Civil War Questions

1. Were Southern politicians more or less likely to own slaves than other white Southerners?
Southern politicians were more likely to own slaves.


2. Were higher level politicians more likely to own slaves than other politicians?
Higher politicians were more likely to own slaves than other politicians. 53 percent of county government officials owned slaves, 68 percent of state legislators did and 83 percent of Delegates to secession conventions. The higher up the politicians, the more slaves they owned.



3. What do these facts suggest to you about the nature of the Southern political system?
That people supported the ownership of slaves. People didn't mind that the people who represented them had slaves.


4. How uniform were the proportion of slaves in the population and the proportion of whites owning slave across the South?
There were more white families that owned slaves and the percent of slaves in population was higher in the southern states.


5. Was there a relationship between the number of slaves in a state's population and whether and when it seceded from the Union?
The states that had more slavery were the states to secede first.


6. What material advantages did the North possess on the eve of the Civil War?
The north had more railroads, farm acreage, manufacturing workers and output, factories, and railroad mileage.



7. Do you think material advantages are decisive in the outcome of wars? Why or why not?
I think that material advantages were helpful in war because war is easier for the people with more resources. The north was able to make more of what they needed because they had more factories and workers. They also had more railroads which must have been helpful for traveling.


8. Why did troop strength peak in 1863?
There is not enough information in the table to answer this question.



9. Do you think that the differences in troop strength were responsible for the war's outcome?
The differences in troop strength probably did influence the outcome of the war. The union had many more troops which would have made them stronger.



10. How does the cost of the Civil War--in casualties and expense--compare to the cost of other American wars?
There were 1,556,678 people from the Union who died and 1,082,119 people from the Confederacy. It had a much higher amount of deaths than other wars that the United States was involved in. The Civil War was expensive but there were still other wars that cost more.



11. Why do you think that the Civil War was so lethal?
It was lethal because it was fought in our own country. The sides that were fighting against each other were very close and alot of the country was involved.



12. What was the radical Republican program for reconstructing the Union?
It was to take the land of rebels who had estates worth $10,000 or that had over 2 hundred acres. There land would help pay national debt. The rebel states will also be divided into military districts and controlled by commanding officers.



13. What were the goals of the radical Republican program?
They wanted punishment for the rebel belligerents and weaken them so that they can't be a threat to the Union. They wanted to make all of their institutions republican.


14. Why was the program unacceptable to President Andrew Johnson?
President Andrew Johnson was against this program because it would put the commanding officer in complete control which would be degrading to the people. He said that the power that the one person in control would have would be an absolute monarch and that isn't what he wanted in our country.


15. Why do you think the North failed to follow through with policies that would have secured the rights and economic status of the freedmen?
They didn't follow through with their polices because it would have given some people too much power over the people and that would have caused more problems. Doing things like taking land from the rebels would have made them more angry andcould cause more war.


16. What were the major political and social achievements of Reconstruction?
Slavery in the United States was prohibited, the defined national citizenship, denied confederates to hold office and prohibited denying people to vote based on things such as color or race.