Essay Questions for Thinking through Sources 13

Document Links:

Document 13.1 JOHN BEAUCHAMP JONES, The Richmond Bread Riot (1866)

Document 13.2 Testimony of New York City Draft Riot Victim Mrs. Statts, Collected by the Committee of Merchants for the Relief of Colored People, Suffering from the Late Riots (1863)

Document 13.3 CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM, The Civil War in America (1863)

Document 13.4 Calls for Peace in North Carolina (1863)

Document 13.5 ELLA GERTRUDE CLANTON THOMAS, Diary (1864)

Essay Questions for Thinking through Sources 13

Compare Wartime Grievances: What do these sources suggest about the types of grievances that motivated dissent and protest during the Civil War? What are their major disagreements? What did they have in common? Were there distinct northern grievances and southern grievances, or did similar issues motivate dissent and protest in both regions?

Identify the War’s Impact: What do these sources reveal about the ways in which the war and wartime policies affected the daily lives of black and white Americans living in the North and South? How did their personal experiences during the war shape their responses to it? What do the documents suggest about how Americans’ personal interests shaped their attitudes about the war and its goals?

Integrate Sources and Text Narrative: How do these sources fit into the chapter’s narrative discussion of the Civil War? How common or uncommon were the points of view expressed in the documents? To what extent did they define the perspectives of the particular social groups or regions they represent?

Consider Race, Class, and Gender: What do these sources suggest about how race, class, and gender shaped Americans’ varied responses to the Civil War? How do these factors shape the perspectives of the creator of each document, and how do they shape the creators’ views of the people they are writing about?