1. Could the differences between the North and South have been worked out in late 1860 and 1861? Could war have been avoided? Provide evidence to support your answer.
2. Why did the North prevail in the Civil War? What might have turned the tide of the war against the North?
3. If you oversaw the Confederate war effort, what strategy or strategies would you have pursued? Conversely, if you had to devise the Union strategy, what would you propose? How does your answer depend on your knowledge of how the war played out?
4. What do you believe to be the enduring qualities of the Gettysburg Address? Why has this two-minute speech so endured?
5. How do you think would history have been different if Lincoln had not been assassinated? How might his leadership after the war have differed from that of Andrew Johnson?
6. Consider the differences between the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. What does the Fourteenth Amendment do that the Thirteenth does not?
7. Consider social, political, and economic equality. In what ways did Radical Reconstruction address and secure these forms of equality? Where did it fall short?
8. Consider the problem of terrorism during Radical Reconstruction. If you had been an adviser to President Grant, how would you propose to deal with the problem?
Reading Assignment 8
1. Summarize the regulations related to employment of freed slaves. How did they represent a form of slavery?
2. Which crime carried the harshest penalty? Why?
