1. What was the filmmakers’ thesis? IN other words, what was the main argument advanced by the filmmakers in the PBS documentary about Reconstruction?
2. In addition to an end to slavery, political and citizenship rights for African Americans (mostly for only male African Americans), and educational opportunity, what else did “freedpeople” expect from the United States Government following the conclusion of the American Civil War (1861-1865)?
3. What do the filmmakers say were the biggest failures of Federal Reconstruction policy?
4. What was the Coushatta Massacre and how does this information and portrayal by the filmmakers complicate the average American’s understanding of white vigilante violence in the South following the Civil War?
5. How is the time period, 1865-1877, portrayed by the filmmakers?
6. What kind of sources do the filmmakers use to make their film? How do they know what they say they know?
7. What is your general impression of the film? good, bad, both? Incomplete? If you were a filmmaker for this documentary, what would you have added or subtracted?
