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Joseph Scott's Copy of - One Man's Mob Is Another Man's Militia Part 1
Joseph Scott's Copy of - One Man's Mob Is Another Man's Militia Part 1
1. In Post-Reconstruction South Carolina, how did white men reestablish their political and
social authority? (67)The white men reestablished their political and social authority
with violence.
2. What group was blamed for the violence inflicted upon free Blacks in South Carolina?
(67)Poor white men were often blamed for the violence inflicted upon free Blacks
in South Carolina.
3. Professor Kantrowitz writes of a “world they had lost.” Who is “they”, and what “world”
was “lost”? (67-8)”They” means white people. The “world” that was “lost” was
white people’s lives before REconstruction. Before REconstruction they had the
most rights and they had all the authority while blacks had none.
4. What does Kantrowitz state that white Southern men saw as their “responsibility”?
(68)Kantrowitz states the white Southern men are responsible for exercising their
authority over white women, children and the blacks.
5. For what reason(s) were “armed police” created (68)”Armed police” were created as a
result of abolition being forced upon the South. Abolition threatened the social
order.
6. How did Republican leaders hope to unify blacks and whites in the South? (68-9)By
having black soldiers be around white men.
7. Why were African-American militias terrifying to White southerners? (69)White
Southerners believed that black men were unfit for citizenship. They thought that
black men were ignorant and nothing but a mob.
8. Define “polity” and explain how it relates to the main themes of this article. Polity is a
system of government. During the Reconstruction era, the government was
changing to give black people rights and freedoms. When poor white men saw
this, they got angry. The power dynamic began to change and they didn’t like it.
Black men began to be in militias, white men saw this as an illegitimate thing.
They rejected this policy and rebelled.
9. In the eyes of white men in South Carolina, how did they define “the mob”? (69)White
men in South Carolina defined “the mob” as the leaders and supporters of Radical
Reconstruction.
10. How did men like James Henry Hammond define “manhood and citizenship”? (69)
Men like James Henry Hammond might define “manhood and citizenship,” as standing
up for what you believe, even if you have to kill people. Men like him think that black
people need to be slaves with no rights. When that doesn’t happen, they resort to
violence to put black people back in line.