“Forces committed to restoring White supremacy launched a ruthless, bloody campaign of terror and intimidation against freedpeople and their White allies in the South. As young southern units of the Republican Party broke under those blows and the Republicans of the North retreated and grew more conservative, Reconstruction collapsed. With it went many . . . gains. A resurgent southern elite once again set about imposing White supremacy and tyrannical labor discipline while stripping freedpeople of many of their civic and political rights.”
Bruce Levine, historian, The Fall of the House of Dixie, 2013
“For many poor Whites throughout the South, Jim Crow laws alone could not ease their most persistent fear. In regions like northern Louisiana, with little but pine trees rising from its barren soil, White men found themselves competing with [formerly enslaved people], and during the dozen years of Reconstruction they had not known which race would prevail.
“Such men had dropped away from the Ku Klux Klan after President Grant’s crackdown, but their simmering resentments had grown. With control of the South passing again to the Democrats, powerless Whites were joining plantation owners to ensure that Black workers remained without their basic rights.”
A. J. Langguth, historian, After Lincoln, 2014
Question
Which of the following arguments about Reconstruction policies would both authors most likely disagree with?
Responses
White Southerners across all economic classes rejected Reconstruction policies.
White Southerners across all economic classes rejected Reconstruction policies.
With Republicans in retreat, Southern Democrats grew more supportive of Reconstruction policies.
With Republicans in retreat, Southern Democrats grew more supportive of Reconstruction policies.
Reconstruction policies failed to prevent the spread of violence against formerly enslaved people.
Reconstruction policies failed to prevent the spread of violence against formerly enslaved people.
Unfair labor conditions in the South persisted despite Reconstruction policies.