Reconstruction Dbq

The Reconstruction was an eight-year effort to fix the South after the Civil War left it destroyed. Now that the Civil War ended, and the North & South were united once again, they were the ones responsible for fixing the economic, political, and social damage. Though the Reconstruction was made to unite all Americans and support equality, the Reconstruction ended up tearing America apart. This support soon came to an end in the mid-1870s with the question being; How much responsibility does the South have for the end of southern support? The KKK, political violence, and voting fraud all caused tension and violence that eventually brought the Reconstruction to an end. During the Reconstruction era, the organized white supremacist organization

After being freed for a while, Black former slaves were introduced to violent disputes over black etiquette towards whites, and contract disputes. The KKK was also involved because their goal was to take down the Republican government that was attempting to support the Reconstruction. Now that slaves were freed, and some black men were allowed to work in the political field, they could now speak their mind and show white politicians and the KKK their true feelings, which was usually always anger. Black men felt threatened by the rest of the white men and used violence in order to solve these disputes. Document K shows a northern artist’s portrayal of the South Carolina State Legislature during Reconstruction. The artist made the black men into apes, to show that they were acting like animals in an absurd way that represented their race in a poor manner, you can also see that the white men in the back seem to be frustrated and their facial expression shows signs of embarrassment for the black men fighting each other. The political violence displayed by the southern Black men, frustrated and tired the northerners because they felt like they were the only ones fighting for the support of the South because even blacks were fighting, causing the North to lose interest in helping. Document J showed how political violence really helped end the Reconstruction because; “even pro-Grant, and pro-freedman Boston Evening Transcript ran an a letter… ‘the blacks, as people, are unfitted for the proper exercise of political duties.’...” (Document J) This was a significant moment in the death of the Reconstruction because even major supporters of the Reconstruction were losing hope and seeing that, now that the blacks are freed, they have forgotten about their past as slaves and what it meant to be allowed to participate in anything