson? A) Thirteenth B) Fourteenth C) Fifteenth D) Sixteenth E) Seventeenth

Q: The congressional answer to Andrew Johnson's resistance toward Radical Reconstruction was the _______. A) Fourteenth Amendment B) Ten Percent plan C) Wade-Davis Bill D) Civil Rights Act E) Freedmen's Bureau Bill

Q: The first bill ever passed over a presidential veto was the _______. A) Wade-Davis Bill B) Freedmen's Bureau extension bill C) Civil Rights Act of 1866 D) Tenure of Office Act E) First Reconstruction Act

Q: Congressional Republicans believed that Reconstruction should _______. A) guarantee that the southern ruling class would not regain power B) return the South to its prewar system, minus slavery C) treat the South as a conquered nation D) guarantee the civil rights of freedmen E) follow the plan that had been outlined by Lincoln

Q: Which one of the following Constitutional Amendments abolished slavery? A) Thirteenth B) Fourteenth C) Fifteenth D) Sixteenth E) Seventeenth

Q: President Andrew Johnson was eventually _______. A) loved by most African Americans B) admired by wealthy southern planters C) opposed by Radical Republicans D) compromising in his actions and policies E) determined to carry on with Lincoln's plans

Q: President Andrew Johnson was NOT a(n) _______. A) southerner B) Democrat C) opponent of slave owners D) supporter of African-American rights E) Unionist

Q: The man who became president of the United States after Lincoln's assassination was _______. A) Robert E. Lee B) Andrew Johnson C) Ulysses S. Grant D) William H. Seward E) Andrew Jackson

Q: President Lincoln's response to the Wade-Davis Bill was to _______. A) accept it completely B) reluctantly support it C) express no opinion on it D) stop it with a pocket veto E) ask Congress to reconsider

Q: Which of the following required 50 percent of southern voters to take an oath of loyalty to the Union before the southern states could regain their status as states? A) Fourteenth Amendment B) Fifteenth Amendment C) Loyalty Act D) Tenure of Office Act E) Wade-Davis Bill

Q: As early as 1863, Lincoln proposed a plan for restoring southern state governments if _______ percent of the 1860 voting population took a loyalty oath to the Union. A) 5 B) 10 C) 20 D) 25 E) 50

Q: President Lincoln's Reconstruction plans were committed to _______. A) punishing the South for provoking the Civil War B) establishing racial equality for the freedmen C) sharing decisions with Congress on Reconstruction policies D) leniency towards the southern states to the Union E) protecting the rights of African-American citizens

Q: Who was Robert Smalls? A) He was an African-American Congressman during Reconstruction. B) He was a former general from the Union Army. C) He was an official in the Confederate government. D) He was a crucial advisor to President Lincoln. E) He was a southern planter who refused to free his slaves.

Q: The term Reconstruction refers to the _______. A) period immediately following the Civil War B) attempt to rebuild the city of Atlanta C) struggle at Gettysburg D) treatment of African Americans after emancipation E) attempt to change southern ideas about slavery

Q: How did African Americans end up paying the heaviest price for the sectional reunion after Reconstruction? A) African Americans lost an enormous amount of wealth and property during Reconstruction and by the end were reduced to poverty. B) Congress made no efforts to address the rights of African Americans in their attempts to repair the damaged South during Reconstruction. C) Although African Americans saw signs of equal rights at the start of Reconstruction, once it ended many of these rights were not enforced. D) Many laws were passed by Congress during Reconstruction that deliberately restricted the rights of newly freed slaves. E) African Americans who left the South for the North after the Civil War found that their rights became restricted as Reconstruction progressed.

Q: What was the legacy of Reconstruction for most African Americans? A) the benefits of freedom B) poverty and discrimination C) land ownership D) skilled factory jobs E) successful entry into politics

Q: How did the Redeemers restrict voting rights in the late 1870s and early 1880s? A) African Americans were not allowed to vote at all and were kept away from the polls. B) Any African Americans voting for Democrats had their votes discarded. C) If African Americans tried to vote for Republicans, they were intimidated and threatened. D) African Americans could vote only if they paid a fee to the Republican candidates. E) African Americans risked losing their jobs if they tried to vote for any Democratic candidates.

Q: Why did Andrew Johnson resist the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Fourteenth Amendment? A) Johnson felt that these laws did not grant equal rights to African Americans, and thus pushed for further legislation. B) Johnson strongly supported states' rights and felt that these laws did not allow states to manage their own affairs. C) Johnson felt that by stating the rights of African Americans, state governments would be able to exploit legal loopholes. D) Johnson believed that his Republican supporters would never vote for him again if he backed equal rights for African Americans. E) Johnson knew that these laws would only encourage terrorist organizations to form in opposition to them.

Q: All of the following contributed to the rift that developed between President Johnson and Congressional Republicans EXCEPT _______. A) the appointment of provisional southern governors B) the passage of the Black Codes C) the veto of the Freedmen's Bureau bill D) the veto of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 E) the refusal to seat the recently elected southern delegation

Q: How might Reconstruction have been different if Lincoln had not been assassinated? A) African Americans might have gained political and economic rights sooner, since Lincoln was a strong supporter of equal rights for all Americans. B) Terrorist groups like the Ku Klux Klan would not have developed in the South and African Americans would not have been violently attacked. C) Women would also have gained the right to vote, since Lincoln would have encouraged this in the Fifteenth Amendment. D) Lincoln would have refused to allow any former Confederates to participate in the Republican government. E) Since Lincoln favored more leniency toward the South, readmission of southern states might have happened more rapidly.

Q: In what way did white farmers resemble black southerners in their treatment at the hands of southern governments run by the Redeemers? A) They were often denied the right to vote and were intimidated at the polls. B) They were forced to pay high taxes on any imported goods from the North. C) They were not allowed to own property and could work only for rich planters. D) They could not borrow any federal money and were forced to give up their farms. E) They were forced into deeper debt due to the crop lien system that favored local merchants.

Q: What did Republican leaders agree to do in order to ensure the election of Rutherford Hayes? A) offer lucrative positions to members of the electoral commission B) end federal support for southern radical regimes C) continue federal support for southern radical regimes D) support fraudulent elections with federal troops E) split control of southern state governments with Democrats

Q: What is significant about the result of the disputed election of 1876? A) It was the final Radical Republican victory. B) It meant the end of the Reconstruction era. C) It marked the beginning of a Republican resurgence nationwide. D) It demonstrated the political power of southern African Americans. E) It was resolved more quickly than anyone expected.

Q: What was the main reason for the Ku Klux Klan's success in the South after 1868? A) popular support from whites of all social classes B) its centralized political organization C) its support from the southern state Republican governments D) the persistent threat of a violent black uprising E) the Force Act, which protected terrorist groups like the Klan

Q: Why were some American women angered by the Fifteenth Amendment? A) It gave voting rights to white women, but not to African-American women. B) White women did not want African Americans to have the right to vote. C) It gave voting rights to African-American men, but not to any women. D) It did not make the imposition of poll taxes, property qualifications, or literacy tests illegal. E) It allowed African Americans to vote in the North, but not in the South.

Q: Which of these tainted President Grant's first term in office? A) the Teapot Dome scandal B) congressional override of his veto C) failure of the Wade-Davis Bill D) the Crdit Mobilier scandal E) kickbacks given to Grant for lands taken from former members of the Confederacy

Q: What was true about most southern African Americans who held political power during Reconstruction? A) They alienated whites by pushing for massive land restriction. B) They concentrated their efforts on educational and political reforms. C) They used the Freedmen's Bureau to oppress ex-Confederates. D) They pushed for educational integration. E) They were more corrupt than their white counterparts.

Q: How did Black Codes seem like another form of slavery to African Americans? A) Black Codes severely limited the legal and economic rights of African Americans. B) Black Codes forced many African Americans to work for whites for free. C) Black Codes made wage labor for African Americans a crime. D) Black Codes restricted African Americans to the plantations where they had been enslaved. E) Black Codes encouraged whites to join the militia to attack or murder African Americans.

Q: How did the northern military help some former slaves work toward economic independence? A) Northern soldiers were tasked with the assignment of teaching former slaves the practice of piecework. B) The Union Army enforced the contract-labor system by making sure that southern planters offered flexible wages. C) General Sherman issued an order that set aside the islands and coastal areas of South Carolina and Georgia for exclusive black occupancy. D) The northern military established an economic base for former slaves in parts of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. E) Union generals issued an order that led to the formation of the sharecropping system, which allowed black farmers to work their land free and clear.

Q: How did former slaves' ideas about their freedom conflict with the ideas of their northern allies? A) Their northern allies wanted freed blacks to continue working on plantations for white planters, but African Americans did not want to return to plantation life. B) Freed blacks wanted to move to the North and begin new lives, but their northern allies felt they needed to stay in the South. C) Their northern allies felt that freed blacks should continue with their communal work system, but freed blacks wanted to take part in the piecework system. D) Freed blacks wanted to move to new land of their own, while their northern allies felt they should remain on the land where their families had lived for generations. E) Freed blacks wanted to continue with a family-based communal work system, but northerners wanted them to become individual wage earners.

Q: What was the intent of many northerners who went south after the war? A) They wanted to carry reforms to an area they felt needed change. B) They wanted to keep African Americans adrift between slavery and freedom. C) They wanted to acquire land and to fight for their own enfranchisement. D) They wanted to ensure that the South would not embrace interracial democracy. E) They wanted to oppose the Reconstruction plan of the Radical Republicans.

Q: Why did the House of Representatives impeach President Johnson? A) because he dismissed officers in the southern military districts B) because he challenged the Tenure in Office Act by removing the Secretary of War C) because he vetoed the First and Second Reconstruction Acts D) because he attempted to abolish the Freedmen's Bureau E) because he opposed the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment

Q: What was the meaning of the phrase "regeneration before Reconstruction"? A) restructuring southern society before readmission to the union B) funding the rehabilitation of those areas in the South damaged during the war C) transforming southern society, including land reform, before readmission D) repudiating the debts owed by the former Confederate states to the Union E) suspending military rule in the South until elections could take place

Q: What was a result of the congressional elections of 1866? A) Johnson's Reconstruction policies were supported at the polls. B) The Radical Republicans lost ground in Congress. C) Democrats regained control of the House, but not the Senate. D) Radical Reconstruction was strengthened and Johnson weakened. E) Johnson's reelection campaign got a big boost.

Q: How did President Johnson antagonize Republicans in Congress? A) He called for an extension of the Freedmen's Bureau. B) He supported a civil rights bill to guarantee equality for African Americans. C) He urged confiscation and redistribution of southern land. D) He vetoed bills with strong Republican support. E) He insisted on support for the Fourteenth Amendment as a condition of readmission.

Q: What was the main belief of the Radical Republicans? A) that the process of Reconstruction should be completed quickly B) that the South should be treated with sympathy and compassion C) that Reconstruction policy should be initiated by the president D) that there was an inherent equality between races E) that southern society should be restructured before states were readmitted

Q: After rejecting Johnson's Reconstruction plan, what was the basis of Congress's program? A) social and moral regeneration of the South B) confiscation and redistribution of plantations C) enfranchisement of both the freedmen and ex-Confederates D) guarantees for the rights of all citizens with the Fourteenth Amendment E) pardons for members of the planter class who asked for them

Q: What was the main implication behind Black Codes? A) Southerners were willing to allow African Americans legal equality. B) Southerners wanted African Americans to return to positions of servitude. C) Southerners were interested in improving the education of the freedmen. D) The freedmen would be allowed to vote and participate in the political process. E) The idea of "separate but equal" was unconstitutional and would not be allowed.

Q: Which of the following statements reflects Lincoln's view of Reconstruction? A) Free amnesty for all southerners including those who had willingly aided the Confederacy. B) Reconstruction would guarantee full political and civil equality for southern blacks. C) Congress would determine the terms for readmission of the seceded states. D) Pardons would be granted to all southerners who took an oath to the Union. E) The president and Congress would work together to readmit the Confederate states.

Q: The Redeemers _______. A) continued the policies established during Reconstruction B) offered new programs for working people and tenant farmers C) were loyal to the class structure of the antebellum South D) believed in the principles of laissez-faire and white supremacy E) were mostly members of the old planter aristocracy

Q: The organization that symbolized most vividly the "white backlash" of the Reconstruction era was _______. A) the Union League B) the Freedmen's Bureau C) the Redeemers D) the White Citizens Council E) the Ku Klux Klan

Q: What amendment to the Constitution states that no person could be denied the right to vote because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude? A) Eleventh B) Twelfth C) Thirteenth D) Fourteenth E) Fifteenth

Q: Which one of the following groups was not part of the southern Republican party of 1868? A) businessmen hoping for government support B) poor white farmers C) newly enfranchised African Americans D) white planters E) "scalawags" and carpetbaggers

Q: During Reconstruction, most African Americans _______. A) were able to become independent farmers B) lived in integrated urban societies C) remained agricultural workers D) had no opportunity for schooling E) left the South in overwhelming numbers

Q: Andrew Johnson was acquitted in the Senate because _______. A) the President's attorneys argued for a wide interpretation of "high crimes and misdemeanors" B) seven Republican senators broke with the party leadership and voted for acquittal C) the Senate knew that the House of Representatives would never vote for impeachment D) the prosecution argued that Stanton's removal did not violate the Tenure of Office Act E) Republicans feared that Johnson's removal would strengthen the executive branch