Comparative Questions

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

Document Links

Document 16-1: Carl Schurz Reports on the Condition of the Defeated South

Document 16-2: Black Codes Enacted in the South

Document 16-3: Former Slaves Seek to Reunite Their Families

Document 16-4: Planter Louis Manigault Visits His Plantations and Former Slaves

Document 16-5: Klan Violence against Blacks

  1. How do the views of southern whites as reported by Carl Schurz differ from those expressed by Louis Manigault? To what extent do they contrast with the meanings of freedom documented in the advertisements from the Christian Recorder?
  2. To what extent did the black codes and the Klan's campaign of terror against black Republicans like Hill confirm or contradict the report of Schurz? How did the activities of Hill and other Republicans compare with the freedmen and women on Manigault's plantations?
  3. In what ways did Schurz's conclusions about the South differ from those of black and white Southerners in the other documents in this chapter? What explains the differences?
  4. Documents in this chapter provide evidence that Reconstruction profoundly challenged fundamental assumptions among Northerners and Southerners, whites and blacks. Judging from these documents, what assumptions were challenged, and how, if at all, did those assumptions change during Reconstruction?