Download The New South and Old West

The New South and
Old West
[1865-1890]
Kyle Mitchell
Chase Woolery
Josh Tokioka
Per. 2
1.04.11
Overview
Old West:
The Old West, as it would be called, was the end of westward expansion, and the
realization of Americas dream of expanding from “sea to shining sea.” It would become
the sight of westward movement with such factors as the Mormons, gold being
discovered in California, a new attractiveness to the Great Plains,and Government
action (Homestead Act [1862], Morrill Land Grant Act [1862] and Timber Culture Act
[1873]).
Westward Movement:
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Mormons and Utah: After Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Religion,
was murdered, Brigham Young took a group of Mormons west where they settled
in Utah after they escaped religious persecution in Illinois.
Gold Discovered in California: With the discovery of gold in the mountains in
California, many people would flee west for their chance of become rich. These
people were known as 49er’s, as they thought of the possibility of being rich
quick. Most people, however, found disappointment, as most people were
unlucky and didn’t find anything. During this time, there would be many Boom
Towns, where large settlements of people would live to stay and find gold, and
once gold was not discovered, or it was all gone, everyone would then leave, and
it would become a Ghost Town.
Attractiveness of the Great Plains: Before Westward Movement happened, most
people saw the Great Plains as the Great American Dessert. As it was a place
where the soil wouldn’t let crops grow. However, this wasn’t true as the Great
Plains would become a huge factor in crop growing. Also, the Great Plains were
also only promised to the Native Americans, as they were known as the Plains
Indians. The Great Plains would also become an attractive place to leave for
Homesteads after the Civil War.
The Chinese in the West:
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Chinese Immigration: California would be the sight of Chinese Immigration in the
Old West as it was the closest place to dock from Asia. The Chinese would
become a big part in building and completing the Transcontinental Railroad. The
Chinese, like so many other ethnic groups, were viewed as people taking jobs for
lower wages. Also, like other immigrant groups, the Chinese would form their
own ethnic neighborhoods (Chinatown) and their own gangs (Tongs).
Anti-Chinese Resentment: Racism in the West against the Chinese would lead to
violence and the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) which would suspend Chinese
immigration to the United States.
Western Cowboy Myth: Cowboys in the West were typically lonely people who lived a
tough and challenging life where they did labor work in ranches and mines. The
Cowboy, to many people in the United States, would become a myth of hearty American
Individualism.
Indians in the West:
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Decline of the Plains Indians: There were four factors that would lead to the
decline of the Plains Indians. The first was the completion of the transcontinental
railroad, which would destroy the land where the Indians lived and hunted. The
second was the destruction of the buffalo. The Plains Indains depended on the
buffalo for survival and once the buffalo were minimized, the Indians had nothing
else to depend on. The third factor was the invention of the revolver. With the
invention of the revolver, Indians would become easy targets. The last factor was
the introduction of barbed wire by Joseph Glidden. Barbed wire would block
cattle off from Indians so they couldn’t get a hold of the cattle.
The Indian Wars: Even though Native American were outnumbered when it came
to fighting, they would still try to resist the frontier. The Old West would be
marked by brutality and broken promises on both sides of the fighting. Some
major battles that would happen in the Indain Wars were Little Bighorn, where
Custer’s last stand would happen. Another last stand was by Geronimo (Apache)
who finally surrendered and ended his resistance in the Old West.
The Indian Wars: Wounded Knee (1890). The “Ghost Dance” was a religious
movement by Native Americans in the West and it would scare off many local
whites. Also, one single shot at Wounded Knee would lead to a massacre of 290
unarmed Sioux andit would end the resistance of Native American Tribes in the
West.
Amendments to the
Constitution
13th Amendment :the constitutional amendment that abolished slavery after the
Civil War. It was passed in 1865, and completed the action begun by the Emancipation
Proclamation (1863), which declared slavery abolished in Confederate held areas
14th Amendment: the constitutional amendment that officially made the former
slaves citizens of the U.S. after the Civil War.
Another key provision prohibits states from denying any citizen "equal protection"
of the law. It says that states cannot take someone's life, liberty, or property without
"due process" of law. This protection was vitally important to freed slaves.
Initially, most Southern states refused to accept the 14th Amendment. Partly as
a result, the U.S. Congress divided the South into military districts, and required the
Southern states to adopt the 14th amendment in order to be readmitted as states.
The 14th is considered one of the most important amendments because it
indirectly forces states to abide by many of the principles listed in the federal Bill of
Rights.
15th Amendment: the constitutional amendment passed after the Civil War that
guaranteed blacks the right to vote. This amendment affected not only freed slaves in
the South, but also blacks living in the North, who generally had not been allowed to
vote.
The amendment was especially favored by the Republican party, since the votes
of the freed slaves helped that party dominate national politics in the years after the war.
New South
Emerging Cultural Characters
Sharecroppers: a term for the system of farm labor that grew in the South after the
Civil War. The sharecropper was a freed slave or poor white who owned no land after
the war. He agreed to work a parcel of land owned by someone else, with the "rent" in
the form of a share of the crop at harvest time.
Ida Bell Wells-Barnett (July 16, 1862 – March 25, 1931) was an African American
journalist, newspaper editor and, with her husband, newspaper owner Ferdinand L.
Barnett, an early leader in the civil rights movement. She documented the extent of
lynching in the United States, and was also active in the women's rights movement and
the women's suffrage movement.
Booker T. Washington: an American educator, author, orator, and political leader.
He was the dominant figure in the African American community in the United States
from 1890 to 1915. Representative of the last generation of black leaders born in
slavery, he spoke on behalf of blacks living in the South. His concepts were that,
through education, the African American race could exceed to the position of the other
races.
Tuskegee Institute: Tuskegee University is a private, historically black university
located in Tuskegee, Alabama, United States. It is a member school of the Thurgood
Marshall Scholarship Fund. The campus has been designated as the Tuskegee Institute
National Historic Site, a National Historic Landmark. The first president of the university
was Booker T. Washington.
Greenbacks: US paper money issued in 1861 to finance the Civil War. The back of the
bills were green, so people called them "greenbacks."
Redeemers: a political coalition in the Southern United States during the
Reconstruction era, who sought to oust the Republican coalition of freedmen,
carpetbaggers and scalawags. They were the southern wing of the Bourbon Democrats,
who were the conservative, pro-business wing of the Democratic Party.
Scalawags: a white Southerner who supported Reconstruction policies after the
American Civil War (usually for self-interest)
Changing New South
"Jim Crow": state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and
1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly
"separate but equal" status for black Americans. In reality, this led to treatment and
accommodations that were usually inferior to those provided for white Americans,
systematizing a number of economic, educational and social disadvantages.
Plessy v. Ferguson: Most southern whites favored the establishment of
segregation as a means of racial control but the Fourteenth Amendment raised
constitutional issues. In 1896 that barrier was removed by the Supreme Court in Plessy
v. Ferguson, in which the Court ruled that public accommodations for blacks could be
"separate but equal."
Black Codes: Laws passed by southern states that defined the rights of former
slaves and addressed black-white relationships. In general, these laws created a
second-class citizenship for blacks, disallowing them the right to vote and generally
discriminating on racial grounds.
Poll Tax: money that must be paid in order to vote. There used to be poll taxes in
some places in the USA; this tax kept many poor people from voting since they could
not afford to pay the tax. The 24th Amendment to the Constitution (ratified in 1964)
made poll taxes illegal.
Literacy Test: government practice of testing the literacy of potential citizens at the
federal level, and potential voters at the state level. The federal government first
employed literacy tests as part of the immigration process in 1917. Southern state
legislatures employed literacy tests as part of the voter registration process as early as
the late nineteenth century. Literacy tests were used to deny suffrage to AfricanAmericans in a number of southern states, while allowing many illiterate whites to vote.
This was accomplished by making the test inordinately difficult and allowing test-givers
to choose who had to take the test and who did not. Most African-Americans in the
south were effectively disenfranchised from the 1890s until the 1960s.
Grandfather Clause: clause included in the state constitutions of several
southern states after the Civil War placing high literacy and property requirements for
voters whose ancestors did not vote before 1867. These clauses were designed to
interfere with African-American citizens' right to vote. In 1915, the Supreme Court ruled
grandfather clauses unconstitutional.
Lynching: putting a person to death by mob action without due process of law.
Hanging was a typical form of lynching in the "new south" that developed postreconstruction.
The "Old West"
The Wild West
Fredrick Jackson Turner: (November 14, 1861 – March 14, 1932)n influential
American historian in the early 20th century. He is best known for his book, The
Significance of the Frontier in American History, whose ideas are referred to as the
Frontier Thesis. He believed the spirit and success of the United States was directly tied
to the country's westward expansion.
"Buffalo Bill": (February 26, 1846 – January 10, 1917) an American soldier, bison
hunter and showman. He was one of the most colorful figures of the American Old
West, and mostly famous for the shows he organized with cowboy themes.
Helen Hunt Jackson: (1830-1885) United States writer of romantic novels about
the unjust treatment of Native Americans. Jackson is often remembered for her brave
stance in novels like A Century of Dishonor and Ramona.
Asa Whitney : an American merchant and great railroad promoter. Whitney was
one of the first backers of an American Transcontinental Railway. As early as 1830
Whitney became enthralled with railroads and foresaw their future role in business and
transport.
Comstock Land: a town enjoying sudden prosperity for an undefined amount of
time.
"Long Drives": At the close of the Civil War, large herds of longhorn cattle roamed
freely throughout Texas. High meat prices in eastern cities attracted a variety of
entrepreneurs and prompted cattlemen to search for a way to bring them to market. The
building of the first transcontinental railroads offered a solution by providing an
inexpensive mode of transporting cattle to large urban markets. Beginning in 1866,
cowboys drove herds of cattle, numbering on average twenty-five hundred head,
overland to railheads on the northern Plains, which typically took from six weeks to two
months. Gradually, however, the westward spread of homestead settlement, expanding
railroad networks, and shrinking free-range cattle herds pushed the trails farther west.
By 1890, long drives to reach railroad stations had become unnecessary, and
professional ranchers had replaced the early entrepreneurs in supplying urban America
with beef cattle.
"Cattle Kingdom": The cattle industry grew tremendously in the two decades
after the Civil War, moving into western Kansas and Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming,
Montana, and the Dakotas in the 1870s and 1880s with the expansion of the railroads.
While motion pictures, television, and novels have helped make cowboys —the men
who rounded up, branded, and drove the cattle to market — the most heroic and best
known symbols of the West, cattle ranching was in fact a big business that attracted
foreign investment and required considerable organization.
Chisholm Trail: a trail used in the late 1800s to drive cattle overland from ranches
in Texas to Kansas railheads.
California Gold Rush: (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was
found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill, in Coloma, California. News of the
discovery brought some 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States
and abroad. Of the 300,000, approximately half arrived by sea and half came overland.
Sutter’s Mill: An Sutter’s Mill bei Coloma nahe dem heutigen Placerville im El
Dorado County in Nord-Kalifornien, Vereinigte Staaten, fand im Januar 1848 der
Zimmermann James W. Marshall mehrere Gold-Nuggets und löste damit den
kalifornischen Goldrausch aus.
Mormons: A religious following that developed under the leadership of Joseph
Smith. From the beginning in 1830, its members were persecuted by non-Mormons. In
1844, Smith was killed by members of the Illinois militia, precipitating a succession
crisis. The largest group of Saints accepted Brigham Young as the new prophet/leader
and emigrated to what became the Utah Territory, where they incorporated The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Mormons were essential in redefining the
livability of the American west in the sense that they were able to thrive in an area
previously viewed as uninhabitable.
Transcontinental Railroad: The first concrete plan for a transcontinental
railroad in the United States was presented to Congress by Asa Whitney in 1845.The
world's First Transcontinental Railroad was built between 1863 and 1869 to join the
eastern and western halves of the United States the "Pacific Railroad" when it opened,
served as a vital link for trade, commerce, and travel and opened up vast regions of the
North American heartland for settlement. Shipping and commerce could thrive away
from navigable watercourses for the first time since the beginning of the nation. The
coming of the railroad resulted in the end of most of the far slower and more hazardous
stagecoach lines and wagon trains, and it led to a great decline of traffic on the Oregon
and California Trail, which had helped populate much of the West. This presence of
American life in Plains Indian's territory led to the death of Native American life ways.
Joseph Glidden: (January 18, 1813 - October 9, 1906)an American farmer who
patented barbed wire, a product that forever altered the development of the American
West.
Relation to Native Americans
The Plains Indians: the Indigenous peoples who lived on the plains and rolling
hills of the Great Plains of North America. Following the spread of American railways,
these nomadic tribes witnessed the demise of their way of life between 1848-1893; due
to western technology, nomadic lifestyle was engulfed by the industrial, cattle herding
ways of the east.
Black Elk: Medicine Man or Holy Man of the Oglala Lakota. He was Heyoka and a
second cousin of Crazy Horse. Black Elk said that several times during his life, he had
several visions in which he learned things that would help his people. Black Elk was
involved in several battles with the U.S. cavalry. He participated, at about the age of
twelve, in the Battle of Little Big Horn of 1876, and was injured in the Wounded Knee
Massacre in 1890.Towards the end of his life, Black Elk revealed the story of his life,
and a number of sacred Sioux rituals to John Neihardt and Joseph Epes Brown for
publication, and his accounts have won wide interest and acclaim.
Sioux Wars: a series of conflicts between the United States and various subgroups
of the Sioux people that occurred in the latter half of the 19th century
Crazy Horse: Tashunca-Uitco, a chief of the Sioux who resisted the invasion of the
Black Hills and joined Sitting Bull in the defeat of General Custer at Little Bighorn (18491877).
George Armstrong Custer: a United States Army officer and cavalry
commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Today he is most
remembered for a disastrous military engagement known as the Battle of the Little
Bighorn.
Wounded Knee: happened on December 29, 1890, near Wounded Knee Creek on
the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, USA. On the morning of
December 29, troops went into the camp to disarm the Lakota. One version of events
claims that during the process of disarming the Lakota, a deaf tribesman named Black
Coyote was reluctant to give up his rifle claiming he had paid a lot for it. A scuffle over
Black Coyote's rifle escalated and a shot was fired which resulted in the 7th Cavalry
opening firing indiscriminately from all sides, killing men, women, and children, as well
as some of their own fellow troopers.
Sand Creek Massacre: The Sand Creek Massacre was an incident in the Indian
Wars of the United States that occurred on November 29, 1864, when a 700-man force
of Colorado Territory militia attacked and destroyed a village of friendly Cheyenne and
Arapaho encamped in southeastern Colorado Territory, killing and mutilating an
estimated 70–163 Indians, about two-thirds of whom were women and children.
Legislation in the West
Chinese Exclusion Act: a United States federal law signed by Chester A. Arthur
on May 8, 1882. It allowed the U.S. to suspend immigration, and Congress
subsequently acted quickly to implement the suspension of Chinese immigration, a ban
that was intended to last 10 years. This law was repealed by the Magnuson Act on
December 17, 1943.
Dawes Severalty Act: enacted by the U.S. Congress regarding the distribution of
land to Native Americans in Indian Territory (later Oklahoma). It was signed into law
February 8, 1887. The act provided for the division of tribally held lands into individuallyowned parcels and opening "surplus" lands to settlement by non-Indians and
development by railroads.
Bureau of Indian Affairs: (BIA) is an agency of the federal government of the
United States within the US Department of the Interior. It is responsible for the
administration and management of 55,700,000 acres (225,000 km2) of land held in trust
by the United States for Native Americans in the United States, Native American Tribes
and Alaska Natives.
Homestead Act: one of three United States federal laws that gave an applicant
freehold title to up to 160 acres (65 hectares or one-fourth section) of undeveloped
federal land west of the Mississippi River. The law required three steps: file an
application, improve the land, and file for deed of title. While distributing much land to
farmers at minimal cost, homesteading took place on lands that had recently been
cleared of Native Americans. Economically, the program was a large scale redistribution
of land from autonomous tribes to taxpaying farmers, a process carried out directly
when Indian reservations were broken up into holdings by individual families.
Essays
Essay #1: Analyze the ways in which technology, government policy, and
economic conditions changed American agriculture in the period of 1865-1900.
The period between 1865-1900 would be one of the most crucial in American
history. In, this time period, technology, government policy, and economic conditions
would change American agriculture as we know it. New equipment for farmers would
give them a larger role in society and they would be able to produce more crops. Also
with the emergence of the Populist party, government policy would be key to American
agriculture, and with competition between farmers to produce goods, many farmers
would go into debt, unfortunately. Clearly, technology, government policy, and economic
conditions would change American agriculture.
Technology in the late nineteenth century would help out farmers greatly. With
new equipment, and the industrial revolution surrounding them, agriculture would have
a big boost. The industrial revolution caused many heavy equipment options for the
farmer. They used them and had higher yields and better crops. They could farm more
land in the same amount of time as by hand. Farmers would soon be able to grow so
much, that they would be asked to grow less. Railroads were probably the most
influential thing that happened to the United States. If it wasn’t for railroads, America
wouldn’t be what it is today. It changed American agriculture, delivering goods from
state to state and sea to sea. Railroads and new farm equipment would help out
agriculture greatly.
There would be controversy with government policy in the late nineteenth
century. Individual enterprises fought to dominate economic affairs but the government
was obligated to intervene when unjust activity was shown. It was believed in the late
nineteenth century, among businessmen, such as Rockefeller, that the government
should have very little say in economic issues, which was the basis for Laissez-Faire.
Laissez-Faire was shown in every issue concerning government policy in this era.
Also, the Interstate Commerce Act was made to limit the freedom and wrongdoing of
capital gain of railways to benefit the people. Soon after, the Senate passed the
Sherman Antitrust Act, which would be heavily influenced by the monopolies. The
purpose of the act was to oppose the combination of entities that could potentially harm
competition.
Economic issues during this time period were horrific. The Depression of 1893
was a serious blow to the United States politics during this era, and it would become a
five-year depression that would begin in 1893. The Philadelphia & Reading Railroad
would collapse, have a stock market panic ensued soon after. With that, banks,
railroads, and businesses would close. There would then be 20% unemployment drop,
and that would lead to many labor strikes in the 1890s.
Essay #2: following Reconstruction many southern leaders promoted the ideas of
a “New South.” To what extent was this “New South” a reality by the time of the
First World War? In your answer be sure to address TWO of the following
Economic Development
Politics
Race Relations
Following reconstruction many southern leaders promoted the idea of a “New South”,
however with the economic and political mess, the idea was easier said than done.
While the economy showed slight improvement by the start of WWI, politics in the south
were still a mess. The one group that was still managing to accomplish its goals was the
redeemers. They desired white supremacy, and they were getting it.
The primary reason for the Economic disaster in the south is arguably the end of
slavery which relates to how the South changed drastically following this critical time
period. The outcome of the civil war, along with the passing of the 14th amendment left
the south in ruins. Previously, the economy in the south essentially revolved around
slavery. With the slaves gone, The tattered south had to branch out and try anything to
save the sinking ship that was economic stability. They attempted industrialization,
which worked so well for the north, while this was slightly effective, it wasn't nearly good
enough to save the south. They industrialized areas such as the tobacco industry and
textile mills which depicted the continuation of the southern economy’s reliance upon
agriculture. The south also instituted a share-cropping system. Former slaves could
now work on a plantation or farm and receive a portion of the crops as payment; this
system only led the south into a time of perpetual debt. By creating a system so, the
African American population found themselves within a system where they were
anything but economically free.The bad times in the south are highlighted by the mass
migration of not only blacks, but also some whites into the north. during the period
before and during WWI. While the south never fully achieved economic prosperity
during the time before WWI, they did accomplish small feats which my have bettered
the lives of few. Overall, the Attempt at a New South, was a failure.
While the blacks in the south were technically equal on paper, they were still
facing the weight of heavy restrictions. One example of this is the right to vote, which
legally the blacks had access to. White supremacists imposed several requirements for
a person to be eligible to vote. While they didn't say it, these were aimed at blacks
because they could not pay the new poll tax, nor did they meet the requirements on the
literacy tests. Blacks were oppressed for so long, they were almost all illiterate,
therefore virtually none of could pass a literacy test and gain the right to vote. They
didn't stop at legal means, White supremacists also used “extra-legal” means to get
their point across. This included, but wasn't limited to beating, lynching, and the
symbolic burning of a cross in the front yard of a negro who was “out of line”.
While the South never reached its goal of political stability and prosperity before
WWI, it did achieve white supremacy despite the northern attempt at complete
legal/societal equality for free slaves.
Essay #3: Analyze the reasons for the rise of the Populist movement in the late
nineteenth century.
The Populist Party, also known as the Peoples Party, would become a short lived
party in the United States at the end of the nineteenth century. Populist’s were poor
white farmers from the South, mainly from states such as Texas, Alabama, and Kansas.
The Populist movement would begin to form from local groups and alliances of farmers
in the south. The Populist Movement would not be a long movement, yet it did give
good reasons for the rise of a party in the late nineteenth century.
After the drop in agriculture prices from the Panic of 1873, the Populist
movement would begin to rise. Formed in Texas in 1876, the Farmers Alliance would be
the beginning to the Populist movement. The farmers would promote economic action in
the south and they would very easily come to fame there. They would start campaigning
in the 1880’s for a graduated income tax, direct election of U.S. senators and one term
limits for presidents. Also, the promotion of silver as legal tender was especially favored
by farmers as a means of countering the deflation of agricultural prices and allowing
credit to flow more easily through the rural banking system. This would help the
Farmers Alliance out greatly. The Farmers Alliance, which would soon join with the
Knights of Labor, and then form into the Populist Party, and by 1890 they would win
control of the Kansas state legislature, and William Peffer would become the party’s first
U.S. senator. By 1896, the Democratic Party had taken up many of the Populist Party,
and they would vote William Jennings Bryan, a Populist, to be the Democratic Party
presidential election. Bryan would lose the election, and after the Populist movement
would soon fade away.
Clearly, the Populist movement swept the South in the late nineteenth century
with their great campaigning strategies and their political ideas for office. However, not
everyone could see through their eyes on how this would work and the Party would not
flourish at a national level. The Populist Party would fade after the loss in the election of
1896, but they would still be around for years to follow.
Multiple Choice
1)Freed blacks:
A) most often demanded a redistribution of economic resources.
B) Only asked for legal equality.
C) were nearly unanimous in their desire for independence from white control.
D) Generally remained involved in mixed-race Churches.
E) Were immediately accepted into southern society.
2)The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:
A) Declared that the right to vote could not be denied on account of race.
B) Officially ended slavery.
C) Granted “citizenship” to the freedmen.
D) provided that states could only count three-fifths(60%) of their black population when
determining how many members they would be given in the U.S. House of
Representatives.
E) Opened up the West to homesteading by African Americans.
3) The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
A)declared that the right to vote could not be denied on account of race.
B)officially ended slavery
C)granted "citizenship" to the freed men.
D)provided that states could only count three-fifths (60%) of their black population when
determining how many members they could be given in the U.S. House of
Representatives.
E)opened up the West to homesteading by African Americans.
4) The Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:
A)declared that the right to vote could not be denied on account of race.
B)officially ended slavery.
C)granted "citizenship" to the freedmen.
D)provided that states could only count three-fifths (60%) of their black population when
determining how many members they would be given in the U.S. House of
Representatives.
E) Granted women the right to vote.
5)Which best describes Congressional reaction to the former Confederate states that
had set up new governments under Andrew Johnson's "presidential Reconstruction"?
A)They fully accepted all of the states except Georgia and South Carolina, which had
elected no blacks to office.
B)They conditionally accepted all of the states pending the results of local and state
elections.
C)They refused to seat the senators and representatives from the states and set up a
committee to investigate and advise on Reconstruction.
D)They fully accepted all of the states west of the Mississippi River, but required new
constitutions in the others.
E )They sent troops to the south to ensure the peaceful adoption of the presidential
reconstruction plan.
6)The "Black Codes" were a set of regulations established by:
A)The Congress to protect the rights of the former slaves to own property and to find
employment.
B)The U.S. Supreme Court to enforce the provisions of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth
Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
C)the northern states to prevent a massive influx of former slaves from entering their
states and seeking homes and jobs.
D)the southern states to promote white supremacy and to control the economic and
social activities of the freed men.
E)freed slaves seeking to take control of confederate states.
7)White southerners who supported reconstruction policies after the Civil War were
known as:
A)carpetbaggers.
B)whippersnappers.
C)Scalawags
D) White Camellias.
E)Filibusters
8)What institution was the key point of contact in the agricultural credit system for most
Southern farmers, black and white, in the late nineteenth century?
A)Small town banks owned by Northerners.
B)Large diversified planters.
C)Finance companies in the larger cities such as Atlanta and Memphis.
D)Local country-store merchants.
E) Mail order mortgage companies operating out of New York
9)In the late nineteenth century, the agricultural credit system in the South encouraged
farmers to:
A)rely heavily on cash crops--especially cotton.
B)diversify away from cotton toward food grains and livestock.
C)adopt the use of mechanization on increasingly larger farms.
D)abandon farming and invest in capital-intensive manufacturing enterprises.
E)Grow less in hopes of raising prices.
10)The election of 1868:
A)was a landslide for Grant.
B)saw Grant uncertain whether to run as the candidate for the Democrats or
Republicans.
C)Was narrow because of his opposition to Reconstruction.
D)Was free from violence in the south.
E)turned out well for all groups of voters.
11)The "solid" South refers to the:
A) Work ethic values of southern whites.
B) Courage of Confederate soldiers during the war despite being outnumbered.
C) Steady returns that northern bankers could expect from investments.
D) The fact that the Democratic Party could count on the votes of the southern states
after Reconstruction.
E)The belief that the south would rise again.
12)In most states, the Redeemers or Bourbons were typically composed of:
A) A newly emerging class of merchants,industrialists,railroad developers,and
financiers.
B) Essentially the same old planter elite that had dominated antebellum politics.
C) A Coalition of poor, working-class whites and blacks.
D) White farmers who owned small to medium farms.
E)illiterate farmers.
13)Henry W. Grady was:
A) The builder of the American Tobacco Company.
B) An Atlanta editor who became a leading spokesman for the “New South” idea.
C) The person principally responsible for Birmingham, Alabama, becoming an iron and
steel production center.
D) The governor of south Carolina was most vociferous in advocating that blacks should
migrate from the South to take industrial jobs in the North.
E)A a governor wrapped in controversy over treatment of freed blacks.
15) "Jim Crow" is a nickname for:
A) white Southerners who used violence or intimidation to restrict black activities.
B)black people who curried favor with whites by acting excessively polite and
deferential.
C) The whole system of laws and customs that kept the races seperate in schools,
public buildings, houses, jobs, theaters and the like.
D)Black people who pretended to be friendly toward whites but who secretly
undermined white interests.
E) Congressional intervention to promote racial integration in southern public schools.
16) Around the turn of the century, which of the following was most likely to attract
Northern white support?
A) Increased enforcement of the Fifteenth Amendment.
B)Statutes allowing whites and blacks to marry each other if they wished.
C)A federal anti-lynching law.
D)Congressional intervention to promote racial integration in Southern public schools.
E) A return to antebellum ways.
Answer Key
1) C- While some freed blacks asked for redistribution of economic resources, most only
asked for legal equality. p. 509
2) B- The thirteenth amendment to the constitution officially ended slavery. p. 409
3) C- The 14Th Amendment granted citizenship to the free men. p. 412
4) A- The 15Th Amendment declared that the right to vote could not be denied on
account of race. p.414
5) C- Congress refused to seat the members of Congress from the state governments
set up under “presidential reconstruction.” p. 412
6) D- The “Black Codes” were created by southern states to ensure continued white
control of the freed men. p. 412
7) C- White southerners who joined the Republican party were called scalawags by
their critics. p. 415
8) D- Local country-store merchants served as the contact point in the agricultural credit
system for most black and white southern farmers. p. 419
9) A- The late 19th Century agricultural credit system in the South encouraged farmers
to rely heavily on cash crops, especially cotton. p. 419
10) B- Grant ultimately chose to become the Republican nominee not because of his
political principles but because he thought the Republicans were more in tune with
public opinion. p. 523
11) D- The solid south refers to the fact that the Democratic party could count on the
votes of southern states after Reconstruction. p. 426
12) A- The redeemers or bourbons were a new class of emerging capitalists who
returned the south to the political control of a conservative oligarchy. p. 427
13) B- Grady was a newspaper editor who became a spokesman for and promoter of
the “New South.” p. 428
14) C- Jim Crow was the name given to the system of laws that separated the races in
nearly all aspects of American society. p. 433
15) C- A federal anti-lynching law was most likely to gain Northern support around the
turn of the century.
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