After the Civil War, the 13th Amendment was passed and slavery was abolished (Doc. 8). In addition, 14th and 15th amendments were passed which gave citizenship and the right to vote to African Americans (OI). If the slaves didn’t try fight for their freedom, the US would have the equal rights that they have today. This changed the fabric of the American population forever.
The critical time periods in the Ku Klux Klan’s history can be simply broken down into separate “Klans.” Former Confederate soldiers in Pulaski, Tennessee formed the first Klan around a year after the end of the Civil War. Soon after, Nathan Forrest, a former Confederate lieutenant general, was named the “Grand Wizard” of the organization. The “main objective of white supremacy organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan, the White Brotherhood, the Men of Justice, the Constitutional Union Guards and the Knights of the White Camelia was to stop black people from voting” and restore the white supremacy the South saw prior to the Civil War ("Effects of the Klu Klux Klan"). At this point, Klansmen would ride at night through towns brutally intimidating, blacks and radical Republicans. These tactics got so bad that in 1870, Congress began passing the first of three...
Between 1860 and 1877, America experienced a number of constitutional and social changes, as a result of the Republican election and loss of southern power that lead to the Civil War, and the reconstruction efforts that would follow, inevitably proving unsuccessful. During this period, the south, and the freedmen left residing in southern states as well, had to adjust to a new society, driven by constitutional developments such as the Emancipation Proclamation, and later, the 13th amendment, which freed slaves and left them to assimilate into a white civilization. These freedmen gained the rights to vote, hold positions of power in congress, serve in the army, and own land- which although would not last for a very long period- would prove to
...d freedmen’s civic activities. Although theoretically unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment, black codes remained in effect throughout the South, albeit unofficially, due to terror campaigns waged by racist clubs like the Ku Klux Klan. This association of ex-Confederates tormented, brutalized, and lynched freedmen and opportunistic Northerners who had traveled southward to reap the benefits of victory in the war. A Thomas Nast cartoon labeled the Klan as “worse than slavery” (Document I), attesting to its influence. Ultimately, the federal government suppressed the organization through laws that transferred jurisdiction over Klan cases to the federal government. Reinvigorated Southerners responded to these enactments by asserting modified versions of the states’ rights doctrine, as evidenced by an article in a publication entitled Nation (Document H).
After the Civil War the whole country suffered a great loss of life and industry. Entire cities were destroyed piercing the economy; the South was particularly affected by the war. Directly after the war the Klan saw much activity trying to get Democrats in office that would not support the advancements of former slaves. Eventually by the end of the 1880’s the South seemed to be more st...
The South was unhappy at their current situation in the union and accordingly seceded from the union. Ironically, the principle that proposed to divide the nation stemmed from the very one that had caused its union. The civil war, similar to that of the revolution, was nothing more than a fight for independence. Because Lincoln formulated every political thought from the Declaration of Independence, the South could not justify secession. It could not secede because there were no liberties or God-given rights being violated by the government like had caused the Revolutionary War.
In response to his beliefs about slavery, President Lincoln was shot by James Earl Booth. Furthermore, hate crimes skyrocketed in the South with the rise of White Supremacy and the Ku Klux Klan. During the period that Republicans controlled state governments in the South, groups or southern whites organized secret societies to intimidate black and white reformers. The Ku Klux Klan was an “invisible empire” that burned black-owned buildings and flogged and murdered free men to keep them from exercising their voting rights. In addition, lynchings became prevalent in the South and were an effective way of scaring African Americans from voting. Several policies such as Jim Crow Laws, the Grandfather Clause, poll taxes and literacy tests were implemented in the South as a way of preventing any political activity run by African Americans. The despicable acts of the Ku Klux Klan and White Supremists extended to burning the houses of freedmen, and as a result, they were considered to be worse than slavery
Groups of people soon received new rights. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act. It gave black Americans full citizenship and guaranteed them equal treatment. Also, it passed the Fourteenth Amendment to make sure that the Supreme Court couldn’t declare the Civil Rights Act unconstitutional. The amendment made blacks citizens of the United States and the states in which they lived. Also, states were forbidden to deprive blacks of life, liberty, or property without due process. Additionally, blacks could not be discriminated by the law. If a state would deprive blacks of their rights as citizens, it’s number of congressional representatives would be reduced. The Civil Rights Act as well as the Fourteenth Amendment affected both the North and the South.
...r right to vote. Social and economic segregation were added to the black American’s loss of political power. In some cases, to keep white supremacy, a group called “Ku Klux Klan” would intimidate black males who had voted or who tried to vote. The Ku Klux Klan along with other groups would often burn their homes, churches, and schools down. Some even resorted to murder. A number of these blacks were killed while attempting to defend their right to vote.
Southern Resistance made the process of Reconstruction worse. They sent groups of terrorist into the North which caused the government to focus more on the safety of the people, than reconstructing the South. (Background Essay) The KKK was just one of the groups that the North was worried about other White Southerners and Carpetbaggers. The only reason the North was losing faith in their own government was because of the terrorists groups in the South. Also the KKK was attacking the government because they thought the government wasn’t legit. (Doc. B Para.2) The government gave everyone freedom of religion, speech, and equal rights. (Doc. B Para.1) President Grant was always trying to look out for everyone in both the North and 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.” (Gerald Danzer Doc. C) What he meant by this was the Northern Neglect was tired of the Southern Resistance acting like the 13th and 14th amendment was never made and they still had a lot of racism in the Southern Resistance.(Doc. C
The Civil War marked a defining moment in United States history. Long simmering sectional tensions reached critical when eleven slaveholding states seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. Political disagreement gave way to war as the Confederates insisted they had the right to leave the Union, while the loyal states refused to allow them to go. Four years of fighting claimed almost 1.5 million casualties, resulting in a Union victory. Even though the North won the war, they did a horrible job in trying to win the peace, or in other words, the Reconstruction era. Rather than eliminating slavery in the South, the Southerners had a new form of slavery, which was run by a new set of codes called "Black Codes”. With the help of President Johnson, the South continued their plantations, in essence becoming exactly what they were before the war. Overall, the South won Reconstruction because in the end they got slavery (without the name), they got an easy pass back into the Union, and things reverted back to the way they had been prior the war.
On one hand the slaves were free, and on the other hand they were not given equal rights, and they were discriminated for the color of their skin tone. In other words, Reconstruction was a mixed success, which combined both positive and negative impacts. By the end of the era, the North and South were once again reunited, and all southern state legislatures had abolished slavery in their constitutions. However, it some sense, Reconstruction was a failure because blacks were not provided equal rights and opportunities. Racism and segregation did not end at all. On the other hand, there was a huge change to the country as the US was completely in a chaos stage during the civil war. Despite some obstructions, it can be concluded that the Reconstruction was somewhat beneficial for African American. As time passes, many schools and colleges were founded for blacks, and many other doors were opened to uplift their life. Overall, all these outcomes can be considered as a huge
... 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.
Reconstruction was intended to give African-Americans the chance for a new and better life. Many of them stayed with their old masters after being freed, while others left in search of opportunity through education as well as land ownership. However this was not exactly an easy task. There were many things standing in their way, chiefly white supremacists and the laws and restrictions they placed upon African-Americans. Beginning with the 'black codes' established by President Johnson's reconstruction plan, blacks were required to have a curfew as well as carry identification. Labor contracts established under Johnson's Reconstruction even bound the 'freedmen' to their respective plantations. A few years later, another set of laws known as the 'Jim Crow' laws directly undermined the status of blacks by placing unfair restrictions on everything from voting rights all the way to the segregation of water fountains. Besides these restrictions, the blacks had to deal with the Democratic Party whose northern wing even denounced racial equality. As a result of democratic hostility and the Republican Party's support of Black suffrage, freedmen greatly supported the Republican Party.
After the end of American Civil War in 1865, The Thirteenth Amendment was added to the constitution of the United States that stated “Neither slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have duly convicted, shall exist in the United States, nor any place subject to their jurisdiction.” By this no black people could be owned by the whites. In spite of this, blacks were severely segregated in the South. This resulted in the formation of anti-radical movement in the South called Ku Klux Klan organization which represented white supremacy by whipping ...