Guided Primary Source Analysis: First Post-War Legislature

Use the Library of Congress primary source analysis tool to analyze the image. What do you notice? What do you find surprising? What can you learn from the bibliographic record? Why do you suppose the men in the image were referred to as radical members? What questions do you have?

Next, analyze the two sources below to learn what this legislature accomplished and what resistance there was to their work. Summarize what you learned and how your new understandings inform your analysis of the image.

• Constitution of the state of South Carolina and the ordinances, reports and resolutions adopted by the Convention of the people held in Columbia, S.C., September, 1865
• The respectful remonstrance, on behalf of the white people of South Carolina, against the constitution of the late Convention of that state, now submitted to Congress for ratification 1868

Now read a secondary source relating major events in South Carolina reconstruction politics. List the key takeaways you gained. What questions do you have that you might research using the primary sources below?

• 1895 South Carolina Constitution from the Journal of the Constitutional conventions of the state of South Carolina
• Speeches at the Constitutional Convention
• Wade Hampton primary source set
• Ben Tillman primary source set

What other observations, reflections or questions does this source inspire? Let us know!