Survey of US History
• For Part A, you will discuss three ways that the relationship between black and white Americans changed as a result of Reconstruction, which ended in 1877. Was there new legislation, Constitutional amendments, or Supreme Court decisions that changed the status of certain groups of Americans? What happened with labor rights, working conditions, socioeconomic standing, or migration patterns and living conditions? There are many political, social, economic, and cultural approaches you can take in your response. In your response, you want to emphasize specific changes that developed in U.S. race relations, and you need to demonstrate clearly how Reconstruction Era policies played a clear role in affecting those changes. • For Part B, you will describe two consequences of industrialization on U.S. politics and/or society. This means that you can describe two political changes, two social changes, OR one political and one social change. What were some of the new industrial processes and technologies that transformed the United States and how did those developments affect where and how people lived and worked? How was the political and economic power of different social classes reorganized? Were there new political parties that emerged or legislation that was passed to reflect changes in the working class? What other new institutions, labor organizations or welfare societies, emerged in this period as a result of industrialization? In your response, you want to demonstrate clearly that industrialization was the major influence shaping the two political and/or social consequences that you describe. • For Part C, you will explain the rise of the U.S. Progressive movement that accompanied industrialization from Reconstruction through the start of World War I by doing the following: In Part C1, describe with strong examples how religion and a concern with social morality (i.e., combating vices like alcohol, indigence, and sex) fueled many Progressive Era reform movements. How did religion impact Progressivism at this time?
Sample Answer
The Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 freed the black people in rebel states, and after the Civil War, the Thirteenth Amendment created freedom for all U.S. slaves wherever they were. As a result, the majority of Southern blacks now faced the challenge of being independent on a yet hostile environment. The aftermath of Emancipation Proclamation was met with confusion as whites who were used to slave labor were now aggrieved. The paper posits the relationship experienced by the different races after that historic period among other crucial issues that emerged after the reconstruction period.
