When General O. O. Howard assumed his duties as commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau on May 12, 1865, he faced no problem more difficult than that of affording freedmen legal protection. Despite the fact that the war had dealt a death blow to slavery, the legal status that blacks would occupy as free men was uncertain when the war ended.
In the pre-war period, Southern state law has discriminated against free blacks, providing harsher criminal punishment for them than for whites, denying them the right to testify against whites, and severely restricting their liberty in numerous ways. In the war's aftermath, Southern whites, rapidly able to gain control of their state and local governments under President Andrew Johnson's program of reconstruction, stood ready to apply this discriminatory law to the freedmen. Nor was the problem of affording freedmen legal protection limited to shielding them from enforcement of discriminatory state law.
In the post-war period, Southern whites, fearful of the consequences of liberation, resorted to violence on a massive scale in order to maintain their dominance over blacks. And in the face of this violence, Southern state law enforcement and judicial officials generally proved to be either unwilling or unable to bring to justice whites who had committed acts of violence against freedmen. Moreover, the problem of protecting black workers against immoral employers also confronted Howard and his subordinates.
Although the Freedmen's Bureau Act authorized them to lease and ultimately to sell abandoned land to freedmen, Andrew Johnson's policy prevented Bureau officials from using that authority to make blacks
landowners. Consequently, in order to support themselves, most freedmen found it necessary to work for
whites as plantation and farm laborers. And given impoverished planters' inability to pay laborers in cash at
the end of each month, most black laborers had little choice but to agree to work for planters for an entire
year and to receive their pay, in either cash or a share of the crop, at the end of the year. In this situation,
white employers, many of whom were eager to pay their workers as little as possible, had numerous opportunities to deny freedmen’s right.
Question 44. The word “unwilling” in the passage is closest in meaning to _______.
A. unsuitable B. thankless C. disgraceful D. reluctant
Question 45. The word “their” in the passage refers to _______.
A. law enforcement official B. blacks
C. Southern whites D. judicial officials
Question 46. With which of the following statements would the author be most likely to agree?
A. The Freedmen's Bureau ultimately proved a success because it was able to guarantee freedmen Southern plantation and farm owners.
B. Freedmen were, in many ways, still slaves after the war because of their economic dependence on plantation and farm owners.
C. President Johnson's actions were guided by a desire to win the respect and loyalty of the Southern control freedmen.
D. Because Southerners had no resort to the judicial system, they employed violence as a means to private ownership of land.
Question 47. It can be inferred from the passage that Southern whites who committed violence against
freedmen ________.
A. generally went unpunished.
B. were often law enforcement officials.
C. tried to reinstate slavery into the law.
D. were motivated by hate and anger.
Question 48. According to the passage, President Johnson's program of reconstruction _______.
A. had as it primary goal the legal protection of freedmen from discrimination.
B. did not prevent Southerners form recovering their political power in government.
C. condemned slavery but failed to take any action to destroy it.
D. supported the South's criminal punishment of freedmen.
Question 49. The world “shielding” in the passage is closest in meaning to _______.
A. exposing B. punishing C. protecting D. stopping
Question 50. What is the passage mainly about?
A. The need to protect freedmen from discriminatory laws.
B. The violence freedmen endured and the economic plights they faced.
C. General O. O. Howard's attempts to ensure economic equality for freedmen.
D. The problems facing the Freedmen's Bureau.
