Final Examination Study Guide

The examination will consist of three parts.  In Part I, you'll be asked to identify and give the significance of THREE out of FIVE possible terms.  This portion of the exam should take no more than twenty (20) minutes.  It's worth 100 points.

Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction
"Ten Percent Plan"
Wade-Davis Bill
Andrew Johnson
Black Codes
Freedmens Bureau
Civil Rights Act of 1866
Thirteenth Amendment
Fourteenth Amendment
Fifteenth Amendment
"Swing around the Circle"
Reconstruction Act of 1867
Tenure of Office Act
carpetbaggers
scalawags
"Juneteenth"
"Exodusters"
Southern Homestead Act
sharecropping
crop lien system
"people's war"
Ku Klux Klan
Enforcement Act, 1870
Ku Klux Klan Act, 1871
Colfax Massacre
"Mississippi Plan"
Liberal Republicans
Horace Greeley
"Bloody shirt"
Bourbons
Whig-industrialists
Compromise of 1877
 

Part II--the first essay--will ask you to compare and contrast the essays in either Chapter 11. Congress's Terms for the Defeated South (Perman, 321-341); Chapter 12. Political and Economic Change in the Reconstruction South (Perman, 351-375; or Chapter 13. Southern Republicans and the Problems of Reconstruction (Perman, 388-399). The test will ask questions based on any two of these three chapters; you will have a choice as to which of the two questions you will answer.  This part is worth 100 points.

Part III--the second essay--will ask you to evaluate the significance of the Civil War era (1848-1877). What were the main issues at stake? How were they resolved and how fully were they resolved? Does the Civil War era deserve to be called the "second American Revolution"? Why or why not? Your response should make appropriate use of the three essays in Chapter 15. The Impact and Significance of the Sectional Conflict.  This part is worth 150 points.

Study Strategy

First, use your notes and lecture outlines to remind yourselves of the most significant developments, issues, and concepts discussed in the course. Get a feel for the big picture.

Then read the Perman essays with emphasis on the thesis (what overall point is the essay trying to make?) and argument (what ideas and events does the essay highlight in an effort to persuade the reader of the thesis, and how are these used to advance the essay's interpretation). Don't get bogged down in details. Make sure you see the big picture; the details will then fall logically into place.

Use of  appropriate illustrating examples from Tourgee's A Fool's Errand will be looked upon favorably.

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