Name: _______________________________ Date: __________________ Score: _____________

The Reconstruction Era Test

1. Laws that established literacy tests, poll taxes, and

grandfather clauses were passed by Southern states to

(1) raise money to rebuild the South after the Civil War
(2) improve the education of United States citizens
(3) limit the rights of formerly enslaved persons
(4) support the Radical Republicans

2. The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were added

to the Constitution during the Reconstruction period to

(1) bring an end to the Civil War

(2) limit the powers of the president
(3) improve the operation of the electoral college
(4) grant legal rights to African Americans

3. Which change occurred in Southern agriculture in

the years following the Civil War?
(1) Many formerly enslaved persons became
sharecroppers.
(2) Subsistence farming became illegal.
(3) Cotton production ended.
(4) Most small farms were joined into large plantations.
4. Poll taxes, literacy tests, and the grandfather clause
were all created during the late 1800s to restrict the
voting rights of
6. Which statement is best supported by the
information on the graph?
(1) Many of the people who lived in the urban areas
were poor.
(2) The percentage of urban population increased
between 1850 and 1900.
(3) By 1890, 70% of the population lived in rural areas.
(4) Industrialization led to an increase in the rural
population in the late 1800s.

(1) Native American Indians 7. Beginning in the late 1800s, poll taxes, literacy
(2) women tests, and grandfather clauses were used to
(3) immigrants
(4) African Americans (1) protect important civil rights
(2) improve public education
5. The term carpetbaggers was used during (3) prevent African Americans from voting
Reconstruction to describe (4) restrict immigration

(1) Southern whites who supported Radical Republican
programs
(2) African Americans who gained control of former
Southern plantations
(3) Northerners who moved to the South seeking
personal gain
(4) formerly enslaved African Americans who moved to
the West
8. During the Reconstruction Era, one reason for
the formation of the Ku Klux Klan was to
(1) prevent formerly enslaved persons from exercising
their rights
(2) encourage immigration from southern and eastern
Europe
(3) support the South during the Civil War
(4) eliminate sharecropping in the Southern States

9. The situation shown in the illustration demonstrates
the operation of the
(1) Emancipation Proclamation
(2) poll tax
(3) slave codes
(4) Jim Crow laws
10. Which term best describes the practice shown in
this illustration?
(1) populism (3) integration
(2) socialism (4) segregation
11. After Reconstruction, white Southerners regained
control of Southern state governments by
(1) ending the Black Codes
(2) limiting voting rights of African Americans
(3) forcing most African Americans to move to the
North
(4) limiting the sharecropping system to whites, only
12. Which was a reason that Northern leaders
disagreed over the South rejoining the Union?
(1) Some leaders wanted the South to pay for damage
done during the Civil War
(2) Some leaders wanted harsher treatment of the
South for leaving the Union.
(3) Some leaders wanted to deep slavery legal in the
South.
(4) Some leaders felt that allowing Southerner states
back into the Union would delay westward expansion.
13. For many African Americans in the South,
sharecropping was
(1) forbidden to them.
(2) highly profitable.
(3) more desirable than factory work.
(4) not much better than slavery.
14. Which of the following brought major improvements
to the lives of African Americans in the South?
(1) sharecropping
(2) the Fourteenth Amendment
(3) segregation laws
(4) redeemer governments
15. How did the scandals surrounding the Grant
administration and the Panic of 1873 affect politics in
the United States?
(1) Democrats regained control of Southern
governments.
(2) Republicans retained control of Southern
governments.
(3) President Grant was impeached.
(4) Jim Crow laws were enforced.
16. Which of the following was a method used by state
governments to prevent African Americans from
voting?
(1) the Ten Percent Plan
(2) the Wade-Davis bill
(3) the Freedmen’s Bureau
(4) literacy tests
17. Which of the following protected the rights of
African Americans in the South?
(1) the Civil Rights Act of 1866
(2) black codes
(3) Jim Crow laws
(4) sharecropping and tenant farming
“The schools for white children and the schools for
negro children shall be conducted separately.”
“Books shall not be interchangeable between the white
and colored schools, but shall continue to be used by
the race first using them.”
--Jim Crow laws of Florida and North Carolina
18. Which statement best represents the purpose of 22. When President Andrew Johnson violated the
these laws? Tenure of Office Act, the House of Representatives
voted to
(1) The laws forced separation of the races.
(2) The laws denied African Americans any access to (1) execute him.
schools. (2) impeach him.
(3) The laws required inferior facilities for African (3) reelect him.
Americans. (4) suspend him.
(4) The laws made it difficult for African Americans to
get an education. 23. Southern whites who supported Republican policy
throughout Reconstruction were sometimes called
19. Which of the following was an effect of the North
Carolina law? (1) carpetbaggers.
(2) freedmen.
(1) African American schools were not permitted to (3) Republican hostages.
have textbooks. (4) scalawags.
(2) White schools could not give textbooks to African
American schools. 24. Northerners who moved to the South and
(3) Only white schools received new textbooks. supported the Republicans were called
(4) No money was set aside to buy textbooks for
African American schools. (1) carpetbaggers.
(2) freedmen.
20. President Lincoln was shot at (3) Republican hostages.
(4) scalawags.
(1) Ford’s Theater.
(2) Samuel Mudd’s house. 25. The Ku Klux Klan set out to terrorize
(3) the White House.
(4) William Peterson’s house. (1) Democratic voters.
(2) African Americans and Republican voters.
21. Anyone born in the United States is automatically a (3) the “New South”.
citizen, according to the (4) white voters.

(1) black codes. 26. Reconstruction effectively ended after the

(2) Civil Rights Act of 1866.
(3) Fourteenth Amendment. (1) 1875 Civil Rights Act.
(4) Thirteenth Amendment. (2) election of Hayes as president.
(3) Republican Party dissolved.
(4) Southern Democrats disbanded.
Describe the efforts made to help freed African Americans adjust to life without slavery. Include the Freedmen’s
Bureau, the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the 14th Amendment, and the 15th Amendment.

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Describe the economy of the New South. Use economic terminology to do so. Circle the economic terms that you’ve
used. Compare and then contract the economy of the New South with the economy of the Old South.

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