Advanced Placement United States History
Chapter 22: The Ordeal of Reconstruction – 1865-1877 (pages 477-499)
Big Themes:
1. Johnson’s political blunders and Southern white recalcitrance led to the
imposition of congressional military Reconstruction on the South.
Reconstruction did address difficult issues of reform and racial justice in the
South and achieved some success, such as the Fourteenth (citizenship and
equal protection of the laws) and Fifteenth (black voting rights)
Amendments. But its ultimate abandonment meant those provisions
remained unfulfilled promises, while Reconstruction left behind a deep
legacy of racial and sectional bitterness..
Read Chapter 22 (pages 477 – 499) - It is recommended that you take notes on the
chapter but not required.
Key People, Places, and Terms –Select 4 Names (1-8) and 12 descriptions (726) from the list below that you deem important. Then, define and cite the
significance of your choice. Place your choices and definition on a separate piece of
paper. (These terms could be used for notecard bonus)
***When identifying People and Terms keep in mind the timeline of chapter
1. Oliver O. Howard
4. Charles Sumner
2. Andrew Johnson
5. Thaddeus Stevens
3. Alexander Stephens
6. William Seward
-------------------------------------------------------------------7. Freedmen’s Bureau
17. Military Reconstruction Act
8. 10 percent plan
18. Fifteenth Amendment
9. Wade-Davis Bill
19. Ex parte Milligan
10. “conquered provinces”
20. “radical” regimes
11. moderate/radical Republican 21. scalawags
12. Black Codes
22. carpetbaggers
13. sharecropping
23. Ku Klux Klan
14. Civil Rights Act
24. Force Acts
Advanced Placement United States History
15. Fourteenth Amendment
25. Tenure of Office Act
16. “swing around the circle”
26. “Seward’s Folly”
Guided Reading Questions – Please submit your answers on a separate piece of
paper. In addition, please include the questions with your responses.
1. What were the major problems facing the South and the nation after the Civil
War? How did Reconstruction address them, or fail to do so?
2. How did freed blacks react to the end of slavery? How did both Southern and
Northern whites react?
3. How did the white South’s intransigence and President Johnson’s political
bungling open the way for the congressional Republican program of military
Reconstruction?
4. What was the purpose of congressional Reconstruction, and what were its
actual effects in the South?
5. What did the attempt at black political empowerment achieve? Why did it
finally fail? Could it have succeeded with a stronger Northern political will
behind it?
6. Why did Reconstruction apparently fail so badly? Was the failure primarily
one of immediate political circumstances, or was it more deeply rooted in the
history of American sectional and race relations?