Lesson 2J.2.1

2J.2.1 Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861–1877 Quiz: AQA History, Unit 20

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson 2J.2.1, Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861–1877: 20 multiple choice questions for the AQA History (7042), Unit 20: 2J America: A Nation Divided, c1845–1877, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. Which proclamation issued by Lincoln on 1 January 1863 declared enslaved people in rebel-held areas to be free?

    • The Gettysburg Address
    • The Emancipation Proclamation
    • The Homestead Proclamation
    • The Reconstruction Acts

  2. Which battle in July 1863 is generally seen as the major turning point in the Eastern theatre?

    • Gettysburg
    • Antietam
    • Chancellorsville
    • First Bull Run

  3. Which Mississippi River city, captured by Grant in July 1863, gave the Union control of the river?

    • Chattanooga
    • Memphis
    • New Orleans
    • Vicksburg

  4. Which city did Sherman capture in December 1864 during his March to the Sea?

    • Charleston
    • Richmond
    • Savannah
    • Atlanta

  5. Where did Robert E. Lee surrender the Army of Northern Virginia in April 1865?

    • Appomattox Court House
    • Richmond
    • Gettysburg
    • Bentonville

  6. Which amendment, ratified in December 1865, abolished slavery throughout the United States?

    • The Fourth Amendment
    • The Eleventh Amendment
    • The Thirteenth Amendment
    • The Twelfth Amendment

  7. Which secret society, founded in Tennessee in 1866, used violence to terrorise Black Americans and their white allies?

    • The Knights of Labor
    • The Sons of Liberty
    • The Ku Klux Klan
    • The Grange

  8. Which amendment, ratified in 1868, granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalised in the United States?

    • The Fifteenth Amendment
    • The Fourteenth Amendment
    • The Thirteenth Amendment
    • The Nineteenth Amendment

  9. Which 1870 amendment prohibited the denial of the right to vote on grounds of race?

    • The Fifteenth Amendment
    • The Sixteenth Amendment
    • The Nineteenth Amendment
    • The Thirteenth Amendment

  10. Which president was impeached by the House in 1868 and acquitted in the Senate by a single vote?

    • Ulysses Grant
    • Rutherford Hayes
    • Andrew Johnson
    • Abraham Lincoln

  11. Which 1867 acts divided the former Confederate states into military districts and required new state constitutions?

    • The Reconstruction Acts
    • The Civil Rights Acts
    • The Homestead Acts
    • The Compromise of 1877

  12. Which 1867 law restricted the president's power to remove officials without the Senate's consent and was used against Johnson?

    • The Fugitive Slave Act
    • The Pacification Act
    • The Freedmen's Bureau Act
    • The Tenure of Office Act

  13. Which Radical Republican leader in Congress pushed for the Fourteenth Amendment and harsh terms for the South?

    • Charles Sumner
    • Lyman Trumbull
    • William Seward
    • Thaddeus Stevens

  14. Which 1877 agreement, linked to the disputed presidential election of 1876, effectively ended Reconstruction?

    • The Compromise of 1877
    • The Compromise of 1850
    • The Missouri Compromise
    • The Treaty of Paris

  15. Which Southern group of white conservatives known as 'Redeemers' sought to restore white control of Southern politics?

    • Scalawags
    • Redeemers
    • Free Soilers
    • Carpetbaggers

  16. Which federal agency, created in 1865, provided aid and education to freed people?

    • The Freedmen's Bureau
    • The Pacific Railroad Commission
    • The Homestead Board
    • The National Labor Bureau

  17. Which best evaluates the aims of Abraham Lincoln's war policy by 1865?

    • His aims developed from preserving the Union towards ending slavery, which was itself a key war aim by 1863
    • His aims were to defeat the Confederacy but to leave the South's social order intact
    • His only aim was to preserve slavery in the South through a negotiated peace
    • His aims were to create a separate Northwest republic with no link to slavery

  18. Which best explains why Radical Reconstruction ended by 1877?

    • Northern commitment waned, while Southern violence, the Redeemers and the 1877 compromise undermined federal enforcement
    • Congress decided that the South had been fully reconstructed by 1868 and withdrew all federal aid
    • The Supreme Court ruled that the Reconstruction Acts were unconstitutional in 1867
    • Black voters withdrew from politics voluntarily, which gave Southern Democrats control of the states

  19. Which best explains the Confederate defeat in the Civil War?

    • Britain intervened on the Union side and sent troops to defeat the Confederacy
    • The Confederacy was never able to raise any soldiers, so the war ended quickly
    • Union naval power, industrial strength and manpower, combined with Confederate strategic errors and the loss of key cities
    • The Confederate government collapsed because of a sudden rising of enslaved people in 1862

  20. Which best evaluates the human and social costs of the Civil War for the United States?

    • The costs were limited to the South, since the North suffered almost no losses in the fighting
    • The war killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers, devastated the South economically and reshaped the status of freed people
    • The war was short and inexpensive, with few deaths and little damage to civilian life
    • The war caused no lasting changes to the political system or the economy of the United States

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