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1. What is the significance of the years 1865 through 1877?

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. defines 1865 as the beginning of the era of Reconstruction, during which the United States government attempted to right the wrongs that had been inflicted by centuries of enslavement. He states that the era of Reconstruction ended in 1877.

2. What two events does Gate use in order to mark the beginning and climax of the Redemption era?

In the preface of Stony the Road, Gates names the dates of Reconstruction as 1865 through 1877. He then goes on to define the beginning of the Redemption era, saying that it had started in 1877 "when the last of the former Confederate states were reclaimed by Southern Democrats" (xv). Gates names the year of its zenith as 1915, when D.W. Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation was released.

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