Gilded Age

Question 1

What acts were passed in 1865?

Answer 1

• 4 million African Americans lived in the US in the outbreak of Civil War, 1861. Thirteenth Amendment was signed in February 1865, claiming slavery would no longer exist in the US.
• April 1865 – Confederate states surrender and entire South entered Union’s jurisdiction. The slaves became freedmen.

Question 2

What was introduced with the end of slavery?

Answer 2

• Solution: sharecropping. African Americans worked on land of white landowners in return for a share of what was produced. African Americans had freedom to move but faced limits.

Question 3

When did Andrew Johnson enter power?

Answer 3

Vice President Johnson took office in April 1865 and was able to pass highly discriminatory Black Codes once the oath of loyalty to Union was passed and thirteenth amendment ratified by states allowing state assemblies to enter power.

Question 4

What were black codes? (1865)

Answer 4

Black codes: reduced competition for work between black and white citizens, punished vagrants and free slaves and forced them into labour, allowed those who attacked African Americans not to be punished.

Question 5

What actions did Radical Republicans conduct?

Answer 5

Radical Republicans included Representative Thaddeus Stevens and Senator Charles Sumner who set the Freedman’s Bureau in Congress, March 1865, providing food, shelter, hospitals, and two unis to freed slaves. A Joint Congressional Committee of Fifteen was set in December 1865 which passed the 14th and 15th Amendments. Offered military support for reconstruction

Question 6

What was the 1866 Civil Rights Act and 1867 Reconstruction Act?

Answer 6

• 9 April 1866 Civil Rights Act – all people born in the US endowed with rights of citizenship and equality in law.
• 2 March 1867 – First Reconstruction Act – 11 confederate states divided into 5 military districts with new state constitutions made by delegated elected by men of all races over 21.

Question 7

What were the 14th and 15th amendments of 1866 and 1870?

Answer 7

• 9 July 1868 – Fourteenth Amendment – passed in June 1866 ratified two years later. Declared no state could deny people full rights as an American citizen.
• 3 February 1870 – Fifteenth Amendment – ensured rights of citizens not to be abridged by states on account of race.

Question 8

What were the Enforcement Acts?

Answer 8

• 31 May 1870 First Enforcement Act – banned discrimination based on race, colour, or former servitude.
• 28 February 1871 – Second Enforcement Act – overturned state laws preventing African Americans from voting, federally supervised elections.
• 20 April 1871 – Third Enforcement Act / KKK Act – federal offence for two or more to conspire to deprive citizens to their right of equal protection under law.

Question 9

What was the Civil Rights Act?

Answer 9

• 1 March 1875 – Civil Rights Act – all citizens entitled to full and equal enjoyment of accomodations, privileges, facilities etc of places of public amusement.

Question 10

What was the reaction to early reconstruction in 1866?

Answer 10

• Attempts to settle former slaves on confiscated land led to riots. In Memphis, May 1866, 46 African Americans were killed in race riots, and 35 died in New Orleans.

Question 11

How did Reconstruction appear a success and how did it end?

Answer 11

• In South Carolina 84 black people were represented on the first reconstruction state legislature and eight black congressman were introduced.
• By 1877 Northern voters were tired of the issue of civil rights and the House of Representatives had a Democratic majority. In 1876 the presidential election was contested by Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana, leading to the Hayes-Tilden Compromise where Rutherford Hayes promised to allow southern states to run their own affairs.

Question 12

How did Jim Crow laws become reality due to state actions?

Answer 12

States passed Jim Crow laws to segregate and it eventually became legal. In 1881 Tennessee segregated rail travel and after 1899 waiting rooms were segregated. This spread to affect all walks of life. The Supreme Court resisted segregation of residential areas but intimidation was used to ensure these were segregated, particularly in South.

Question 13

How did state government limit voting ?

Answer 13

Qualifications were introduced against voting. Southern states introduced literacy tests and the ‘grandfather clause,’ was particularly outrageous, stating that if a man’s grandfather could vote before 1866 that man could vote. Mississippi set voter registration tests in 1890. In 1896 13,000 AAs voted in Louisiana falling to 5000 by 1900.

Question 14

How prevalent was lynching?

Answer 14

Lynching was a method of providing justice and intimidating African Americans. In the 1890s an African American was killed once every two days.

Question 15

What Supreme Court acts were passed?

Answer 15

• 1883 US v Harris – ruled that private discrimination didn’t come under federal jurisdiction.
• 1898 Wilkins v Mississippi – court declared that voter registration wasn’t unconstitutional as it didn’t mention race.
• 1896 Plessy v Ferguson – separation didn’t imply inferior treatment of people of a different race or colour. Separate but equal was ruled.

Question 16

Outline the Plessy v Ferguson case?

Answer 16

1890 Louisiana passes Jim Crow law segregating railway transport. 1892 Homer Plessy travels in whites-only railway carriage. Punished in New Orleans Court by Judge Ferguson. In US Supreme Court ruling was made 7-1 that Louisiana’s segregation wasn’t unconstitutional.

Question 17

What voting restrictions were issued?

Answer 17

• 1877 Georgia issues $2 poll tax, 1890 Mississippi introduces literacy tests. Understanding clause introduced where constitution had to be explained. 1898 Louisiana introduced grandfather clause.

Question 18

What organisations did Booker T Washington establish?

Answer 18

• He set up the National Negro Business League in 1900 followed by the National Urban League in 1911 to promote equal opportunities

Question 19

How did schooling increase and what did Churches provide?

Answer 19

Schools opened in homes or disused buildings to enhance literacy. In North universities were introduced such as Howard University and the Hampton Institute.- Churches provided unity, such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Negro Baptist Church. Schooling provided and morality taught.

Question 20

Which AA became a representative and how did people become more involved in politics?

Answer 20

• Blanche K Bruce was a representative in Mississippi, having been a headteacher at a school in Missouri. 1865-77 over 100 ministers entered politics.
• 1865-77 70 black teachers served in politics. By 1877 80% still illiterate. Big resistance to schooling in South from KKK.