Week 15 — Quiz (auto-graded) · Reconstruction

Course: U.S. History to 1877 (HIST 1301) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Hartwell
Objective tested: Objective 8 — Reconstruction: the Reconstruction Amendments, Black Codes, Freedmen's Bureau, Black political participation, backlash, Compromise of 1877.
Points: 10 (1 each) · Assignment group: Quizzes (10% of grade) · Due: end of Module 15.

This is the human-readable quiz with its vetted answer key and feedback. The import-ready Classic QTI is in F-quiz-week-15-qti.xml (generated by the shared validated script — parses with 10 items, every single-answer item exactly one correct). Historical-accuracy gate: every date, name, and term below was checked against the historical record (PASS). The Canvas placement block is at the bottom of this file.

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Blueprint

#	Type	Concept	Objective
1	Multiple choice	13th Amendment — what it did	8
2	Multiple choice	14th Amendment — what it did	8
3	Multiple choice	15th Amendment — what it did	8
4	Matching	Reconstruction Amendments → what each did (chronology + content)	8
5	Multiple choice	Black Codes — purpose	8
6	Multiple choice	Presidential vs. Congressional Reconstruction	8
7	True / False	KKK — misconception	8
8	Multiple choice	Compromise of 1877	8
9	Multiple choice	Black political participation during Reconstruction	8
10	Multiple answers	Reconstruction facts — select all true	8

Distractors are engineered around the week's classic confusions: (1) swapping which amendment abolished slavery / granted citizenship / protected the vote; (2) attributing the 14th Amendment's guarantee to the wrong amendment; (3) Lost Cause mythology about Reconstruction governance; (4) misunderstanding the Compromise of 1877.

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Questions, key, and feedback

Q1 (MC). The Thirteenth Amendment (1865) did which of the following?

• A. Granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States
• B. Prohibited the denial of the right to vote on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude
• C. Abolished slavery and involuntary servitude throughout the United States ✅
• D. Required equal protection of the laws for all persons within a state's jurisdiction

Feedback: The 13th Amendment abolished slavery — that was its sole purpose. Citizenship is the 14th (1868); the right to vote regardless of race is the 15th (1870); equal protection is also the 14th. Memory hook: 13 = abolish.

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Q2 (MC). The Fourteenth Amendment (1868) established which of the following?

• A. The abolition of slavery and involuntary servitude
• B. Citizenship for all persons born or naturalized in the United States, plus due process and equal protection of the laws ✅
• C. The right of citizens to vote regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude
• D. The creation of the Freedmen's Bureau to assist formerly enslaved people

Feedback: The 14th Amendment defined citizenship (reversing Dred Scott) and prohibited states from denying due process or equal protection. The 13th abolished slavery; the 15th protected the vote; the Freedmen's Bureau was created by Congress in March 1865, not by an amendment. Memory hook: 14 = citizenship + equal protection.

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Q3 (MC). The Fifteenth Amendment (1870) addressed which of the following?

• A. It guaranteed equal protection of the laws to all citizens
• B. It abolished slavery throughout the United States
• C. It prohibited denying the right to vote on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude ✅
• D. It guaranteed citizenship to the formerly enslaved

Feedback: The 15th Amendment protected the right to vote against racial discrimination. Equal protection is the 14th; abolition is the 13th; citizenship is also the 14th. Memory hook: 15 = vote.

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Q4 (Matching). Match each Reconstruction Amendment or measure to what it primarily did.

Left	Correct right
Thirteenth Amendment (1865)	Abolished slavery and involuntary servitude
Fourteenth Amendment (1868)	Granted citizenship and equal protection of the laws
Fifteenth Amendment (1870)	Prohibited denial of the vote on account of race
Freedmen's Bureau (1865)	Federal agency to assist formerly enslaved people and refugees in the South

Feedback: Reconstruction produced three constitutional amendments in sequence — abolition (13th), citizenship and equal protection (14th), voting rights (15th) — plus the Freedmen's Bureau as the main administrative agency. Each addressed what the previous one left open.

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Q5 (MC). Southern states passed Black Codes in 1865–1866 primarily to —

• A. Guarantee the civil rights of formerly enslaved people as required by the 13th Amendment
• B. Restrict the freedom of formerly enslaved people and maintain a system of coerced labor ✅
• C. Comply with the Congressional Reconstruction Act of 1867
• D. Extend voting rights to Black men in the former Confederate states

Feedback: The Black Codes — Mississippi's were the first, enacted November 1865 — used vagrancy laws, apprenticeship provisions, and other restrictions to reimpose coerced labor on formerly enslaved people without formal slavery. They were enacted before the Fourteenth Amendment, and Congress's outrage at them was a direct driver of the Reconstruction Acts of 1867.

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Q6 (MC). What was the central disagreement between President Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction plan and the Radical Republicans in Congress?

• A. Whether to rebuild Southern railroads using federal funds
• B. Whether to pardon Confederate leaders immediately or require strict conditions including civil rights protections for Black Southerners ✅
• C. Whether to move the national capital from Washington, D.C. to a Southern city
• D. Whether to allow formerly enslaved people to serve in the U.S. Army

Feedback: Johnson's plan offered quick pardons and readmission with no civil rights requirements. Radical Republicans insisted that reunion without guaranteed rights for Black Southerners would recreate the conditions of slavery under a different name. This clash produced Johnson's vetoes of the Civil Rights Act and the Reconstruction Acts — and ultimately his impeachment.

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Q7 (True / False). "The Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups used violence in the post-Civil War South primarily to enforce the Reconstruction Amendments and protect Black political participation."

• True
• False ✅

Feedback: False — the opposite is true. The KKK, founded in Pulaski, Tennessee in 1865, used assassination, arson, and mob violence to suppress Black political participation and destroy Reconstruction governments. The Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871 authorized federal prosecution of this violence.

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Q8 (MC). The Compromise of 1877 resulted in which of the following?

• A. The ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment guaranteeing Black male suffrage
• B. The creation of the Freedmen's Bureau to assist formerly enslaved people
• C. Rutherford B. Hayes becoming president in exchange for the withdrawal of federal troops from the South, effectively ending Reconstruction ✅
• D. The passage of the Civil Rights Act protecting Black citizens from discrimination

Feedback: The disputed 1876 election (Hayes vs. Tilden) was resolved through informal negotiations: an Electoral Commission awarded all 20 disputed electoral votes to Hayes; Democrats accepted the result; Hayes withdrew the remaining federal troops from Louisiana and South Carolina. Without federal protection, the last Reconstruction governments collapsed. The Fifteenth Amendment was ratified in 1870; the Freedmen's Bureau was created in 1865; the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was a separate measure (gutted by the Supreme Court in 1883).

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Q9 (MC). During Congressional (Radical) Reconstruction, Black men in the South —

• A. Were completely barred from voting by the Black Codes until 1870
• B. Voted in large numbers and elected Black officeholders to state legislatures and the U.S. Congress ✅
• C. Gained the right to vote only after the Compromise of 1877
• D. Were granted citizenship but not the right to vote until the Fifteenth Amendment

Feedback: Under Congressional Reconstruction, Black men voted in substantial numbers and held real power. Sixteen Black men served in the U.S. House of Representatives during Reconstruction; two — Hiram Revels and Blanche Bruce, both from Mississippi — served in the U.S. Senate. Reconstruction-era Black officeholders helped build the South's first public school systems. This political participation was ended by organized violence and the withdrawal of federal protection, not by democratic defeat.

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Q10 (Multiple answers — select all that apply). Which of the following accurately describe Reconstruction (1865–1877)? Select all that apply.

• A. The Freedmen's Bureau was established in 1865 to assist formerly enslaved people and refugees ✅
• B. Congressional Reconstruction required Southern states to ratify the 14th Amendment before readmission ✅
• C. The Compromise of 1877 marked the end of Reconstruction by ending federal military protection in the South ✅
• D. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were all ratified before the Civil War ended
• E. Black Codes were designed to extend rights to formerly enslaved people across the South

Feedback: A, B, and C are correct. D is false — the Civil War ended April 1865; the 13th was ratified December 1865, the 14th in July 1868, the 15th in February 1870 — all after the war. E is the reverse of the truth: Black Codes were designed to restrict Black freedom and maintain coerced labor, not to extend rights.

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Answer key (quick reference)

Q	Answer
1	C
2	B
3	C
4	13th→Abolished slavery / 14th→Citizenship+equal protection / 15th→Vote / Freedmen's Bureau→Federal assistance agency
5	B
6	B
7	False
8	C
9	B
10	A, B, C

Quality gate (self-checked): each single-answer item has exactly one correct option; the multiple-answer item has three correct statements (A, B, C); the matching item pairs four Reconstruction-era measures correctly. Historical-accuracy gate — PASS: 13th Amendment ratified December 6, 1865; 14th Amendment ratified July 9, 1868; 15th Amendment ratified February 3, 1870; Freedmen's Bureau created March 1865; Mississippi Black Codes enacted November 1865; Compromise of 1877 (Hayes-Tilden disputed election, federal troop withdrawal); Hiram Revels (first Black U.S. Senator, Mississippi, 1870) and Blanche Bruce (Mississippi, 1875–1881) — all verified against the historical record. The KKK's founding location (Pulaski, Tennessee) and purpose (suppression, not support, of Black political participation) are correctly stated.

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Item-bank entries (for variants + the final)

All ten items are tagged course=HIST1301 · week=15 · objective=8 · topic=reconstruction and deposited in Item Bank: Week 15 — Reconstruction. The final exam (Week 16) and per-term variant updates draw fresh items from this bank.

Canvas placement block

canvas_object    = Quizzes::Quiz
title            = "Week 15 Quiz — Reconstruction"
assignment_group = "Quizzes"
points_possible  = 10
grading_type     = points
due_offset_days  = 6        # 6 days after module start (Sun Dec 13)
published        = true
shuffle_answers  = true
provenance       = "~ Prof. Hartwell's edition · Fall 2026 · built with thecoursemaker.com"