HIST 2023-001 Lesson 1 Study Guide

According to Kermit Roosevelt, how is our reading of the Declaration of Independence wrong?

Our modern reading of the Declaration is wrong because we project modern ideals of universal equality onto a document that deliberately left them out.

How was the Declaration understood in 1776?

The Declaration was understood to be about the right of a people to define and govern itself.

What did Jefferson’s “all men are created equal” describe?

The hypothetical state of nature, a shorthand rejection of the divine right of kings.

What idea did Jefferson’s “all men are created equal” lead to?

The idea that governments should protect the rights of the people that formed them.

How was the Declaration not understood?

No implications for how the government should treat people such as the enslaved.

Why did antislavery activists read into the Declaration “a set of principles that Jefferson had quite deliberately left out”?

They were “looking for a federal document that supported equality”

When were “the principles of equality and universal liberty” declared and how did they enter the US Constitution?

Gettysburg on November 19th 1863. Such concepts entered the Constitution through the post-Civil War Reconstruction Amendments (13-15).

Why did the Confederacy celebrate July 4th and call themselves the “loyal inheritors” of its principle of independence?

“The Confederate states invoked the Declaration of

Independence as justification for their rejection of the national government.”

What changed with Reconstruction? And what story can we now tell?

The 13th-15th Amendments made equality and universal liberty part of our higher law. We can now tell a story about a nation born in a war for freedom.

Who were the “heroes” of the older story of Reconstruction?

The self styled Redeemers, who restored white supremacy to the South.

Why did historians, such as Dunning and his students at Columbia University, depict Reconstruction as the “nadir” (or lowest point) of American democracy?

Formally enslaved people and their allies gained political power, while Southern governments became corrupt and unstable.

When it came to restoring the rights to Southern blacks, what implication was found in the portrait of Reconstruction found in Dunning and his students’ scholarly works, the 1915 film Birth of A Nation, and Claude Bowers’ 1929 best-selling history, The Tragic Era?

“Any effort to restore the rights of Southern blacks, it implied, would lead to a repeat of the alleged horrors of Reconstruction.”

Why do historians and scholars today believe that the Reconstruction era was “tragic”?

Solely because it failed

How did Lincoln’s views evolve on the question of Reconstruction?

He initially prioritized restoring the Union, but over time he moved towards supporting greater political rights for black Americans.

How do historians today view Andrew Johnson?

Incredibly racist, could not take criticism, and allowed ex-Confederates to establish new Southern governments— which would later go on to pass the Black Codes.

Why was the Civil Rights Act of 1866 (and the subsequent 14th Amendment) one of the most important laws in US history?

It was relevant back then and even more so now.

What is “birthright citizenship” and why is is deeply contested today?

If you were born on American soil, you are an American citizen. It’s deeply contested because it applies to the American-born children of undocumented immigrants.

How does Foner describe the period of Radical Reconstruction in the South?

“It was a remarkable, unprecedented effort to build an interracial democracy on the ashes of slavery.”

What were the achievements of Radical Reconstruction governments?

“They established the South’s first state-funded public school systems, sought to strengthen the bargaining power of plantation laborers, made taxation more equitable and outlawed racial discrimination in transportation and public accommodations. They offered aid to railroads and other enterprises in the hope of creating a New South whose economic expansion would benefit black and white alike.”

What doomed Reconstruction?

Widespread violence (such as the KKK) coupled with a Northern retreat from the ideal of equality doomed Reconstruction.