HIST 564 Week 6 Questions

For this week, I suggest that you the readings in this order: Foner, Berlin, Du Bois and then the web readings. Du Bois is very long, so if you’re crunched for time you may need to skim in places.

1. Describe the diverse responses of African Americans to opportunities for and obstacles to challenging slavery during the Civil War.

2. What are some of the political issues and other concerns surrounding the North’s treatment of fugitive slaves? How did the Union respond in terms of policy?

3. According to Du Bois, what were some of the economic issues and psychological effects of slavery and its aftermath?

4. How does Du Bois explain why non-slave-owning whites, the vast majority of southerners, acquiesced to the political and economic systems of the South?

5. How does Du Bois account for the “failure” of Reconstruction?

6. How do the works by Du Bois and Berlin et. al. fit into the schools/trends of historiography described by Foner. What was the political climate in which Du Bois was writing?

7. Some historians have called the Civil War America’s “Second War of Independence?” Can it be seen as the birth of the nation?