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The history of the reconstruction in the us after the civil war
Thoughts on reconstruction
Thoughts on reconstruction
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The Civil War was the bloodiest series of battles in American history. The battle of Antietam had a total of 23,000 people in one day. The war just ended and all is supposed to go in peace. Is the war really over? The Reconstruction Era was the time period after the war from 1865-1877 (Background Essay, Timeline). This era was when the federal government sent troops down to the South to fix up the damage from the war and to ensure freedom to the former slaves. This time period was when the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were ratified, giving the former slaves civil rights and the right to vote (Background Essay, Paragraph 3) . The Reconstruction Era looked like it was going to be successful, but the Klu Klux Klan/KKK in the South started pushing …show more content…
The Klu Klux Klan killed anybody affiliated with helping Reconstruction or continuing it. For example, the KKK would bribe black legislatures to get somebody else to go in and vote for the Democratic ticket. “About two days before they whipped me they offered me $5,000 to go with them and said they would pay me $2,500 in cash if I would let another man go to the legislature in my place” quoted by Colby Abram, a former slave who was a legislature (Doc B, Paragraph 2). The Klu Klux Klan were very violent to people who did not come to their terms. “He was stabbed five or six times, and then hanged on a hook in the Grand Jury Room” quoted by Tourgee, who was a former Northerner and is a white judge (Doc A, Paragraph 1). Although the KKK had many enemies, they would kill the carpetbaggers, Reconstruction helpers from the North, freedmen, who were former slaves, and the Radical Republicans since they were Democrats. The Klu Klux Klan also disliked the scalawags who were white Southerners who supported Reconstruction. In other words, the KKK was very much a terrorist group like Al Qaeda since their killings were public which was shown when they hung that Senator John W. Stephens in the Grand Jury Hall (Doc A, Paragraph 1). Surprisingly the KKK were mainly first-class men like lawyers, doctors, and farmers. “Some are first-class men in our town”quoted by Colby Abram a former slave who was in …show more content…
The South’s government never bothered to get rid of the Klu Klux Klan. “I say to you plainly that any member of Congress who, especially from the South, does not support, advocate, and urge immediate active and thorough measures to put an end to these outrages … is a coward, a traitor, or a fool” quoted by Tourgee, who was a former Northerner and is a white judge (Doc A, Paragraph 2). The North even says that the South is just pure violence. The South just turned into a bloody mess and made the North show its Northern neglect. “Although political violence continued in the South … the tide of public opinion in the North began to turn against Reconstruction policies” quoted in The Americans (Doc C, Paragraph 1). The South’s government played a huge role in the violence in the South because most of the Republicans in the legislative were being bought. The Klu Klux Klan would pay them money to go with them. The Klu Klux Klan would pay them even more if they let somebody go in their place to the legislature. The South’s government very well became biased since probably most of the government was Democrats who were against Reconstruction. If the South wanted the reconstructing of their land so bad, they would have stopped the violence to let the North come back in safely. The South’s government didn’t do anything pretty much ending Reconstruction. Although it is true that
“... the slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery.” W.E.B. Dubois explains this in his essay North or South: Who Killed Reconstruction? Reconstruction occurred in the eleven states that seceded from the Union. Reconstruction began in 1865 to help bring the eleven states that left the Union this ended in 1877. How exactly did the North or the South make Reconstruction end? Reconstruction occurred in the 12 years after the civil war and was to help bring back the eleven states that seceded from the Union. Both Southern resistance and Northern neglect contributed to the death of Reconstruction. However, Southern resistance was the greater problem.
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
There was a new Military Reconstruction Act that was passed to make sure African Americans new rights were protected. The carpetbaggers provided aid for emancipated African Americans. In the article “ North or South: Who Killed Reconstruction?” it shows how the carpetbaggers supported emancipated African Americans by the founding of Black Churches, Public schools, and Universities were built for black children. In this case, the northern states tried to help the southern states to keep reconstruction but the KKK took hands in their own
“Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” George Santayana stated what happens if we do not learn from our past. After the Civil War the United States wanted to build itself back up. The nation was in rubble because half of the country was fighting the other. That left it in a sad and fallen state. The issue of slavery was a long debated topic. They thought they could get over this and start anew. Reconstruction means the actions or process of rebuilding what has been damaged or destroyed. Did the North or the South kill Reconstruction? That issue is still up for debate. In my opinion, the South killed Reconstruction and stopped it dead in its tracks. The South did not respect the African American’s right to vote and would terrorize
The KKK were Southerners, and also terrorists. They tried their hardest to destroy the Reconstruction and African American rights. I have a quote for my evidence. “The Klansman broke my door open, took my out of bed, took me to the woods and whipped me three hours or more and left me for dead,” (Colby 513). This proves the KKK would stop at nothing to destroy what they believed was wrong. Even though the KKK were a huge disruption in the Reconstruction, they didn’t completely destroy it. This helps me answer the question because it says that even though the KKK caused damage, it wasn’t all of
The most critical issue raised by the North’s victory was the South acceptance of transition of freedom for former slaves. Since most of southern whites did not agree with the idea of freedmen, they created several ways to foreclose the blacks to exercise their rights. The South utilized dirty tactics to preserve the idea of slavery, such as laws as the black codes, lynching and other violent ways promoted by groups known as Ku Klux Klan.
An example of the KKK using violence was “John W. Stephens, State Senator from Caswell, is dead. He was foully murdered by the Ku-Klux in the Grand Jury room of the Courthouse.” This was making a big impact on Reconstruction because the KKK was killing anybody that supported Reconstruction. Another piece of evidence of the KKK killing reconstruction was, “[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. They said to me, “Do you think you will ever vote another damned Radical ticket?” “They said I had voted for Grant and had carried the Negroes against them. About two days before they whipped me they offered me $5,000 to go with them and they said they would pay me $2,500 in cash if I would let another man to go the legislature in my place.” This negatively impacted reconstruction because the KKK were killing and bribing anybody who voted the Radical Ticket. Overall, there’s plenty of reasons the KKK put a negative impact on the Reconstruction of the
In 1865 the beginning of the end of the Civil War was in effect called “Reconstruction”. The purpose of Reconstruction was to make the United States a unified nation once again. Reconstruction was a success in the sense of the southern states ratified the constitution and chose not to secede. The southern states also agreed to pledge loyalty to the union and ratify the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments. On the other hand, with the election of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, by pulling the troops out of the South white slave owners regained power and the south slowly went back to the ways of the “old south”. The end of Reconstruction was influenced by specific causes such as: the northerners exhaustion with fighting the south and trying to punish the Klu Klux Klan, Radical Republicans being struck down by the Supreme Court, and white unionists, carpetbaggers, and scalawags being pushed out of the South by the Klu Klux Klan (Reconstruction (1865-1877)).
The first wave of the Ku Klux Klan was the founders. This band of brothers lasted from 1866 to 1874. Their goal was to restore the white supremacy by using violence and threats, including murder against blacks, which later spread to including other racial groups. They took on the look of all white with masks and robes to complete their look and hide their identities when “attacking,” usually at night. Some of the members in the Klan claimed to be the ghosts of the Confederate solders to frighten superstitious blacks. At the end of 1867, there were one hundred ninety-seven murders and five hundred forty-eight cases reported of assaults. In April 1868, 1,222 Republican votes were casted but by the ...
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.
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 end of the Civil War left many questions for both the North and the South. The federal government was faced with the responsibility of rebuilding the South and reuniting the country politically, economically, and culturally. At the war’s end, the country was left to grapple with 200,000 deaths and over a million casualties, more than any other war for the United States, either past or since[1]. The turbulence of the era left the countryside and the economy of the South in ruins. Plantation owners, the antebellum economic lords who ruled with an iron fist, were financially devastated by the war. Confederate currency was worthless, free slave labor was outlawed, and the federal government confiscated many acres of plantation land. In addition to rebuilding the Southern economy and its infrastructure, the federal government had to address the situation of newly freed blacks. Though Southern blacks had gained their freedom in the Emancipation Proclamation of 1862, they still faced great economic and social hardship as they struggled to make a living and find their niche in Southern society. While the Radical Republicans pushed for the full equality of blacks, they faced staunch opposition from Southern Democrats and more moderate Republicans. While the period of Reconstruction figured as a time of increased freedom and equality for southern blacks, it was ultimately only a temporary condition, as the power of the Southern Redeemers and the waning support of northern Republicans resulted in the reinstitution of white domination. With the end of slavery, Southern whites eventual...
The KKK was once an African American hate group in the late 1800’s, created by Confederate generals who wanted to continue suppressing their former slaves with terror. It was shut down after their leaders were plagued with scandals, and their business dealings put out into the open, for all to see and read. People finally understood what the Klan was about and obviously did not want it. Although in 1915, William J. Simmons watched D.W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation” which depicted the story of what happened after the Civil War, through the eyes of a glorified Klansman. He was stargazed at how Griffith depicted the Klan, and as him being a long time joiner of clubs, he decided to bring back the Ku Klux Klan. A surprising fact is how a man like this could lead a group of hate, as he used to be a minister. (“Ku Klux Klan -- Extremism in America”) This second generation of the Klan created almost an “Invisible Empire” by their high point. Their members were scattered across state and federal government, and one could say that they “co...
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
One reason the North killed Reconstruction was because they were racist. Freedmen politicians were portrayed as corrupt “fat cats” and caused nothing but chaos and bedlam in the legislatures they served in (Harper’s Weekly, 1874). This showed that the North thought negatively about African Americans. Also, the Boston Evening Transcript stated that, “blacks need a [period of probation and instruction; a period…long enough for the black to have forgotten something about his condition as a slave and learned much of the true method of gaining honorable subsistence and of performing the duties of any position to which he might aspire,” (Richardson, 2001). This quote proved that the North was not ready to fully embrace African Americans as equals, and that there was still some racism that existed among Northerners. So, if the North was not racist, the North may have been more positive Reconstruction, and, in turn, spend more time working on Reconstruction.