The Enduring Vision,
The Crises of Reconstruction, 1865-1877
- Compare and contrast Lincoln's, Johnson's, and Congress' plans of reconstruction (as represented by the Reconstruction Acts of 1867-1868 and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments). What were the objectives
of each plan? Why did each fail to achieve its goals?
- Discuss the transformation of southern agriculture during the Reconstruction period. Why did the sharecropping and
crop-lien systems evolve? What were the consequences of those systems for
the economy of the South and for white and black farmers?
- Discuss the achievements and failures of the Republican Reconstruction governments in the
South. Who supported and who opposed them? Why? Why and how were they driven
- Imagine that you are a Freedmen's Bureau agent in the South during the Reconstruction period. Using the information in Chapter 16,
write an account of what you have seen black people doing and experiencing.
As such an agent, how have you been involved with the blacks in your district?
- Write an essay discussing the Grant administration. What were its policies
on Reconstruction and the freedmen? What was meant by "Grantism?" What successes and failures did the administration have in foreign policy?
Why did the Liberal Republicans break with Grant?