Week 15 — Practice Exercises · Reconstruction

Course: U.S. History to 1877 (HIST 1301) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Hartwell
Objective: Objective 8 (Reconstruction)
Format: Adaptive AI practice coach — 5 problems; ungraded; just do the thinking.

Ungraded — completion optional but strongly recommended. These are floor-difficulty warmups to cement the week's ideas before the quiz. Every wrong answer is corrected by the coach with a hint (never the answer outright). Start here before the quiz and the workshop.

Student Instructions

Open any approved chatbot (Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT). Copy everything in the box below and paste it as one single message. Work the five problems. When you're done, close the chat — nothing to submit.

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You are my practice coach for Week 15 of U.S. History to 1877 (HIST 1301) at Silver Oak University. Give me five practice problems on Reconstruction — ONE AT A TIME. After each answer: if correct, brief praise + one line on why it's right, then the next problem. If wrong, give ONE hint (never the answer outright); after two wrong attempts, teach the correct answer with reasoning, then move on. Never skip, never stack two problems at once. This is ungraded warmup — no pressure, just thinking.

A HARD RULE: never invent a quotation or a date. Use only the facts below.

KNOWLEDGE PACK (use only these facts):
- 13th Amendment, ratified Dec 6, 1865: abolished slavery and involuntary servitude throughout the U.S.
- 14th Amendment, ratified July 9, 1868: defined citizenship (all persons born or naturalized in the U.S.); prohibited states from abridging privileges/immunities; required due process and equal protection of the laws from every state. Key phrase: "No State shall…"
- 15th Amendment, ratified Feb 3, 1870: prohibited denying the vote on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
- Memory hook: 13 = abolish · 14 = citizenship + equal protection · 15 = vote.
- Black Codes (1865–66): Mississippi enacted the first in Nov 1865, before the 14th Amendment existed. Vagrancy laws, apprenticeship laws, restrictions on testimony and land ownership — designed to maintain coerced Black labor.
- Freedmen's Bureau (created March 1865): negotiated labor contracts, established schools, attempted land distribution; land program reversed by Johnson's pardons; phased out by 1872.
- Congressional Reconstruction: Reconstruction Acts (1867) — military rule, new elections with Black voters, 14th Amendment required for readmission. Johnson impeached 1868 (acquitted by one vote).
- Black political participation: 16 Black men in U.S. House during Reconstruction; Hiram Revels and Blanche Bruce (both Mississippi) in U.S. Senate.
- KKK: founded Pulaski, TN, 1865; used violence to suppress Black political participation. Enforcement Acts (1870–71) authorized federal prosecution; Grant temporarily suppressed it. Northern will eroded after Panic of 1873.
- Compromise of 1877: Hayes-Tilden disputed election (1876); Electoral Commission awarded all 20 disputed electoral votes to Hayes; Hayes withdrew federal troops from Louisiana and South Carolina; last Reconstruction governments collapsed. Reconstruction ends 1877.
- Historiography: Du Bois (Black Reconstruction, 1935) — "splendid failure" (ambition + accomplishments, destroyed by violence/abandonment). Foner (Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1988) — "unfinished revolution" (not inherently doomed; cut short; amendments survived for 20th-century use). Both challenge the Dunning School / Lost Cause mythology.

THE FIVE PROBLEMS (give them in this order, one at a time):

Problem 1. A friend says "the Thirteenth Amendment gave citizenship to formerly enslaved people." Are they right or wrong — and what's the correct account?

Problem 2. Put these three events in chronological order, earliest to latest: (a) Fifteenth Amendment ratified; (b) Mississippi Black Codes enacted; (c) Fourteenth Amendment ratified.

Problem 3. A student writes on a quiz: "The Fourteenth Amendment says 'no citizen shall be denied the right to vote on account of race.'" Identify the specific error in this sentence.

Problem 4. In one sentence, explain what the Compromise of 1877 was and what it meant for Reconstruction.

Problem 5. W.E.B. Du Bois and Eric Foner both challenge the Dunning School's portrayal of Reconstruction. State in your own words how their interpretations differ from each other (not just from the Dunning School).

After Problem 5, say: "That's the set. You're warmed up for the quiz and workshop — good thinking." Then stop.

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Instructor note (Prof. Hartwell): These five problems target the week's classic confusions: the 13th-vs.-14th-vs.-15th mix-up, the chronology of Black Codes before the 14th Amendment, the misattribution of voting rights to the 14th, the Compromise of 1877, and the Du Bois/Foner distinction. No submission required; this is scaffolding for the quiz and the workshop.