AP US History (APUSH) Unit 6: Period 6, 1865-1898 Practice Questions with Explanations
Questions
The term "Gilded Age," coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, suggests that the era
- was marked by economic decline and shrinking cities
- was a time of rare political honesty and good government
- saw the end of industrial growth in the United States
- looked prosperous on the surface but hid deep problems
Period 6 (1865–1898) is defined mainly by
- the Cold War and the civil rights movement
- the New Deal and the expansion of the federal government
- industrialization, urbanization, and western expansion
- colonial resistance and the creation of a new nation
Which development most transformed the U.S. economy between 1865 and 1898?
- A return to subsistence farming across the nation
- A ban on foreign investment in American companies
- The collapse of the railroad industry in the 1870s
- The rise of large-scale industry
The first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869 at
- Sutter's Mill, California
- Chicago, Illinois
- Promontory Summit, Utah
- Omaha, Nebraska
The Central Pacific Railroad relied heavily on the labor of
- formerly enslaved people from the South
- Mexican cowboys from Texas
- German farmers from the Midwest
- Chinese immigrants
The federal government encouraged railroad building in the West mainly by
- owning and running every western railroad line itself
- taxing eastern railroads to pay for western lines
- banning private companies from building any railroads
- granting railroads huge amounts of public land
Which invention helped farmers and ranchers fence the treeless Great Plains?
- The telegraph
- The cotton gin
- Barbed wire
- The steel plow
The long cattle drives of the 1860s–1880s moved herds from Texas to
- ports in California
- ranches in Oregon
- railroad towns in Kansas
- stockyards in New Orleans
Many cowboys on the cattle trails were
- African American or Mexican American
- recent immigrants from Italy
- former Union army generals
- Native American chiefs
The open-range cattle industry declined in the late 1880s because of
- the collapse of eastern demand for beef
- the end of railroad service to Kansas
- overgrazing, barbed wire, and harsh winters
- a federal ban on raising cattle in the West
The Grange (Patrons of Husbandry), founded in 1867, began as
- a business group that built grain elevators
- a union of railroad workers seeking an eight-hour day
- a political party that ran Bryan for president
- a social and educational organization for farmers
In Munn v. Illinois (1877), the Supreme Court ruled that
- farmers could not form cooperatives
- railroads were immune from all government regulation
- states could not regulate any private business operating inside their borders
- states could regulate businesses serving the public
In Wabash v. Illinois (1886), the Supreme Court ruled that
- farmers could set their own shipping rates
- states could regulate any railroad running through them
- states could not regulate interstate railroad rates
- Congress could not regulate railroads
The Interstate Commerce Act (1887)
- made all railroads the property of the federal government
- banned railroads from crossing state lines
- broke up the Standard Oil Company
- created a commission to oversee railroad rates
Western farmers in the late 1800s complained most about
- high railroad rates and falling crop prices
- too much rain and a shortage of land to farm
- a lack of demand for western land
- high prices for crops that they could not afford
The Comstock Lode (discovered 1859) in Nevada was a major
- Native reservation
- silver deposit
- railroad junction
- cattle trail
Why did many farmers support the free coinage of silver?
- It would lower crop prices and help city buyers
- It would require all debts to be repaid only in gold coins
- It would end all government regulation of banks
- It would raise prices and make debts easier to pay
The Interstate Commerce Act was the first federal law to regulate a private industry.
In what year was the first transcontinental railroad completed?
The near-extinction of the buffalo in the 1870s and 1880s mainly affected
- eastern factory workers who ate buffalo meat
- Chinese railroad workers
- Plains Native nations who depended on them
- southern sharecroppers who used buffalo for plowing
At the Sand Creek Massacre (1864) in Colorado,
- the Ghost Dance began
- Chief Joseph surrendered to the U.S. Army
- Lakota and Cheyenne warriors defeated Custer's Seventh Cavalry in battle
- U.S. militia attacked a peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho camp
The Battle of the Little Bighorn (1876) was
- a Lakota and Cheyenne victory over Custer
- the final defeat of the Nez Perce
- a U.S. Army massacre of Lakota families at Wounded Knee Creek
- a treaty signing in the Black Hills
Conflict with the Lakota in the 1870s increased after
- gold was discovered in the Black Hills
- Congress banned commercial buffalo hunting on the Plains
- the railroad bypassed the Plains
- the Lakota allied with Mexico
Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce is known for
- leading his people on a long retreat toward Canada
- signing the Dawes Act
- starting the Ghost Dance movement
- defeating Custer's Seventh Cavalry at the Little Bighorn River
The Dawes Severalty Act (1887) aimed to
- give Native nations permanent, protected control of the Great Plains region
- create a separate Native American state
- move all Native nations to Oklahoma
- assimilate Native peoples by breaking reservations into private plots
Boarding schools such as the Carlisle Indian School sought to
- train Native soldiers for the U.S. Army
- teach Native children to run reservations
- replace Native cultures with white American customs
- preserve Native languages and traditions
Helen Hunt Jackson's A Century of Dishonor (1881) criticized
- the working conditions in steel mills
- the U.S. government's treatment of Native Americans
- the treatment of Chinese railroad workers in California and Nevada
- the Supreme Court's ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson
The Ghost Dance movement of the late 1880s promised
- assimilation into white society through farming
- conversion to Christianity through mission and boarding schools
- the return of the buffalo and of Native ways of life
- an alliance with the U.S. Army against settlers
The Wounded Knee Massacre (1890)
- started the Ghost Dance
- ended the Dawes Act
- was a Lakota victory over the U.S. Army at the Little Bighorn
- marked the end of major armed Native resistance
Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier thesis (1893) argued that
- the West had made Americans more dependent on government
- Native Americans had shaped American democracy most
- the frontier had shaped American democracy and character
- the frontier would never close
The Exodusters were
- Chinese immigrants who returned to China after the railroad was finished
- miners who left California for Nevada
- Black southerners who migrated to Kansas around 1879
- Mormons who moved to Utah
Mexican Americans in the Southwest after 1848 often
- lost land to fraud and lawsuits
- gained control of most western railroads
- received large federal land grants
- were exempt from all state taxes
Which group most often enforced federal policy against Native nations on the Plains?
- The Knights of Labor
- The U.S. Army
- State militias from New England
- The Grange
The Dawes Act increased the total amount of land owned by Native Americans.
Which were federal policies or actions toward Native Americans in this period?
- Reservation policy
- The Indian Removal Act of 1830
- The Dawes Act
- Boarding schools
Henry Grady promoted the idea of a "New South" that would
- build industry and diversify the southern economy
- return to a plantation economy based on enslaved and convict labor
- secede again and form a new Confederacy
- rely only on cotton exports to Britain
Which industries grew in the New South?
- Silver mining and cattle ranching
- Automobiles and airplanes
- Textiles, tobacco, and steel
- Shipbuilding and whaling
Despite New South industry, most southerners after 1877
- worked in northern factories
- owned large, debt-free plantations
- remained farmers, many as sharecroppers or tenants
- moved west to work for railroads and in mining towns
Jim Crow laws were
- federal laws protecting Black voting rights
- laws that ended sharecropping
- laws granting land to freedpeople
- laws enforcing racial segregation
In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the Supreme Court ruled that
- segregation in railroad cars and other public places was unconstitutional
- segregation was legal if facilities were "separate but equal"
- states must allow Black men to vote
- railroads could not operate in the South
Which method did southern states use to keep Black men from voting?
- Poll taxes and literacy tests
- The Fifteenth Amendment
- Federal troops at polling places
- Secret ballots counted by the Freedmen's Bureau
Grandfather clauses allowed men to vote without passing literacy tests or paying poll taxes if
- they owned more than 100 acres
- their grandfathers had voted before 1867
- they lived in a city
- they had served in the Union army
Ida B. Wells is best known for
- leading the Pullman Strike
- founding Tuskegee Institute
- writing The Souls of Black Folk
- her campaign against lynching
In his Atlanta Compromise speech (1895), Booker T. Washington urged Black Americans to
- join the Populist Party
- demand immediate social and political equality through protest
- focus on vocational education and economic progress first
- move to Africa to escape discrimination
Booker T. Washington founded which institution in 1881?
- Howard University
- Hull House
- Tuskegee Institute
- Carlisle Indian School
In the Civil Rights Cases (1883), the Supreme Court ruled that
- Congress could ban all forms of discrimination by individuals, businesses, and states
- segregation was unconstitutional everywhere
- the Fifteenth Amendment protected women's voting
- the Fourteenth Amendment did not bar discrimination by private businesses
Plessy v. Ferguson ruled that segregation was unconstitutional.
Which tactics did southern states use to disenfranchise Black voters?
- The Pendleton Act
- Poll taxes
- Grandfather clauses
- Literacy tests
The Bessemer process made it cheaper to produce
- electricity
- steel
- cotton
- oil
Thomas Edison's research lab at Menlo Park is known for developing
- the steam engine
- a practical electric light bulb
- the Bessemer process
- the telephone