Southern Reconstruction Laws Quiz

Reconstruction and the Rise of Industrialization

• Bourbons: Democrats in the South who wanted to return to pre-Civil War conditions, limiting the freedom of African Americans through restrictive laws like Black Codes.
• Black Codes: Laws that prohibited African Americans from certain occupations, required them to sign yearly labor contracts, and restricted their voting rights.
• Mississippi Plan: Required citizens to live in the state for at least two years, prohibited certain crimes, and required all taxes to be paid by February 1st to vote.
• Literacy Test: Required voters to understand the document they were signing in order to vote.
• Grandfather Clause: Allowed voters to vote if their father or grandfather could vote by January 6, 1867.
• Plessy v. Ferguson: Supreme Court case that ruled "separate but equal" was constitutional, allowing segregation to continue.

The Gilded Age

• Patrons of Husbandry: Also known as the Grange, an organization of farmers that advocated for lower rates charged by railroads.
• Farmers' Alliance: A group of three independent organizations that advocated for farmers' rights.
• Populist Party: A party formed by farmers in the West and South that advocated for their rights, led by William Jennings Bryan.
• Inventions of the Gilded Age:
  • Refrigerated railroad car
  • Cattle/ranching
  • Meat packing plants
  • Mechanized glass making
  • Cigarette rolling machine
  • Rapid press machine
  • Telephone
  • Light bulb

Big Business and Industrialization

• John D. Rockefeller: Founder of Standard Oil Company, which controlled 90-95% of the nation's refineries and pipelines.
• Andrew Carnegie: Founder of a steel company that owned every step of the steel process, philanthropist who believed in the "Gospel of Wealth".
• J.P. Morgan: American financier and banker who bought out Carnegie's steel company for $480 million, creating the first billion-dollar company in the world.

Labor and Social Movements

• Great Railroad Strike: The first true interstate strike, involving 100,000 railroad workers from multiple states.
• Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor: A secret society of tailors that advocated for 8-hour work days, an end to child and convict labor, and better working conditions.
• Haymarket Affair: A peaceful rally that turned violent, leading to the deaths of 7 police officers and 4 civilians, and the execution of 8 anarchists.
• American Federation of Labor: A loose grouping of small craft unions that advocated for better working conditions, led by Samuel Gompers.
• Homestead Steel Strike: A strike triggered by wage cuts and anti-union citations, resulting in the deaths of 7 Pinkerton agents and many injured workers.
• Pullman Strike: A strike triggered by wage cuts, resulting in the national guard breaking up the strike.

Progressive Era

• Muckrakers: A group of writers who exposed the problems in American society, such as Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle".
• Jacob Riis: A photographer who exposed the harsh conditions of tenement life.
• Government reforms:
  • Directly electing senators (17th Amendment)
  • Regulating big corporations
  • Conservation movement
  • Efficiency movement
  • Social justice reforms (prohibiting child labor, fair labor standards, etc.)

World War I

• Causes of World War I:
  • Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
  • Imperialism and nationalism
  • Militarism and alliances
• Central Powers: Austria-Hungary, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire
• Triple Entente: Britain, France, and Russia
• Lusitania: A British passenger ship sunk by a German U-boat, killing 128 Americans.
• National Security League: A group that advocated for compulsory military training and an increase in the size of the US army.
• Election of 1916: Woodrow Wilson won with the slogan "He kept us out of war".

World War I and the Interwar Period

• German Gamble: Germany's decision to resume unrestricted warfare, ignoring American reaction and probable entry into the war.
• Zimmerman Telegram: A telegram sent to the Mexican government, promising to return ceded territory if Mexico declared war on the US.
• American entry into World War I:
  • Lever Food and Fuel Act: Gave the President power to manage food and fuel production.
  • War Industries Board: Oversaw prices, conversion, and standardizing products.
  • Espionage Act: Made it a crime to convey information intended to interfere with the US armed forces.
  • Sedition Act: Made it a crime to make false statements that interfered with the prosecution of the war.
• Wilson's 14 Points:
  • Freedom of navigation of the seas
  • National armaments will be reduced
  • League of Nations
• Treaty of Versailles: Demanded total victory over Germany and led to the rise of the Nazi party.

The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression

• Red Summer: A period of white vs. black violence, with 25 anti-black riots.
• Red Scare: A fear that communists were working to destroy the American way of life.
• A. Mitchell Palmer and J. Edgar Hoover: Orchestrated a series of raids on alleged radical centers and founded the General Intelligence Division (now the FBI).
• Election of 1920: Warren G. Harding (R) vs. James Cox (D), the first election in which women could vote.
• Teapot Dome Scandal: Corruption by a Harding cabinet member, Albert Fall, who took bribes to allow oil drilling on public lands.

The Great Depression and World War II

• Stock Market Crash of 1929: The most devastating stock market crash in history, leading to the Great Depression.
• Herbert Hoover's response to the Great Depression:
  • Refused direct federal intervention
  • Advocated for voluntary effort to care for and help the reconstruction
  • Gov't loans $500 million to ensure large banks, railroads, and savings and loans associations
• Bonus Army: A group of WWI vets who marched to D.C. in 1932 to demand the immediate payment of their government war bonuses in cash.
• Isolationism during WWII:
  • Horrors of WWI
  • Feeling of security by the ocean
  • Merchants of death
• First Neutrality Act: Prohibited the export of arms, ammunition, and implements of war, and prohibited Americans from extending loans to belligerent nations.
• Lend-Lease Act: Provided Great Britain with supplies needed to fight Germany, leading to the US's entry into the war.

World War II

• American First Committee: Opposed American intervention in WWII, advocating for a non-interventionist policy.
• Charles Lindbergh: American pilot who made the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean, and opposed American intervention in WWII.
• Atlantic Charter: A joint statement of war aims by the US and Great Britain, discussing their respective war aims and leading to the formation of the United Nations.
• Boxer Rebellion: A 1900 uprising in China aimed at ending foreign influence in the country.
• Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: A system founded by Japan consisting of other Asian countries during the early 20th century, reducing its members to puppet nations.