Destruction of Reconstruction Everyone knows about the South during Civil War times, and how they did not want to make slaves free, so they tried to leave and form the Confederate. However, after the war was over, both the North and South made many mistakes. It was 1876, 100 years after The Declaration of Independence, and the country was still healing from the bloodiest war in American history. It was the Civil War, which raged from 1861 to 1865, where the outcome was that all men, no matter what their race, were equals and could even vote. But then, the country went back into a disastrous state, when Reconstruction of the South ended. “...the slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery .” (W.E.B. …show more content…
The North and their neglect of the South was responsible for the end of Reconstruction because they ignored it and faced other problems, and they removed troops from the South, which …show more content…
Only a few years after the Civil War had ended, the nation was divided on who should become the next president. To avoid a disaster, they organized an informal agreement, the Compromise of 1877, which made Rutherford Hayes the President, but they also removed federal troops and took them out of the South(Background Essay Para 4). This was a huge mistake, mainly for one big reason. This reason was that this left the KKK to pretty much do whatever they wanted without having to worry about getting caught. The North knew that the KKK was too dangerous to run around freely, and they simply ignored that fact so Hayes could become President. The lack of troops in the South led to the KKK, as mentioned before, capturing,torturing, and sometimes even killing freedmen or any who were for Reconstruction. “They set in and whipped me a thousand licks more, with sticks and straps that had buckles on the ends of them.”(Doc B Para 1) The North was well aware of this fact, but they simply chose to
Although it wasn’t the main reason reason Reconstruction ended, northern neglect was still a significant problem. “...in the 1870s, Northern voters grew indifferent to events in the South. Weary of the ‘Negro question and ‘sick of carpet-bag’ government, many Northern voters shifted their attention to such national concerns as the Panic of 1873 and corruption in Grant’s administration….” (Harper’s weekly Doc C) If we want to know as much information as possible about how the North lost interest in Reconstruction we must understand the
7 May 2014 After the Civil War, the victorious Union enacted a policy of Reconstruction in the former Confederate states. Reconstruction was aimed at creating as smooth a transition as possible for the southern states to re-enter the Union as well as enacting economic and social changes. However, several factors brought about its failure, and as a result the consequences can be seen in the race problems we still have today. In 1862, President Lincoln appointed temporary military governors to re-establish functional governments in occupied southern states. In order for a state to be allowed to re-enter the Union, it had to meet the criteria, which was established to be that at least 10 percent of the voting population polled in 1860 must denounce the Confederacy and swear allegiance to the Union again.
KKK was targeting certain type of people. In Document A it says the type of people the KKK was targeting were congressmen, radical republicans, carpetbaggers,and scalawags. KKK was targeting them because those people mostly liked reconstruction.In Document B it talks about the KKK was threatining and half killing a former slave named Abram Colby. KKK was threatening him because he was voting for the radical ticket. KKK didn't want him to vote for that because that would give black people rights, and they want slaves to reunite. In Document B Colby says, "On the 29th of October 1869, [the Klansmen] broke my door open, took me out of bed, took me to the woods and whipped me three hours or more and left me for dead (Colby paragraph 1)." Colby was asked, "What is the character of those men who were engaged in whipping you (Colby paragraph 2)?" South killed reconstruction because KKK was really angry and mad that there was reconstruction. KKK was mad about reconstruction because now slaves that have been freed have same and equal rights. KKK wanted slaves and didn't want to do things
Reconstruction could be considered one of the largest projects ever undertaken. The mess that was the south, left in the ruins of a bloody war, called for drastic measures. The inquisition that begs to be asked is whether or not this venture was a success. Unfortunately the answer isn't as simple as "yes" or "no". Although many promises were broken, the much-debated goals of Reconstruction are still present in the minds of today's leaders as we continue to rebuild our country.
It ended too soon to complete the transformation of the South. The cause was forfeited not by Republicans, who welcomed the African-American votes, but to the elite North who had concluded that the formal end of slavery was all the freed man needed and their unpreparedness for the ex-slaves to participate in the Southern commonwealth was evident. Racism, severe economic depression, an exhausted North and troubled South, and a campaign of organized violence toward the freed man, overturned Reconstruction. The North withdrew the last of the federal troops with the passing of The Compromise of 1877.
During the 1800s, the succeeding era following the American Civil War was sought to be a period of prosperity, privilege and freedom for those affected by the calamitous war and preceding period of oppression. This era of reconstruction made a genuine effort to; Readmit Confederate States to Union, establish and defend the rights to newly-freed African Americans, and integrate them into the United State's social, economic and political operations. However, the reality of this adverse situation was that southern, democratic radicals would institute new laws known as "Black Codes" (OI) which would set a nationwide precedent that they would go as far as they needed to maintain their confederate way of life. Other southern radicals had also created White Supremacy Organizations to combat opposing Republicans and freedmen. The severity of the situation synergized with Confederate hate established the grounds in which the efforts of Reconstruction ultimately failed.
In the first few years of the Reconstruction, violent acts against the former slaves took place primarily in the south. In 1866, about one year after the civil war, the most well renowned terrorist group of the time, the Klu Klux Klan, took shape in Tennessee. In 1866, the Civil Rights Bill was proposed in Congress. At the time, it was referred to as, “one of the most important bills ever presented to the House for its action.”
The primary sources I selected to write about have do with the horrible years of the Reconstruction Period, how freedom for former slaves was a huge issue and debate across the whole nation, especially the south because of the views slave holders had. From these primary sources we see what former slave holders had to say about their views on the freedom of slaves, and the views of former slaves as well on freedom and the sacrifices and pain they had to go through to be where they are at today.
... and slavery left millions of newly freed African Americans in the South without an education, a home, or a job. Before reconstruction was put in place, African Americans in the South were left roaming helplessly and hopelessly. During the reconstruction period, the African Americans’ situation did not get much better. Although helped by the government, African Americans were faced with a new problem. African Americans in the South were now being terrorized and violently discriminated by nativist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. Such groups formed in backlash to Reconstruction and canceled out all the positive factors of Reconstruction. At last, after the Compromise of 1877, the military was taken out of the South and all of the Reconstruction’s efforts were basically for nothing. African Americans in the South were back to the conditions they started with.
William Mason Grosvenor believes that Reconstruction should be harsh. Grosvenor has two main arguments to support this belief, manifest destiny and the potential for the reoccurrence of a similar event to the war if Reconstruction was carried out in a lenient manner. Grosvenor argues that the country, pre-Civil War, was never truly a single unified country, but rather a group of peoples with vastly different values held together by a constitution which they had outgrown, saying, “[n]o chemical union had ever taken place; for that the white-hot crucible of civil war was found necessary.” Furthermore, Grosvenor believes that the succession of the South demonstrated this divide while simultaneously violating the doctrine of manifest destiny through
The Americans of African and European Ancestry did not have a very good relationship during the Civil war. They were a major cause of the Civil War. But, did they fix or rebuild that relationship after the war from the years 1865 to 1900? My opinion would be no. I do not believe that the Americans of African and European ancestry successfully rebuilt their relationship right after the Civil war. Even though slavery was finally slowly getting abolished, there was still much discrimination against the African Americans. The Jim Crow laws and the black codes discriminated against black people. The Ku Klux Klan in particular discriminated against black people. Even though the United States government tried to put laws into the Constitution to protect black people, the African Americans were discriminated in every aspect of life from housing, working, educating, and even going to public restrooms!
The South won in Reconstruction in many ways. Rebuilding the South was one of its major focuses. Several canals, bridges, and railroads were rebuilt with Reconstruction funds. The Republicans in Congress agreed with southern legislatures on how important business was. For this, a large amount of money was gathered to help the South’s reconstruction. Even though slavery was abolished with the passing of the 13th Amendment, it still existed in the South in the forms of “Black Codes” and cults like the Ku Klux Klan. In conclusion, Lincoln won the war for the North, but President Johnson won Reconstruction for the South by allowing them to create their own laws to keep the former slaves down and keeping their Southern lifestyles.
Reconstruction failed because many white Americans still believed that African Americans were inferior to them. Congressman Boyer, said, “But it is not the complexion of the Negro that degrades him . . . [the Negro is] a race by nature inferior in mental caliber . . . the Negroes are not the equals of white Americans, and are not entitled . . . to participate in the Government of this country . . .” This idea of inferiority even exceeded to create the Ku Klux Klan, a violent group of white Americans against the idea of equality for freedmen. The Ku Klux Klan was
With the end of the Civil war in 1865, the new nation of the United States now faced challenges on restoring peace within the Union. The North, having won the civil war, now faced the task to implement reconstruction of the South. They came in contact with the questions of: What should happen to the freed slaves, should the freed slaves have rights, what should be done to the Confederate leaders, and how should the South be reconstructed? There were many different ideas and views on how Reconstruction should be handled, but only one succeeded more successfully than the other. Although they bear some superficial similarities, the difference between presidential and congressional reconstruction are clear. The president believed that Confederate
The North’s neglect and greediness caused the reconstruction to be a failure.The corrupt government, terrorist organizations, unfocused president, and ignorance were also part of the ending of the reconstruction. President Lincoln didn’t want the civil war he wanted to keep the nation together. When Lincoln went into office he wasn't planning on getting rid of slavery nor starting a civil war. Before the reconstruction era was the civil war. Many good things and bad things came from the civil war. The civil war was a war between the North and the South. The war for the north was to end slavery, but for the south it was about rights and liberty. It wasn’t until afterwards that Americans started to notice the good and the bad. Not as many people