Reconstruction Era

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Reconstruction Era Questions and Answers

What were the effects of Reconstruction on the freed slaves?

What were the phases of Reconstruction?

Explain the difference between the terms carpetbagger and scalawag.

Why did the authors of "The Late Convention of Colored Men" believe the federal government had to protect the newly freed slaves from white Southerners?

What national issues and attitudes combined to bring an end to Reconstruction by 1877?

What did Howell Cobb think was the real motivation behind the program of Reconstruction, according to "An Unreconstructed Southerner"?

Why did ownership of land and control of labor become major points of contention between former slaves and whites in the South?

Explain the Plessy v. Ferguson case.

Why did Republicans find the Black Codes so objectionable?

How did the South try to reinstate the social hierarchal status quo after the Civil War?

Which aspects of Reconstruction were unsuccessful?

Was Reconstruction a success or a failure? Or was it something in between? 

During Reconstruction, why was the North concerned about the South's struggling economy?  In other words, why was it in their interest to help the South?

How did Reconstruction fail to bring equality to freedmen?

Should the Reconstruction era be considered the Second American Revolution? By what criteria should we make such a judgement?

What was the freed people's version of freedom?

What constituted a “vagrant” under the Mississippi Black Codes?

How can the period of Reconstruction be treated as a part or a continuation of the Civil War?

Did lodges provide mutual aid to African Americans after slavery?

  After slavery, African Americans were encouraged to accept help from the "Freedman's Bureau". What exactly is the Freedman's Bureau?

Why did the freed slaves seek other forms of mutual aid if the Freedman's Bureau was supposed to help them?

How might history have been different had Lincoln lived?   Lincoln wanted a quick reconciliation with easy terms for the South after the war, yet Radical Republicans wanted to punish the South, and eventually got their way after Lincoln’s assassination. 

Which groups supported the enfranchisement of Southern blacks?