Please help with this DBQ I have some but I need more ideas...?

Question

It is clear that all the lives that were lost in the American Civil War to insure a 'new birth of freedom' were in vain. By 1880, the South had defeated the weak Northern efforts in behalf of the freedmen, and had re-enslaved the *****.
Assess the validity of this statement using the documents and your knowledge of U S History.


My two main points so far are Black Codes- basically outlined the way emancipated blacks led their lives
and Jim Crow Laws... If you have other ideas please help! Thank you

Answer 1

The lives lost in the American Civil War were wasted for deeper reasons than emancipation. The fighting between 1861and 1865 was because the South wanted Secession - the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or political entity. When a difference errupts, it is usally a single issue that gets pushed to the forfront. The major histories of the Civil War, including those written by McPherson, Catton, Nevins and others describe issues related to slavery as causes of the Civil War.

Typically there is a strong issue difference that drives the withdrawal. The South having its welth based on agricultural crops and materials manufactured from them, wanted independance from the Industurial North, who held the political power.

The specific political crisis that led to secession stemmed from a dispute over the expansion of slavery into new territories. The Republicans, while maintaining that Congress had no power over slavery in the states, asserted that it did have power to ban slavery in the territories. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 maintained the balance of power in Congress by adding Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state. It prohibited slavery in the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase Territory north of 36°30'N lat. (the southern boundary of Missouri). The acquisition of vast new lands after the Mexican-American War (1846–1848), however, reopened the debate—now focused on the proposed Wilmot Proviso, which would have banned slavery in territories annexed from Mexico. Though it never passed, the Wilmot Proviso aroused angry debate. Northerners argued that slavery would provide unfair competition for free migrants to the territories; slaveholders claimed Congress had no right to discriminate against them by preventing them from bringing their legal property there.

When the Civil War began, neither civil rights nor voting rights for blacks were stated as goals by the North; they became important afterward during Reconstruction. At first, though there was pressure to do so, not even the abolition of slavery was stated as a goal.

Indeed, Lincoln initially declared his official purpose to be the preservation of the Union, not emancipation. He had no wish to alienate the thousands of slaveholders in the Union border states.

The issue of what to do with Southern slaves, however, would not go away: As early as May 1861, some slaves working on Confederate fortifications escaped to the Union lines, and their owner, a Confederate colonel, demanded their return under the Fugitive Slave Act. The response was to declare them "contraband of war"—effectively freeing them. Congress eventually approved this for slaves used by the Confederate military.

In September 1862, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation made the freeing of the slaves a war goal, despite opposition from northern Copperheads who tolerated secession and slavery. Emancipation ensured that Britain and France would not intervene to help the Confederacy. In addition, the goal also allowed the Union to recruit African-Americans for reinforcements, a resource that the Confederacy did not dare exploit until it was too late.

Bush used the same tactic in the Gulf War (1991) to incite the Sh'ia & Kurds to uprise from Sadam, but left them in the lurch, hence much of the ill feeling towards the US military now.

Reconstruction, which began early in the war and ended in 1877, involved a complex and rapidly changing series of federal and state policies. The long-term result came in the three "Civil War" amendments to the Constitution (the XIII, which abolished slavery, the XIV, which extended federal legal protections to citizens regardless of race, and the XV, which abolished racial restrictions on voting). Reconstruction ended in the different states at different times, the last three by the Compromise of 1877. For details on why the Fourteenth Amendment and Fifteenth Amendment were largely ineffective until the American Civil Rights movement.

Like modern Iraq, the theories of American Democracy in the Middle East, like the slavery issue were, are easy to initiate, but very hard to enforce, in that any laws forced onto an unwilling population will be undermined. It takes three generations to bring about a soial change, about 70 - 100 years after a law is passed.

The first generation suffers the injustice, because it has always done so.

The next generation is affected by the behaviour of thier parents.

Finally the third generation has no link to the old system, and will fight for the benifits of the 'new' law.

Answer 2

1. Some of the main points in the statement are false to begin with. It seems clear that this is NOT an actual AP U.S. History question but more likely one that your teacher wrote.

a. No historian would agree that the lives lost in the American Civil War were in vain. A LOT was accomplished by this war. So the first main point is historically incorrect.
2. The South didn't defeat ANY of the efforts of the North. These efforts were simply abandonded as a part of the Compromise of 1877 that ended military Reconstruction in exchange for allowing Hayes to become president. SO that point is also wrong.
3. The ***** was never re-enslaved--unless you want to call sharecropping and discrimination slavery.
4. Now for the specifics:

--the Black Codes were not in effect as late as 1880.
--The Jim Crow Era began right about the time of the COmpromise of 1877. THOSE are the laws you want to bring out.
--Also by the end of the 1870s the Ku Klux Klan has been abolished in most of the South thanks to the Enforcement Acts
--Blacks were running for Congress by 1880 (and getting elected) so their political power was gradually starting to take root
--Black colleges were forming around that time, like Howard University in Washington D.C. and Tuskeegee Institute in Alabama
--However in 1896 the Supreme Court ruled against Blacks in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson in which segregation was legalized.


Just a few points to ponder. Over all I would DISAGREE with the basic premise of the question and argue that way.

Answer 3

Some historians believe that a Mr. Crow owned the slave who inspired Rice's act--thus the reason for the Jim Crow term in the lyrics. In any case, Rice incorporated the skit into his minstrel act, and by the 1850s the "Jim Crow" character had become a standard part of the minstrel show scene in America. On the eve of the Civil War, the Jim Crow idea was one of many stereotypical images of black inferiority in the popular culture of the day--along with Sambos, Coons, and Zip Dandies. The word Jim Crow became a racial slur synonymous with black, colored, or ***** in the vocabulary of many whites; and by the end of the century acts of racial discrimination toward blacks were often referred to as Jim Crow laws and practices.

Answer 4

the Northerners did not get everything they wanted from the result in the civil war. the black codes, supreme law cases ruled againts the blacks and a lot of rasism replaced slavery. you can mention cropsharing, how it was just a new way of slavery and it did not allow blacks to raise from their economic troubles. republicans, the ones fighting for balck rights left their cause ofter democrats won the southern votes. should mention Ku Klan Klux and yeah just read you textbook!

Answer 5

the Jim crow are against the African American because they use these laws so they could not vote, Jim crow was legal to do that .
the Jim crow laws say that u must no how read to and write to vote. great grandfather want vote before ,what am i trying to say that the African man's great grandfather must be a free man, then he could vote

hope this help