Delaware Social Studies Standards
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History Standard 1: Chronology
History Standard 2: Analysis
History Standard 3: Interpretation
History Standard 4: Content
History Standard 3
• Grades 9-12: “Students will compare
competing historical narratives by
contrasting different historians’ choice of
questions, use and choice of sources,
perspectives, beliefs, and points of view in
order to demonstrate how these factors
contribute to different interpretations.
Changing Interpretations of
Reconstruction
Four schools of thought
Traditional
(first half of 20th century)
• South accepted defeat; ready to be reintegrated into
Union.
• Wise and generous policies of Lincoln and Johnson were
thwarted by Radical Republicans
• An era ruined by corrupt scalawags, greedy
carpetbaggers, and ignorant freedmen.
• Reconstruction ended when white southerners banded
together to restore HOME RULE.
Traditional
Reconstruction was…
A dramatic change
for the worse.
Dissenting
(first half of 20th century)
• Black scholars, such as
W.E.B. Du Bois, argued
that white historians had
ignored the most
important people in the
story of Reconstruction:
Freed Slaves.
• Reconstruction was a
noble attempt to establish
real democracy in the
South.
• Largely ignored by white
historians.
Revisionist
(1960s)
Reconstruction achieved successes:
• Public school systems
• Equal citizenship for black men
• Efforts to revive Southern economy
Reconstruction governments not any more
corrupt than those in the North.
Revisionist
Reconstruction was…
A dramatic change
for the better.
Post-Revisionist
(1970s-1980s)
• Challenged the optimism of the Civil
Rights Era.
• Reconstruction was a continuation of the
antebellum (pre-Civil War) South.
• Wealthy whites continued to exploit poor
blacks through legal (Jim Crow Laws) and
illegal (Ku Klux Klan) means.
Post-Revisionist
Reconstruction was…
Not enough
change.
Today…
Historians continue to re-evaluate
Reconstruction.
SOURCES
Images:
• America’s Library
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/aa/dubois
• Reconstruction: The Second Civil War
www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reconstruction
• The History of Jim Crow
http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/scripts/jimcrow/gallery.cgi
Historiography:
Eric Foner, A Short History of Reconstruction