Review Questions

  Meanings of the Civil War:

1. How can it be argued that "the slaves emancipated themselves"?  Include in this discussion the importance of the following: the slaves’ ‘misinterpretation of the war’; slave agency; slave communication network; non-confrontational resistance; African Americans in the Union Army.
2. Explain Lincoln’s political interpretation and approach to the Emancipation Proclamation. How did this political strategy change the ‘meaning’ of the war from the northern perspective?

Reconstruction:

1. In the lecture, what is meant by the “Logic of Reconciliation” vs “Logic of Black Justice", and how do each connect to the 'meanings" of the Civil War? 
2. What were the 3 phases of Reconstruction, and which “logic” guided each phase (be able to provide examples for all 3 phases)?
3. What were the factions within the Republican Party, and how did they differ?
4. What is meant by "interracial political and democratic order" achieved during the Radical Reconstruction phase?
5. Why did Reconstruction collapse?
6. Related to first question: what are the Reconstruction Amendments?  
7. How did the debate surrounding the 15th amendment galvanize the women's suffrage movement?

Historical terms: 

• Redemption movement; 
• Freedman's Bureau; 
• sharecropping/crop-lien system; 
• black codes (what were the examples discussed in the lecture?); 
• Military Reconstruction Act