| Question | Answer |
| Explain the major changes implemented into the U.S. Constitution with the Thirteenth Amendment. | The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery across the United States.
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Explain how and why the North and South were unable to effectively compromise in the years prior to the Civil War. | The North and South had developed strong feelings of sectionalism, or feelings towards their own region, rather than a nation as a whole. As the North and South had developed differently from an economical perspective, the South continued to rely heavily on slavery, while the North generally felt that slavery was unnecessary. This led to the states having several disagreements on the issue when it came to admitting new states to the union.
| Describe the long-term consequences of the Civil War. | The ending of the Civil War brought about the end of slavery in the United States, and ultimately made the power of the federal government stronger.
| Explain the different issues that the federal government would need to explore in order to effectively reconstruct the South after the Civil War. | The government would need to determine how and when states would be readmitted to the Union, if and how the Confederate leaders would be punished for their role in the war, what would happen to the former slaves, and how they would address fixing the economy in the South.
| Explain the changes made to the U.S. Constitution as part of the Fourteenth Amendment. | The Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed equal rights for all citizens of the United States, including the freedmen.
| Explain the changes made to the U.S. Constitution as part of the Fifteenth Amendment. | The Fifteenth Amendment gave the right to vote to African American men.
| Describe the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. | The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 imprisoned those who were responsible for harboring escaped slaves, and prohibited the sale of slaves in Washington, D.C.
| Describe the outcome of Plessy v. Ferguson. How would that decision affect the future of the United States? | The Supreme Court ruled after Plessy v. Ferguson that racial segregation in public places was not a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. This would continue to be a major issue in the United States until the 1950s and 1960s with the Civil Rights Movement, when separate but equal was finally overturned.
| Explain the causes and effects of Bleeding Kansas. | Bleeding Kansas was caused by the two existing state governments in Kansas (a Southern-led, pro-slavery government, and a Northern-led anti-slavery government) being unable to come to an agreement as to whether or not Kansas would be labeled a slave state or free state. This led to violence in Kansas, requiring federal troops to be brought in to preserve the peace.
| Explain what Abraham Lincoln enacted as part of the Emancipation Proclamation. | The Emancipation Proclamation freed all slaves in only the rebellious states in the South. It did not affect slaves in the North or in the neutral, border states.
| Identify and describe the four long-term causes of the Civil War. | Sectionalism refers to the pride in one's region, rather than the nation in general. The North and South developed very differently, which led to issues in sectionalism. Slavery was becoming less frequent in the North, and they wanted to get rid of it completely. The South was very reliant on slavery in their agrarian economy. Westward Expansion was a long-term cause in that the North and South could not come to an agreement over which states would be accepted as slave states or free states, or which would be agrarian or industrial. Finally, neither the North or South were effectively able to come to a compromise on the other three causes, which led the young nation closer to armed conflict.
| Explain the difference between sharecropping and tenant farming. | Sharecropping exists where landowners exchange land for a portion of a former slave's crops. The landowner provides shelter, tools, and a plot of land to farm on (similar to the peasantry system found in Medieval Europe). Tenant farming exists where the landowner rents out portions of their land to the former slaves, but does not provide tools.
| Explain the major successes of Reconstruction. | The major success of Reconstruction relates to the implementation of a public school system in America. It also lead to more involvement of African Americans in the political process.
| Explain how white supremacist groups hindered the progress of Reconstruction. | White supremacist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan or the White League, were created to essentially make life worse for the freedmen in the years following the Civil War, by terrorizing and killing them. This had a major impediment on their progress in being introduced to American society.
| Who are the Radical Republicans? Identify who they are, and explain what they built their platform on in the Reconstruction era. | The Radical Republicans were a section of the Republican party that formed in the years following the Civil War. They strongly believed that the South should be punished for their actions in the years prior and during the Civil War, including the punishment of its leaders. The group also called for full social and political rights for all African American citizens. |
