Reconstruction SAC Document Questions
Were African Americans free during Reconstruction?
Document A: 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments
1. When were the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments passed?
13th =
14th=
15th=
2. What rights did they guarantee for American citizens?
13th Amendment:
14th Amendment: (there are 3 significant parts) *research due process in history book and be
prepared to explain it to your group
*
*
*
15th Amendment:
Document B: Black Codes
1. a)When were these Black Codes written? b)Who do you think wrote these laws (what social group)? Who
do these laws benefit?
a)
b)
2. List five things that freed men and women were NOT allowed to do according to the Black Codes.
3. Inference. Why would white Southerners pass laws that controlled the movement of African Americans?
What would happen to the plantation farming system if African Americans left the South in huge numbers?
4. How do these laws help you to understand what life was like in Louisiana and other Southern states after
the Civil War?
Document C: Henry Adams’s Statement
1. Who wrote this document and when?
2. What do you think “carrying a pass meant”?
3. According to Adams, what was life like for freed men and women after the Civil War? How does it sound?
Document D: African American Political Representation
1. What offices do these African Americans hold?
2. Why are these offices important? How might these men be able to use this position to help African
Americans in the Reconstruction period?
3. Make an inference, who likely voted for these men? How does that help to demonstrate African
Americans were free?
Document E: Education
1. What was the Freedman’s Bureau? What kind of work did they do?
2. Why do you think education was important to former slaves during Reconstruction?
3. Who is the author of this document? What do you know about him (biographically)?
Document F: Sharecropping
1. When and who is this a contract between? Generally, where was it written?
2. List three things the sharecropper had to do in order to use the plantation owner’s land, farming tools, and
mules?
3. What parts of this contract do you think caused the sharecroppers to be in debt to plantation owners?
4. What happens to the farmer owner if the sharecropper leaves the farmer’s land? What impact would this
have on his business?
5. How likely was it for sharecroppers to be able to leave the farmer’s land?
Document G: Poll Taxes, Literacy Tests and the Grandfather Clause
1. What is a grandfather clause? How did it impact the black vote in the South?
2. What impact did the grandfather clause have on the African American vote in Louisiana between 1896
and 1904?
3. In which three states was the impact of poll taxes and literacy tests the most significant? (use bottom
chart)
4. What impacts does not being able to vote have on African American in the South? List three. This
question requires making inferences.
If you can’t vote then…
1)
2)
3)