<p>My APUSH teacher gives us DBQ's and essays to do pretty much every 4 or 5 days. This is a sample DBQ essay that I wrote in response to one of his prompts. I don't remember exactly what the prompt said and I even more don't remember what the documents were. He scored me a 7 out of 9. I'd like to know what the rest of you guys think because I normally do not score anything above a 4.*** Did this essay deserve a 7?*** Please and thanks in advance!</p>
<p>***note:* Not all documents may have been used properly. So if you see a "?" or "example" somewhere in parentheses, it's basically the teacher's side comments as he read my DBQ.</p>
<h2>the prompt: something to the effect of, were the changes that occurred from 1860-1877 constitutionally or socially revolutionary? </h2>
<pre><code>Following Lincoln's death (?), Radical Republicans took control of Congress and attempted to create a social and constitutional revolution. To do so, they amended the Constitution and imposed the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. Although the purpose of these amendments was to create black equality, the South resisted acceptance of these changes so that this could not be possible. In turn, there really were not any social developments even though the constitution had been changed.
Lincoln was a moderate Republican and had argued for black suffrage. However, the issue was complicated because of the debate on whether the federal government has the right to interfere (?) with the suffrage that the Founding Fathers had directed at the sates (doc. D). However, when the Radical Republicans in Congress succeeded Lincoln, they imposed the 14th amendment to allow blacks civil rights, and the 15th amendment to guarantee black suffrage. This plan to provide equality to Blacks would have worked if the South did not retaliate with Jim Crow Laws to hinder and complicated the voting process for blacks. These laws provided that blacks must pass a literacy test prior to voting, and since most blacks were illiterate due to slavery, they found themselves back in the middle of inequality (doc. F and C). Ultimately, blacks realized that even though the Constitution had been amended to give them equality, the South had yet to truly accept them before they could be truly equal.
The Freedman's Bureau was formed in 1865 o help blacks adapt to life as freemen. It aimed to provide education, land, and all other necessities for assimilating into American life. However, this attempt to assimilate proved to be ultimately useless because of corrupt deals between the Bureau's members and Southern former slave owners. Many of these deals returned the freed men to work on their ex-owners' fields. And since life before and after freedom had been achieved was basically the same, the Bureau's purpose of equation and assimilating blacks was never achieved (Doc. E). Thus, although the federal government attempted to help the blacks, society remained unchained because the South still wanted to revert back to its former lifestyle of superiority.
The South did all that it could to suppress and terrorize blacks. The idea was to demonstrate white superiority even though blacks were no longer slaves. The Ku Klux Klan was formed for this purpose and because of it, the Force Bill had to be imposed to control the racist men (Doc I and H). The Force Bill sent in the military to control the KKK terrorization but was ultimately useless because the KKK had already fulfilled its purpose of intimating blacks (Example). Because of this intimating, it is no surprise that social change did not occur. Blacks, though yearning, still did not have the power to counter racist white efforts against them.
Every effort the North made to pacify the South and/or to help the Blacks was blatantly rejected by the South. If the North declared one law, the South would find a loophole and thus the country was a mess of disunity and debate over Constitutional changes (?) (Doc. A and B). This tug-of-war is also anther reason for why no social changes resulted from constitutional changes from 1860 to 1877. Even if the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were wholeheartedly radical and revolutionary constitutional changes, social changes, never mind developments, were not in any way possible because of strong Southern resistance (Doc. G).
Although the Radical Republicans' purpose was to create a revolutionary social change through a revolutionary constitutional change, this did not happen. It was too soon after the Civil War and Southern opposition to Radical Republican ideals was still too stubborn. Thus, fighting fire with fire only led to a draw between the North and the South. No social change resulted from the Radical Republicans' constitutional change.
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<p>**teacher's end comment: well argued and supported. More outside facts would help- but you recognize the issue and argue effectively.</p>