Interpret the Evidence and Put It in Context

Document Links:

Document 14.5 Mississippi Black Code, 1865

Document 14.6 Richard H. Cain, Federal Aid for Land Purchase, 1868

Document 14.7 Ellen Parton, Testimony on Klan Violence, 1871

Document 14.8 Thomas Nast, Colored Rule in a Reconstructed (?) State, 1874

Document 14.9 What the Centennial Ought to Accomplish, 1875

Interpret the Evidence

  1. How did the black codes (Document 14.5) attempt to reimpose bondage on former slaves?

  2. Why did African Americans consider property holding a fundamental right (Document 14.6)?

  3. Contrast the image of South Carolina’s black politicians as presented in Richard Cain’s speech (Document 14.6) and Thomas Nast’s cartoon (Document 14.8).

  4. Despite Ku Klux Klan intimidation and the fear it produced in African Americans, what does the testimony of Ellen Parton (Document 14.7) reveal about black attempts to resist it?

  5. What sources of unity existed between the North and the South that would bring Reconstruction to an end (Document 14.9)? Compare northern attitudes about protecting freedpeople in the South in 1876 to that in 1865.

Put It in Context

How much did Reconstruction transform the South and the nation?

What were the greatest limitations of federal Reconstruction policies and the greatest challenges to implementing them?

Exploring American HistoriesPrinted Page 480

Chapter Timeline