Suggested Books and Films for Week Three 

The best overall four-part documentary for understanding Reconstruction, hosted by Henry Lewis Gates. 

The motion picture dispels the notions that the Confederates were united and it is perhaps the film that dramatizes the attempt at Reconstructing the South and the vicious backlash to it. Based on a true story.

This documentary makes clear that Southern states made every attempt to punish Blacks that included the peonage system which those convicted of the most minor crimes were sent to mines and plantations to work in which some lost their lives. This oppressive system lasted until the 1940s.

An excellent overview of Reconstruction by one of the great historians on the subject. This book is enriched by supplementary visual essays.