I think it's a combination of the two - both the fact that the truth had been hidden and the methods employed.

It's kind of hard to explain exactly how it should be interpreted, but it basically means "the fact that...". It's just one of those weird little expressions that makes English a nightmare.

Yes, I think it means the method of delivery of the message. For example someone could say to someone say : "That dress makes you look fat". A better way of saying a dress doesn't look good on someone is " That dress doesn't compliment you." In both examples you get the point across, which is "you should not wear that dress." but one method of saying it is less harsh than than the other. Sometimes tones, or the voice in which someone says somethings has underlying meanings. I hope this helps you and was what you were looking for.

Thank you very much, Christine.

Taken out of context of the book, the meaning of "way" in the sentence you quoted is very broad and can refer to either the the manner in which someone says something (that is, what tone and words are chosen) or to other (unspecified) factors and conditions that affect how people understand something (i.e., facts, the "truth"). However, given the context that you provided from the book itself, there is no doubt that Harper Lee (through the character who is speaking) is referring to the institution of tenant farming in the South which keeps the tenants in grinding poverty and considerable ignorance. Given that the tenant farmers can barely survive, they surely are not buying books and undoubtedly have poor nutrition, education, health, knowledge of the law, and great difficulty getting out of their virtual bondage. That is, while the farmers are technically "free persons," they are still locked in an oppressive system from which it was very difficult to escape. Southern laws allowed such oppression of tenant farmers. This system did not exist in the North or West when Harper Lee was writing and calling attention to the practice which was also bolstered by institutional segregation. Although not all tenant farmers were Black, most Black farmers were tenant farmers in the South. The "ways" in which access to truth and facts were manipulated by the Whites in government at this time in the South were many. Harper Lee was not talking about someone's tone or which words someone chose to be polite or not. She was talking about the laws and practices which allowed tenant farming to exist in the first place, buttressed by institutionalized racism and segregation. That's what the whole book is about.