Question

The discussion this week begins with an analysis of the primary source selections for the chapter on Reconstruction. (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Mississippi Black Codes, 1865.  (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.Read Jourdon Anderson Writes His Former Master, 1865. (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

filmmaker Ava DuVernay released her documentary The 13th (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Read the text of the Mississippi Black Codes closely. In 2016, filmmaker Ava DuVernay released her documentary The 13th (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., which examines how the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution carried within its short text the seeds for the eventual mass incarceration of recently freed slaves, thus creating a way for southern whites and slaveholders to maintain a system as close to slavery as possible.

1. Pick out one part of the Codes that strikes you as problematic, in that its main justification would be to criminalize the activities of former slaves in defending their freedom;

2. Do you agree with the critiques of many Black Lives Matter activists, and Ana DuVernay, that the policing of communities of color in the United States is still informed by the racial assumptions present before the Civil War, and which we can find embedded in these Codes?

Answer 1

Question 1 :

Explaination:

Black Americans hoped that the end of the civil war would create an entired new world, while white sourtherners tried to restore the antebellum order as much as they could..After the war, slave owner named P.H .Anderson asked contacted Jourdon Anderson, a free man, to return to his Tennessee farm.Then ,

Jourdon Anderson writes his Former Master, 1865

Reply:

He in his letter clearly stated that hevhad no need to consider the offer stating that " Iam doing tolerably well here.I get twenty five dollars a month , with victuals and clothing, have a comfortable home for Mandy, the folks call her Mrs.Anderson, and the children Milly,Jane, and Grundy go to school and are learning well they go to sunday school, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated.

We trust the good maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for generations without recompense!!

This reply would clearly depicts how former slaves were treated!! This reply would be the apt justification to criminalize the activities of former slaves!!

Question 2:

Explaination:

Yes. I do agree with the critiques and the director Ava Duvernay.The film explores the intersection of race, justice,and mass incarceration of in the United States, it is titled after the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution , which freed the slaves and prohibited slavery , with the exception of slavery as punishment for a crime.