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Difficulty: MediumPolitical and Social Impacts of the Civil War

We, the freedmen of Edisto Island, South Carolina, address the President of the United States. We have been placed on these lands by the Government under the promise of the Homestead act of the South. We have planted our crops and made our homes. But now, we are told that our former masters are to be pardoned and our lands restored to them. We are willing to pay for these lands. To be left without land of our own, at the mercy of those who held us in bondage, is to make our freedom a mere shadow. We pray you to secure to us our rights and grant us land of our own.

— Petition of the Committee of Freedmen on Edisto Island to President Andrew Johnson, October 1865

Which of the following historical developments during the Reconstruction era best explains the grievance expressed by the freedmen in the petition?

  1. A
    The passage of the Fourteenth Amendment, which formally abolished the institution of slavery but failed to guarantee land distribution.
  2. The federal policy of restoring land to pardoned former Confederates, which undermined efforts to establish economic independence for freedpeople.Answer
  3. C
    The enactment of the Military Reconstruction Acts, which immediately restored land ownership rights to former Confederate leaders.
  4. D
    The extension of popular sovereignty to Southern states, permitting local voters to decide whether freedpeople could purchase land.

Answer

The federal policy of restoring land to pardoned former Confederates, which undermined efforts to establish economic independence for freedpeople.
The correct option is the one noting the federal policy of restoring land to pardoned former Confederates. In 1865, President Andrew Johnson issued broad pardons to former Confederates and ordered that land previously set aside for freedpeople under policies like General Sherman's Special Field Order No. 15 be returned to its original owners. This left the vast majority of freedpeople without land of their own, forcing them into sharecropping and preventing them from achieving economic independence.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the primary source petition to determine the main grievance.
The freedmen are protesting that the lands they settled on are being returned to pardoned former Confederate landowners.
Identifying the core issue in the text is the first step in linking it to a historical event.
2
Connect this grievance to the specific federal policies of the late 1865 Reconstruction period.
President Andrew Johnson's lenient Presidential Reconstruction policy restored property rights to pardoned Confederates, overturning wartime land redistribution policies.
This links the historical event to the cause of the grievance.
3
Verify options to eliminate choices containing factual errors or representing different eras/concepts.
Confirm that the Fourteenth Amendment did not abolish slavery, the Military Reconstruction Acts did not restore land, and popular sovereignty is a pre-war territorial doctrine.
Ensures the correct answer is selected based on historical accuracy.

Key Concept

The economic and social challenges faced by freedpeople due to federal land policies during early Reconstruction.
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Topics

Political and Social Impacts of the Civil War

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