Grade 8 Social Studies Practice Test: The Reconstruction Era (1865-1877)
- Reconstruction
- 10 questions
- 13 minutes
This test covers how the nation tried to rebuild the South and protect the rights of freed African Americans after the Civil War. Tip: remember the three amendments in order: 13th freedom, 14th citizenship, 15th voting.
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Question 1
What did the 13th Amendment (1865) do?
Correct answer: D
The 13th Amendment ended slavery everywhere in the country. Citizenship came with the 14th Amendment, and women's suffrage with the 19th.
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Question 2
Which amendment said the right to vote cannot be denied because of race or color?
Correct answer: A
The 15th Amendment was ratified in 1870. Later, many Southern states used poll taxes and literacy tests to get around it.
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Question 3
What was the main purpose of the Freedmen's Bureau?
Correct answer: D
The Bureau gave out food and medical care, helped people find jobs and founded schools for freed African Americans.
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Question 4
After the war, many Southern states passed Black Codes. What were they?
Correct answer: B
Black Codes controlled where freed people could work and live and punished them harshly. Congress responded with stronger laws and the 14th Amendment.
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Question 5
A farmer works land owned by someone else and pays with part of the crop, often falling deeper into debt each year. What was this system called?
Correct answer: C
Sharecropping spread across the South after the war. High prices for seed and supplies on credit kept many families in debt.
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Question 6
What did the Radical Republicans in Congress want during Reconstruction?
Correct answer: B
Radical Republicans believed the South had to guarantee civil rights before returning to the Union. They clashed with President Andrew Johnson over this.
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Question 7
In 1868, the House of Representatives impeached President Andrew Johnson. What happened next?
Correct answer: A
Johnson stayed in office because the Senate was one vote short of the two-thirds needed to convict. Grant was elected president later that year.
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Question 8
In 1870, Hiram Revels of Mississippi became
Correct answer: C
Revels took a Senate seat during Reconstruction, when many African Americans were elected to office in the South. The first Black Supreme Court justice was Thurgood Marshall in 1967.
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Question 9
As part of the Compromise of 1877, which ended Reconstruction,
Correct answer: D
In return for Rutherford B. Hayes becoming president, the remaining federal troops left the South. Without them, Southern states soon took away many rights of African Americans.
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Question 10
White Southerners who opposed Reconstruction used the insulting name "carpetbaggers" for
Correct answer: C
The name suggested these newcomers carried all they owned in a cheap carpet bag and came to profit. White Southern Republicans were called "scalawags."
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