White Terror in the South

“One Vote Less” – political cartoon from Harper’s Weekly, Aug. 8, 1868, p. 512

These four questions by Hector Gonzalez deal with the PDF excerpt we read from Eric Foner’s Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 on the period of white terror in the South during Reconstruction. Please respond to one of the questions with a comment of at least one paragraph.

• What were the goals of such terror organization like the Ku Klux Klan  and the White Brotherhood? How did they counteract reconstruction and “regulate blacks status in society”? Which group of whites accounted for the majority of the organization’s members? 

• Who were the “impudent blacks” and what did they demand? According to Foner, what could grant blacks the rights and freedoms they so desperately yearned for? What did Northerners mean when they advised Southern Republicans to “Put on your iron gloves”?

• How did members of Southern white society foster and support Klan ideals and actions? Why didn’t freedmen retaliate against oppression and violence from the Klan?

• What were some of the  specific reason why the K.K.K terrorized freed blacks in the South? Which blacks were deemed the most “offensive” by the Klan? Which methods did the K.K.K use to terrorize them?

The End of Reconstruction and Jim Crow

Poll tax receipt from Birmingham, Alabama, 1895.

Below please find questions based on the second half of Chapter 15: Reconstruction and the New South (pp. 358-370) by your classmate, Oscar Lemus. Answer one of these with a comment of at least one paragraph in length.

• Do you think the “Compromise of 1877” was fair? Or was the election stolen? Which side benefited the most from the compromise?

• Describe the effect that the “Civil Rights cases of 1883” had on society and their long-term impact.

• Describe some of the state and local “Jim Crow” laws passed in the 1890s, and explain how blacks reacted to them.

Reconstruction

Hiram Revels (1827-1901), the first African American U.S. Senator, elected in 1870 from Mississippi.

Below please find questions on the second half of Chapter 15: Reconstruction and the New South (pp. 343-358) by Niaz Alam. Answer one of these questions with a comment of at least one paragraph.

• In what circumstances did Southern whites and freed blacks find themselves in the Civil War’s immediate aftermath? What did most newly freed blacks do?

• What problems did the federal intervention in the South pose for President Johnson? How did Congress ultimately get around his resistance to Radical Republican policies?

• What were the Black Codes and did they affect the lives of African American in the South? What measures did Congress take against the Black Codes?

The Civil War, Pt. 2

William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891)

Below please find questions on the second half of Chapter 14: The Civil War (pp. 326-342) by Shameka Griffin. Please answer one of these questions with a comment of at least one paragraph.

• What were Robert Lee’s reasons for invading Pennsylvania? How successful was this strategy? Why?

• What was the purpose of William T. Sherman’s “March to the Sea”? Why did he cause so much destruction during this march?

• How did the Confederate Constitution resemble the Constitution of the United States? How did it differ?

The Civil War, Pt. 1

Black Troops in the Wilmington Campaign,
Members of Company E, 4th USCT, Library of Congress

Below please find several questions on the first half of Chapter 14: The Civil War (pp. 313-326) by Shondell Price. Please answer one of these questions with a comment of at least one paragraph.

• How did the war affect the lives of women and Blacks in the South?  How did the war affect these two groups in the North?

• What advantages did the North have during the Civil War? What advantages did the South have? Did you think it was inevitable that the North would win?

•  How did the Emancipation Proclamation change the nature of the Civil War?

The Crises of the 1850s

Dred Scott

Below please find four questions on the second half of Chapter 13: The Impending Crisis (pp. 302-312) by Pjerina Bode. Please answer one with a comment of at least one paragraph.

• Why did Southerners feel so strongly about the expansion of slavery in the West even when much of the territory was not ideal for plantations?

• What was the “Young America” movement and what was its ideology?

• How did the Kansas-Nebraska controversy effect the political parties?

• How did the Dred Scott decision challenge the federal government’s ability to regulate slavery?

Westward Expansion in the Antebellum Era

George Henry Gordon circa 1846; Massachusetts graduate of West Point who fought in the Mexican-American War and Civil War

Below are three questions on the first half of Chapter 13: The Impending Crisis (pp. 289-302) by Tom Favaloro. Please answer one with a comment of at least one paragraph.

• With the addition of states like Texas, Oregon, and California into the Union, Americans had different opinions about westward expansion. Why was expansion such a divisive issue during the 1830s and 1840s?

• In your opinion, was the Mexican-American War justified? Did President James K. Polk handle the situation effectively? If you were president, how would you have approached the conflict with Mexico?

• The Compromise of 1850 was one of the most important agreements in U.S. history. How did the compromise resolve sectional issues? How might “popular sovereignty” be problematic in the years following the Compromise of 1850?

Mr. Wilmot’s Proviso

David Wilmot (1814-1868)

Below please find several web questions by Laura Martinez on the PDF we read, Chapter 7: Mr. Wilmot’s Proviso, from David P. Currie’s Constitution in Congress: Descent into the Maelstrom, 1829-1861. Please answer one of these with a comment of a paragraph or more.

• What were some of the issues the United States faced with the gain of newly established territories and newly admitted states?

• What was the turning point of the Oregon debate? How was it resolved and why was it so crucial to later debates about the territories?

• Compare and contrast Wilmot’s idea of congressional power, Calhoun’s declaration of equal state rights, and Douglas’s idea of popular sovereignty.

The Abolitionist Movement

The original frontispiece of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)

Below are three web questions by Christian Miranda on the abolitionist movement. These are based on the last part of Chapter 12, “The Crusade Against Slavery,” pp. 282-288. Remember to answer one of these with a comment of at least one paragraph.

• What were the biggest fears that some whites had about abolitionism?

• How did Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” help propel the abolitionist cause even further?

• What effects did William Lloyd Garrison’s influence have on the abolitionist movement?

Antebellum Culture and Society

James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)

Below please find three questions by Kelly Sanon based on the reading from Unfinished Nation, Chapter 12: Antebellum Culture and Reform (pp. 268-282). Please respond to one of these with an answer of one paragraph or more.

• One of the most important figures in early American literature was the novelist named James Fenimore Cooper. Why do you think his Leatherstocking Tales–including The Last of the Mohicans (1826)–were so popular?
  

• Why did the Brook Farm experimental community fail? Do you think some positive ideas came out of it? Why or why not ?

• Compare and contrast the Oneidan “Perfectionists” and the Shakers. What different approaches did they take to redefining gender roles?