Based on the reading, how did Southern society change after the Civil War?
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a) Under slavery, black people had been excluded from white society; after the war, white southerners were forced to accept integration, and everything from churches to Fourth of July celebrations increasingly became mixed-race affairs, with former slaves and former masters worshipping and celebrating side by side
b) Recognizing that their society had catastrophically failed during the war, Southerners embraced “Unionization,” dividing up former plantation lands and replacing cash-crop agriculture with family farms much like what previously would have been seen in Pennsylvania or New England.
c) Two of the above are correct.
d) None of the above are correct.
Q2: Which of the following is true of economic conditions in the post-Civil War South?
a) After the war, former slaves received compensation from the Freedmens Bureau in the form of land, government-insured loans for the purchase of tools and seed, and education; together, these reforms helped to turn former slaves into a prosperous middle-class group.
b) After the war, poor white farmers began to play a much larger role in the production of cotton.
c) Through sharecropping and the crop-lien system, the black and white farmers who had been poor or enslaved before the war were finally able to accumulate wealth and rise to middle-class status after the Civil War.
d) Two of the above are correct.
e) All of the above are correct.
Q3: Who benefited from “Radical Reconstruction”?
a) African Americans
b) white Republicans
c) “carpetbaggers” and “scalawags”
d) Two of the above are correct.
e) All of the above are correct.
Q4: How does the textbook describe the end of Reconstruction?
a) White Southerners widely refused to accept the equality of African Americans, using terrorism and violence to resist Reconstruction until eventually Northerners and Republicans gave up.
b) In the South, the Democratic party recaptured its electoral majority by abandoning racism and convincing African Americans to switch away from the Republican party and vote Democrat, creating a political realignment that persists to the present-day.
c) Democrats won the election of 1876 and ended Reconstruction.
d) None of the above are correct.
Q5: Which of the following statements describes changes taking place in the United States during the period that your book describes as the “Second Industrial Revolution”?
a) Industrial production increased, and agricultural production decreased–so, America manufactured more tools and grew less wheat.
b) The combination of poor living conditions in cities–disease, pollution, crime, etc.–and dangerous working conditions in factories shortened the average Americans lifespan by almost three years.
c) “Mass market” goods proliferated; people could buy the same brand of soap in different parts of the country or shop at an A&P grocery store in two different cities.
d) Two of the above are correct.
e) All of the above are correct.
f) None of the above are correct.
Q7: How does the book describe the development of the trans-Mississippi West in Chapter 16?
a) The development of the West was different from other parts of the United States, because it was a place where “rugged individuals” made their own fortunes without help from the government.
b) Fleeing an influx of European immigrants and African Americans into the cities, white Americans resettled the West, making cowboys and farmers the least diverse, whitest population groups in the United States.
c) Because of the economic emphasis on farming and ranching, the West was the last region of the United States to hold out against urbanization, with less of the population living in cities than other parts of the country.
d) Two of the above are correct.
e) All of the above are correct.
f) None of the above are correct.
Q8: Which of the following statements describes the experience of Indians in the trans-Mississippi West?
a) Their land was taken away, often by force.
b) The government tried to force them to “assimilate”–to live like white people.
c) It was similar to the experience of native people in other parts of the world settled by white European immigrant
d) Two of the above are correct.
e) All of the above are correct.
f) None of the above are correct.
Q9) How does Foner describe Gilded Age politics?
a) Gilded Age politics pitted wealthier white protestants, represented by the Republicans, against everyone else–Catholics, African Americans, poor people–as represented by the Democrats.
b) Having strengthened their majority during Reconstruction, Republicans continued to control the national government.
c) Politicians from both parties were closely aligned with various economic sectors–banking, railroads, etc.–and corruption was a big problem.
d) Two of the above are correct.
e) All of the above are correct.
f) None of the above are correct.
Q10) How did the government react to labor disputes?
a) Workers often sued unscrupulous employers, using the court system to counter the power of business in other parts of the government, since juries and judges often sided with workers.
b) On the theory that government existed to protect property, soldiers and police intervened against striking workers, sometimes to the point of killing people.
c) Because workers heavily outnumbered business owners and managers, the government tended to support labor and unions at the expense of industry.
d) Two of the above are correct.
e) All of the above are correct.
f) None of the above are correct.
Q11) Which of the following describes a response of Americans to problems during the Gilded Age?
a) Some Americans argued that poverty was normal, and that efforts to “protect” or “help” people in the lower classes were mistaken and unnatural.
b) Some workers joined political organizations or clubs that tried to pass laws, support reforms, or organize labor actions, like strikes and boycotts.
c) Some people wrote, or read, books that called attention to the problems.
d) Two of the above are correct.
e) All of the above are correct.
f) None of the above are correct.
Q12)What did the Populists want from the government?
a) They wanted the government to play a large role in the economy, doing things like setting railroad prices and making loans.
b) They wanted the government to stop interfering in the economy–so, to get rid of regulation, avoid intervening in labor disputes, and the like.
c) They wanted the government to support “ordinary” Americans (laborers, small farmers, factory workers, etc.) instead of “big business” or the wealthy (the railroads, bankers, factory owners, etc.).
d) Two of the above are correct.
e) All of the above are correct.
f) None of the above are correct.
Q13) What problems did the Populists have with winning elections?
a) In the industrial cities of the north and the midwest, the Populists failed to win over workers; instead, urban workers joined the Republicans.
b) In the agricultural south many black farmers were unwilling to leave the Republican party, and the anti-black Democratic party captured the white vote (with violence and fraud, when necessary).
c) In the landlocked states of the west–Colorado, Nevada, Kansas, etc.–the Populist platform of having the government control the railroad industry was unpopular with farmers, since they depended on the trains to take their goods to market, so the farmers sided with the Republicans.
d) Two of the above are correct.
e) All of the above are correct.
f) None of the above are correct.
Q14) How did the South change in the years after Reconstruction?
a) A wave of investment from the industrial North led to the growth of new factory towns, like Birmingham, and diversified the economy, such that the South, by 1900, was actually wealthier and more economically stable than the North.