Civil War and Reconstruction Unit Exam
The following Unit Exam contains multiple choice questions worth 2 points each, and an essay worth 10
points.
Multiple Choice (2 points each)- Highlight the correct answer choice.
1. Which issue is most closely associated with abolitionists?
a. Women’s rights
b. Religious freedom
c. Slavery
d. Temperance
2. What was the implication of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dred Scott v. Sanford?
a. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was declared unconstitutional.
b. Slaves could no longer be considered property.
c. Congress could do nothing about slavery in the territories.
d. Slaves who escaped to a free state were legally free.
3. Which statement best describes the regional economic differences during the midnineteenth century?
a. The North specialized in manufactured goods, and the South specialized in
cotton.
b. The North specialized in tobacco, and the South specialized in food crops.
c. The North specialized in fishing, and the South specialized in textiles.
d. The North specialized in agriculture, and the South specialized in mining.
4. What was the final major legislative effort to prevent the Civil War?
a. The Compromise of 1850
b. The Kansas-Nebraska Act
c. The Missouri Compromise
d. The proposed Crittenden amendments
5. The practice of assisting escaped slaves to reach safety is associated with what
nineteenth-century social activist?
a. Harriet Beecher Stowe
b. Harriet Tubman
c. John Brown
d. William Lloyd Garrison
6. What innovation had the greatest impact on military tactics during the Civil War?
a. The camera
b. The cannon
c. The ironclad
d. The rifle
7. What was President Lincoln’s stated goal throughout the Civil War?
a. To punish the Confederacy
b. To free the slaves
c. To restore the Union
d. To acquire new territory
8. What was the main significance of the 14th Amendment in U.S. political history?
a. It established the rights of all citizens to hold property.
b. It promised equal legal protection to former slaves.
c. It granted women the right to participate in political organizations.
d. It declared slavery and all other forms of servitude illegal.
9. In a final letter before he was hanged, John Brown stated that, “The crimes of this guilty
land will never be purged away but with blood!” What “crime” was John Brown mainly
referring to?
a. Discrimination
b. Genocide
c. Intemperance
d. Slavery
10. Which individual is most closely linked to abolitionist movement/
a. Horace Mann
b. Ralph Waldo Emerson
c. Nat Turner
d. Frederick Douglass
11. What was the goal of the Anaconda Plan during the Civil War?
a. To prevent the flow of supplies to the South through a blockade of land and sea.
b. To halt the advance of Confederate troops at the Mason-Dixon line.
c. To restore the Union through political reconciliation of Northern and Southern
lawmakers.
d. To undermine the Southern economy by assisting slaves in the flight to freedom.
12. How did the Emancipation Proclamation affect the course of the Civil War?
a. By extending the North’s war aims to include abolition.
b. By prompting several states to secede from the Union.
c. By forcing Southern states to stop importing slaves.
d. By allowing escaped slaves to fight in the Union army.
13. Northern states had what distinct advantage over Southern states at the onset of the
Civil War?
a. The value of Northern agricultural products exceeded the value of Southern
agricultural products.
b. The military command of the North was more effective than that of the South.
c. The North had more coastline than the South.
d. The North had a more extensive railroad network than the South.
14. How is the 13th Amendment different than the Emancipation Proclamation?
a. It freed the slaves in the South.
b. Lincoln made the speech to the whole country.
c. It made slavery illegal everywhere in the United States.
d. It was a temporary solution to gain support for the war
15. The term Reconstruction refers to _____________.
a. the period when the U.S. began to rebuild after the Civil War.
b. rebuilding the South after the Civil War.
c. the process of bringing the South back into the Union
d. the period when the U.S. began to rebuild after the Civil War as well as the
process of bringing the South back into the Union.
16. Which of the following plans for Reconstruction did the most to help freed slaves in the
South?
a. Lincoln’s plan.
b. The Radical Republican’s plan
c. Johnson’s plan.
d. Grant’s plan.
17. If you were a freed slave, what help might you expect from the Freedman’s Bureau?
a. Some land and farm equipment.
b. A voter-registration card.
c. None. The Freedman’s Bureau didn’t help former slaves.
d. Food, clothing, a hospital to go to, and maybe help for setting up schools.
18. Why did Congress need to include dividing the South into military districts in the
Reconstruction Act of 1867?
a. To enforce the other Reconstruction laws.
b. To make sure no former Confederates voted or served in State or local
governments.
c. To actively register black voters.
d. All of the above.
19. Because of KKK violence, Congress passed Enforcement Acts but also gave back the
right to vote to many Southern Democrats. Why was this such a mistake?
a. Because the Democrats would eventually pass laws that took away African
Americans right to vote.
b. Because it made blacks think Republicans were weak.
c. Because the Democrats might secede again.
d. Because African Americans would start voting for Democrats.
20. Why was the compromise of the election of 1876 such a disaster for blacks in the
South?
a. Because it put a Democrat as president.
b. Because it sent more federal troops to the South.
c. By removing federal troops from the South, there was no one to enforce
Reconstruction laws, Southern Democrats took control, and Reconstruction was
over.
d. Because Rutherford B. Hayes just wasn’t a good president.
Open Response. 10 points.
On your own paper, respond to the following prompt in complete sentences. Be sure to answer
all parts of the question. For example, you should have a separate part for each part of the
prompt. Use the “Key Terms” bank to help form your answer.
The period of Reconstruction was a time of hope and promise for African Americans. But
it was also a time of failure as well. The end of Reconstruction led to the South going
back to the way it was before the Civil War in many ways.
A. How was Reconstruction a time of promise for African Americans?
B. How did Reconstruction fail African Americans? How were things much like they had
always been?
Key Terms
13th Amendment
Black Codes
14th Amendment
Jim Crowe Laws
Sharecropping
Tennant Farming
Reconstruction Act of 1867
Freedmen’s Bureau
15th Amendment
Ku Klux Klan
Hiram Revels
Plessy v. Ferguson
Election of 1876 and Compromise