7th Grade Social Studies
Reconstruction
Name:________________________________________
Block:
1A
2A
Assessing the Reconstruction Amendments
Now that you understand what was done at the federal level to shift African Americans from slaves to
citizens, we need to evaluate the success of these policies “on the ground.” Using a series of
documents, you will determine whether or not the following statement is correct:
African Americans lives were improved considerably in the decades after the Civil War.
For each document, you should write a few sentences explaining how it supports or contradicts
the above conclusion. Then, at the end of the assignment, you will write a paragraph that uses the
evidence and your own thoughts to support or contradict the above conclusion. There is no “right”
answer in this paragraph, but you MUST use at least two pieces of evidence to support your position.
Part One: Document Analysis
Document One – Political Cartoon
“One Vote Less,” in Teaching with Laurel Grove School, Item #86,
http://chnm.gmu.edu/laurelgrove/items/show/86 (accessed July 16, 2013).
How does this cartoon support or contradict the conclusion that African Americans were
significantly better off after the Civil War?
Document Two - Jim Crow Laws
Barbers. No colored barber shall serve as a barber (to) white girls or women (Georgia).
Blind Wards. The board of trustees shall...maintain a separate building...on separate ground for the
admission, care, instruction, and support of all blind persons of the colored or black race (Louisiana).
Burial. The officer in charge shall not bury, or allow to be buried, any colored persons upon ground set
apart or used for the burial of white persons (Georgia).
Child Custody. It shall be unlawful for any parent, relative, or other white person in this State, having the
control or custody of any white child, by right of guardianship, natural or acquired, or otherwise, to dispose
of, give or surrender such white child permanently into the custody, control, maintenance, or support, of a
negro (South Carolina).
Education.The schools for white children and the schools for negro children shall be conducted separately
(Florida).
Libraries. The state librarian is directed to fit up and maintain a separate place for the use of the colored
people who may come to the library for the purpose of reading books or periodicals (North Carolina).
Militia. The white and colored militia shall be separately enrolled, and shall never be compelled to serve
in the same organization. No organization of colored troops shall be permitted where white troops are
available and where whites are permitted to be organized, colored troops shall be under the command of
white officers (North Carolina).
Nurses. No person or corporation shall require any White female nurse to nurse in wards or rooms in
hospitals, either public or private, in which negro men are placed (Alabama).
Teaching. Any instructor who shall teach in any school, college or institution where members of the white
and colored race are received and enrolled as pupils for instruction shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor,
and upon conviction thereof, shall be fined... (Oklahoma).
Source: This list was derived from a larger list composed by the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic
Site Interpretive Staff. Last Updated January 5, 1998. The web address is:
http://www.nps.gov/malu/forteachers/jim_crow_laws.htm
How do these laws support or contradict the conclusion that African Americans were
significantly better off after the Civil War?
Document Three – Sharecropping Description
Sharecropping is a way of farming in which a landowner allows a tenant to use his land in return for a
share of the crop produced on the land. This system developed in the South after the end of the Civil
War. The freed slaves were not given any land by the government and most only knew how to farm
cotton. The white landowners needed workers to continue raising cotton on their land. AfricanAmerican families (and many white families as well) became sharecroppers on the white-owned land.
Each family began the agricultural cycle in the spring by getting seed, supplies, and food on credit from
the landowner. They planted the seeds, tended the cotton plants as they grew, and picked the cotton
when it was ready to be harvested. The landowner decided on a price and paid them for the crop, but
first took out the amount they owed him for the seeds, supplies, and food they had bought on credit.
Even in the best of times, the family’s share might not be enough to cover these expenses. When the
price for cotton was low, this became more and more the case. Sometimes landowners cheated the
African-American sharecroppers. The result was more and more debt and dependency for
sharecroppers in the 1880s and 1890s. The poverty of these families was remarkable even in this
generally poor region: the typical African-American sharecropping woman kept house with only a
straw broom, a laundry tub, a cooking kettle, and a water pail.
African Americans had no effective way to challenge this unfair system. Many had never learned to
read or write. Because they were prevented from voting or serving on juries, they had little chance of
fair treatment in the court system, which was dominated by whites.
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning, “Description of Sharecropping,”
HERB: Resources for Teachers, accessed July 16, 2013, http://herb.ashp.cuny.edu/items/show/1885.
How does this description support or contradict the conclusion that African Americans were
significantly better off after the Civil War?
Document Four – Poll (Voting) Tax Receipt
“Poll Tax Receipt,” in Teaching with Laurel Grove School, Item #84, http://chnm.gmu.edu/laurelgrove/items/show/84 (accessed July 16, 2013).
How does this poll tax receipt support or contradict the conclusion that African Americans
were significantly better off after the Civil War?
Document Five – Excerpt from Plessy v. Ferguson Decision
“We consider the underlying fallacy [faulty reasoning] of the plaintiff’s argument to consist in the
assumption that the enforced separation of the two races stamps the colored race with a badge of
inferiority. If this be so, it is not by reason of anything found in the act, but solely because the colored
race chooses to put that construction upon it….The argument also assumes that social prejudices may
be overcome by legislation, and that equal rights cannot be secured by the negro except by an enforced
commingling of the two races. We cannot accept this proposition….If the civil and political rights of
both races be equal one cannot be inferior to the other civilly or politically. If one race is inferior to the
other socially, the Consitution of the United States cannot put them upon the same plane.”
Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537, 1896.
How does this Supreme Court decision support or contradict the conclusion that African
Americans were significantly better off after the Civil War?
Document Six – Campaign Literature for 1867 Ohio Governor’s Race
How does this campaign literature support or contradict the conclusion that African Americans
were significantly better off after the Civil War?
Part Two: Planning Guide for your Position Paragraph
Now that you have examined all of these documents, do you think African Americans lives were
improved considerably in the decades after the Civil War?
Why?
Looking back at the primary source documents, select 3-4 that prove your position and explain why.
1.
2.
3.
Topic Sentence: This is the sentence that states your opinion that you are going to prove in your paper.
Concluding Sentences: This is the clincher that proves your position and ends your paragraph,