Analyzing Primary Documents

Part 1

1. After reading the Bill, what plans do you see laid out for the former slaves?
The granting of vital provisions, such as clothing; fuel; shelter; education; abandoned, tracts of land; food; water; and health care, for an allotted amount of time.
2. What do you think could have been added to the Bill to garner broader support?  What could have been changed or taken away?
Specific provisions could have been added to garner broader support, for, the Bill speaks of the supplying of general provisions as the Secretary of War deemed needful; however, such provisions may not have fulfilled the true individual needs of the post-war destitute.  In additions, the three-year tax on the tracts of land could have been lowered slightly to allow newly freed slaves and impoverished Southerners to "gt back on their feet."
3. Aside from their opposition to the abolition of slavery, what problems do you think the members of Southern States had with the Bill?  Can you think of anything that would have appeased them?
The former Confederates most likely resented the granting of previously mentions provisions to their former slaves, which they viewed as utter inferiors.  If such provisions were stripped form the freed blacks, the Southerners would have undoubtedly been appeased.

Part 2

1. What is her attitude toward white Southerners and their treatment by the federal government?
She views white Southerners as victims to the oppressive federal government, which essentially forced them to take an oath of allegiance to the North and virtually granted primary control of electoral votes to invasive "carpetbaggers" and newly freed Negroes.
2. What do you think accounts for her view?
I believe her perception is influenced by the fact that she is a Southerner herself, for, this would, naturally, lead her to be bias in favor of her people.
3. Would people with different views agree with her conclusions about "peace" in the South?  Why or why not?
People with opposing views would probably not agree with her conclusions but, instead, contradict them; perceiving the South as a corrupt place, guilty of ignitingg an exceptionally costly war and deserving punishment.

Reconstruction Cartoon

 

     During the Reconstruction period which followed the abhorrently destructive Civil War, a concentrated number of Northerners moved South, claming that their reason for moving was merely to aid in the expedition of the nation's post-war recovery.  The former Confederates, however, perceived these Northern people as nothing but highly invasive "carpetbaggers," only seeking to gain acute wealth and political infulence through intense exploitation.