American History II

AMERICAN HISTORY II

The American People

Homework

William Butters

1/18/2012

Pg. 459 Given the enormous casualties, cost, and crises of the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, what attitudes, goals, dreams, and behaviors would you predict for white southerners, white northerners, and black freed people?

White southerners experienced a lot of mistrust and despair over the loss of the war. They were defeated and that was reflected in their attitudes. They began to rebuild, with the attitude of never give up. Some are still fighting the war.

White northerners celebrated victory but mourned the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives. They wanted to enact new laws and demonstrate their superiority.

Black Freed people, at first were overjoyed but soon, confusion and despair set in. They found that they didn't have the ability to do anything else. No education or money, most black men stayed with their white "masters" and continued to work on the farms as sharecroppers.

Pg. 461 In what ways are they similar and how are they different? Is there a basis for sisterhood bonds? What separates them, if anything?

Similarities are both are in despair but the black lady has hope for a better future while the white lady has lost everything.

Sisterhood comes if both of them work together to help each other and what separates them is the results each of them want. The white lady only wants to rebuild her home while the black lady is concerned with building a life.

Pg. 466 What three basic rights were guaranteed in these three amendments? What patterns do you see? How well were the dreams of the freed people fulfilled? Was that fulfillment immediate or deferred? For how long?

The three are Freedom, Equality, and the Vote. All were meant to start immediately but weren't enforced until much later because of defiance among whites and southerners. It took a hundred years in some cases to make America wake up.

Pg.469 What differences of style and attitudes do you see in the depictions of Uncle Jerry and Old Aleck? What emotional responses do you have to these passages? How do you think late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century Americans might have responded?

Two very provocative stories! Uncle Jerry, although uneducated had a lot of compassion for his black friends while Aleck seems to be a bigot. Old Aleck saw blacks as animals and not men. Most uneducated whites of the time saw black men as a threat to their jobs and their way of life. Educated white men responded better. Old Aleck saw