Zinn Questions
Ito
1. On what basis did the U.S. government support slavery?
2. What actions did the U.S. government take to support slavery? Do
these actions support Zinn’s assertion that “Such a government would
never accept an end to slavery by rebellion”? WHy would the white
elute want to determine when and how slavery would end?
3. Why would someone dance and laugh the evening of the morning he
received two hundred lashes?
4. Was resistance to slavery more, as much, or less, effective than
rebellion? Explain.
5. How did slaves manage to maintain a community? Why did they work
so hard to do so?
6. Why was there a price on David Walker’s head?
7. Why might Frederick Douglass have been “the most famous black man
of his time”?
8. What does Sarah Logue’s proposal and Loguen’s response reveal about
how slave owners justified slavery?
9. What was “the triple hurdle” that Sojourner Truth had to overcome?
10. .Lincoln was able to speak to both sides of the slavery debate.
Why did he feel compelled to speak to both sides, given his personal
solution to the problem of slavery in America?
11. .How did the northern elite’s plans for economic expansion force
the South into radical opposition?
12. .How was the Emancipation Proclamation a military tactic?
13. What evidence supports the thesis that the North could not have
won without the help of American blacks?
14. After the South surrendered unconditionally, how did Congress
dispose of the land confiscated during the war? Of what significance
was this decision?
15. In 1868, was the Georgia legislature successful in expelling its
black members?
16. In 1883, the Supreme Court declared the Civil Rights Act of 1875
unconstitutional. What was the majority argument? What was Justice
Harlan’s dissenting argument?
17. How did blacks respond to the end of the U.S. government’s
military protection of black civil rights?
18. Debate Resolution: The Civil War was fought to end slavery. Agree
or disagree with the resolution. Come up with at least 3 quotes/
citations from Zinn or your textbook to support your point of view. Be
prepared to debate when you return.