Dylan Thomson
Mr. Newell
U.S. History 2
21 January 2015
Chapter 15 reading questions
1. Lincoln didn’t negotiate a peace treaty because that would mean recognizing them as a separate government. Lincoln wanted to keep the Union together, and that wouldn’t help the cause. He couldn’t recognize their government.
2. All former slaves were united in their desire for independence. They wanted to take care of themselves.
3. The purpose of the Freedmen’s Bureau was to take care of refugees and freedmen who didn’t have an education or job skills and provided them with the look to succeed.
4. Conservatives didn’t really push for black rights. They required an end to slavery but didn’t push for things like voting rights and equal treatment. The Radicals wanted things to be equal between blacks and whites right away.
5. The Wade – Davis bill left political rights for the blacks up to the states.
6. The Radical Republicans didn’t recognize the Johnson governments because the
Southerners angered them. They seemed to be reluctant to abolish slavery, and they selected famous former confederates to represent them.
7. The Black Codes were racist laws passed in the South that required blacks to sign labor contracts, and they were arrested and fined if they quit early. Then they were
“hired out” to employers to pay their fines.
8. The fourteenth amendment granted citizenship to anyone born in the U.S.A., or citizenship by birth.
9. The congressional plan for reconstruction split up the south into 5 military districts with a commander for each one. The commander all black males and white males who hadn’t rebelled as qualified voters. These voters would elect their reps to draft a constitution that included black suffrage. Once the constitution was approved, they th th could elect governments. They had to ratify the 14 and 15 amendments. 10. The Fifteenth Amendment gave voting rights to all males of any race.
11. It forbade the president from firing civil officials, and Johnson fired Secretary of War
Edwin Stanton without consulting Congress.
12. “Scalawags” were southerners who moved north to work with Radicals. They were viewed as traitors by southerners. “Carpetbaggers” were northerners who moved south.
They were resented because southerners still helped them.
13. The most important accomplishment of the Southern reconstruction governments was a dramatic improvement in education.
14. Sharecropping was people would work on farm-harvested crops. Their
