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Quiz for Sources for America’s History, Chapter 15

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Question

1. In his last public address in April of 1865 (Document 15-1), Abraham Lincoln hinted at the approach he would take toward the process of Reconstruction. What part of Lincoln’s speech might have provoked John Wilkes Booth to murder Lincoln four days later?

Lincoln’s support for black suffrage

The question of whether or not to recognize the new state government of Louisiana

Lincoln’s celebration of the war’s imminent end

Lincoln’s call for a national thanksgiving

Correct. The answer is a. As a southern sympathizer, John Wilkes Booth was incensed by Lincoln’s calls for black suffrage.

Incorrect. The answer is a. As a southern sympathizer, John Wilkes Booth was incensed by Lincoln’s calls for black suffrage.

Question

2. In what way was Betty Powers’s family’s experience of Reconstruction (Document 15-2) an exception to that of most freed slaves in the 1860s and 1870s?

The Powers family stayed on the plantation to work as sharecroppers for a few years.

Betty and her family explicitly welcomed their freedom from punishment and abuse.

The Powers family was able to buy and farm its own plot of land soon after the war.

The family elected to stay together in the South after the end of slavery.

Correct. The answer is c. Unlike many families of freed slaves, the Powers family worked as sharecroppers for only a few years before they were able to buy their own farmland. That land provided her parents and siblings with some level of economic security until her parents’ deaths.

Incorrect. The answer is c. Unlike many families of freed slaves, the Powers family worked as sharecroppers for only a few years before they were able to buy their own farmland. That land provided her parents and siblings with some level of economic security until her parents’ deaths.

Question

3. Frances Butler Leigh’s letter to her friend in England describing her experiences in the South during Reconstruction was written in June of 1867 (Document 15-3). Her perspective on Reconstruction was shaped by which of the following recent events?

Congressional impeachment of President Andrew Johnson

The implementation of the Reconstruction Act

The ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment

Ulysses Grant’s nomination as the Republican presidential candidate

Correct. The answer is b. At the time Frances Leigh wrote her letter, the U.S. Congress had recently implemented the Reconstruction Act of 1867, which divided the conquered South into five military districts, each under the command of a U.S. General. The law stipulated that, to reenter the Union, former Confederate states had to grant the vote to freedmen and deny it to leading ex-Confederates. Johnson vetoed the act, but Congress overrode his veto.

Incorrect. The answer is b. At the time Frances Leigh wrote her letter, the U.S. Congress had recently implemented the Reconstruction Act of 1867, which divided the conquered South into five military districts, each under the command of a U.S. General. The law stipulated that, to reenter the Union, former Confederate states had to grant the vote to freedmen and deny it to leading ex-Confederates. Johnson vetoed the act, but Congress overrode his veto.

Question

4. In his 1869 article, “The Protection of the Ballot in National Elections” (Document 15-4), Charles Francis Adams Jr. argued against the adoption of universal suffrage and suggested that, although the “white female . . . is at least of the same blood and education as the white male,” woman suffrage was a danger to free American institutions. What, according to Adams, made white women unsuitable voters?

Their subordination to men

Women’s roles as mothers

Their lack of political experience

Their excitable natures

Correct. The answer is d. Adams objected to the extension of suffrage to women, African Americans, and immigrants, suggesting that granting these groups the right to vote would lead to “a government of ignorance and vice.” He granted that although white women were less objectionable voters than black men, their impulsivity and “excitable natures” made them a danger to free institutions.

Incorrect. The answer is d. Adams objected to the extension of suffrage to women, African Americans, and immigrants, suggesting that granting these groups the right to vote would lead to “a government of ignorance and vice.” He granted that although white women were less objectionable voters than black men, their impulsivity and “excitable natures” made them a danger to free institutions.

Question

5. Thomas Nast, a northern Republican, was a long-time supporter of Congressional Reconstruction and equal rights for African Americans. What does his cartoon, “Colored Rule in a Reconstructed(?) State” (Document 15-5) suggest about how Nast and other northern Republicans viewed Reconstruction in 1874?

Nast believed that Reconstruction had succeeded by giving heroic African Americans power and leadership in state governments in the South.

Nast believed that Reconstruction had achieved full equality between whites and African Americans and was no longer necessary.

Nast believed that Reconstruction, which in his opinion had empowered corrupt and oafish black politicians in state governments, had outlived its usefulness in the South.

Nast believed that Reconstruction had failed and that oppressed and downtrodden African Americans were still trying to gain power in southern governments.

Correct. The answer is c. This cartoon relied heavily on negative black stereotypes to suggest that black politicians had, by the mid-1870s, brought disorder and corruption to the state governments of the South. It indicated the degree to which even previously sympathetic white Republicans had come to view Reconstruction in negative terms by 1874.

Incorrect. The answer is c. This cartoon relied heavily on negative black stereotypes to suggest that black politicians had, by the mid-1870s, brought disorder and corruption to the state governments of the South. It indicated the degree to which even previously sympathetic white Republicans had come to view Reconstruction in negative terms by 1874.

Question

6. In his speech to Congress in 1874 (Document 15-6), Robert Browne Elliott framed the Civil Rights Act of 1875 as

one more step toward the full reunification of the Union and the Confederacy.

redundant due to the ratification of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.

the capstone of the long American struggle for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

a law that would undermine the progress achieved by the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Correct. The answer is c. Robert Browne Elliot spoke in support of the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which required “full and equal” access to jury service, transportation, and public accommodations, irrespective of race. He framed the legislation as the pinnacle of the long American struggle for natural rights.

Incorrect. The answer is c. Robert Browne Elliot spoke in support of the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which required “full and equal” access to jury service, transportation, and public accommodations, irrespective of race. He framed the legislation as the pinnacle of the long American struggle for natural rights.