Question #1 (1st Paragraph): Describe three revolutionary measures put into place during Reconstruction and explain why they failed.
Question #2 (2nd Paragraph): Historians used to characterize Reconstruction as a “failure.” Now historians sometimes use the terms “unfinished revolution” or a “half-finished revolution.” Which term do you think most accurately describes Reconstruction in terms of what the North attempted to accomplish in Southern society, and its results?
Part 2 Directions: Analyze both of the quotes below – describe in 2 to 3 sentences what the quote means in your own words and what it tells us about the time period.
From “Klan Violence,” Elias Hill
“They said, ‘Look here! Will you put a card in the paper next week like June Moore and Sol Hill?’ They had been prevailed on to put a card in the paper to renounce all republicanism and never vote.”
From “Excerpts from The School Days of an Indian Girl–by Zitkala-Sa”
“I cried aloud, shaking my head all the while until I felt the cold blades of the scissors against my neck, and heard them gnaw off one of my thick braids. Then I lost my spirit. Since the day I was taken from my mother I had suffered extreme indignities. People had stared at me. I had been tossed about in the air like a wooden puppet. And now my long hair was shingled like a coward’s!”