Reconstruction's End

1238 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Challenges of reconstruction in the south

After the Civil War ended in 1865, the Northern Republicans decided to start Reconstruction in the South by implementing the morals of the North. The North’s actions outraged the South so the South decided to use violence to oppose the changes. The Klu Klux Klan, also known as the KKK, was an American terrorist group that was against Reconstruction and was considered to be the Democrat’s unofficial wing. The KKK was the main group that carried out the violent acts against blacks and supporters of Reconstruction. Eric Foner constructs a convincing argument of why Reconstruction ended through his evidence of Democratic violence against Republicans and legislative and political opposition to Reconstruction. The white Southern Democrats also used legislations such as the Black Codes to show that they did not agree with Reconstruction. Also, during the time when Lincoln was planning his Reconstruction, he was assassinated and Andrew Johnson took his place as president. Johnson decided to implement his version of Reconstruction, which conflicted with Congress’s Reconstruction. Reconstruction ended because of Southern Democratic opposition to the plan. This opposition weakened Republican’s will to implement their views on the South. There were also conflicting ideas between Johnson and the government how Reconstruction should be carried out The Southern white Democrats opposed Reconstruction by using violence through the Klu Klux Klan and other similar groups to weaken the Republican support. The Klu Klux Klan attacked not only blacks who participated in politics or who supported Reconstruction but also attacked whites that supported Reconstruction. Many Southerners knew about the brutality of the Klu Klux Klan attacks. Fo... ... middle of paper ... ...sisted Reconstruction. The South used the KKK to attack the blacks that voted and participated in politics, and the KKK attacked many whites that were publically against Democrats and that supported the harsher Reconstruction plans put out by Congress. The end of Reconstruction was inevitable after the efforts of the South to resist Reconstruction because it led to the Republican’s giving up on their plans. The opposition of the south caused the Republicans to tire and this was another factor of Reconstruction’s end. Johnson also had many disagreements with Congress when they were trying to plan Reconstruction, which distracted both Johnson and Congress from actually finishing Reconstruction. This caused it to end before they could finish any of their plans. Because of all these factors, the Republicans eventually lost their will to complete Reconstruction.

Show More
Related

  • North Or South Who Killed Reconstruction Dbq Analysis

    702 Words  | 2 Pages

    “... 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.

    Read More

  • Reconstruction Essay

    721 Words  | 2 Pages

    This began a chain of events that led to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and the end of the biracial democracy in the south. Johnson put pro-Union Southern political leaders into power, even though many had aided the Confederacy during the war. These men, with Johnson's support, attempted to restore a sense of the “Old South”, essentially trying to force blacks down as low in the class system as they legally could in light of the 13th and 14th Amendments-second class citizens. In 1866 the Radical Republicans stood up to President Johnson, and a battle for control of Reconstruction ensued.... ... middle of paper ...

    Read More

  • Reconstruction Dbq Essay

    771 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of the first things that happened was that groups organized to intimidate people into going against Reconstruction. One such group was the Ku Klux Klan who went around anonymously to commit acts of atrocity to those who supported Reconstruction and equal rights for African Americas. Document 2 proves that they were totally against it; it says their purpose was to “establish a nucleus around which “the adherents of the late rebellion might safely rally”.” This just shows that they were not going to accept the reformation of the South and they wanted to find as many supporters as they could. As it is known, they threatened people at polls into voting for the groups that supported their views and that caused the elections to be swayed. Document 4 is another proof of the fact that some people refused to accept Reconstruction. “Let there be White Leagues formed in every town….time to meet brute-force with brute-force….it is time for us to organize.” These groups terrorized the people and made them afraid to show their...

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Reconstruction

    1018 Words  | 3 Pages

    The seed sown by the wealthy Southern plantation owner of racial disparity had germinated to later become the profoundly discriminatory society. The suppression and unjust behavior of white southern plantation owner towards black slaves had led the civil war, which transition the new era of uncertainty. The work of post-civil war does not end with the abolishment of slavery, but it only starts. The task of rebuilding the south, readmission of the confederate army to union, and providing assistance for the free people of post war, was later known as reconstruction. The work of reconstruction had not only failed to rebuild the nation as the united. But it also failed profoundly of what was the urgent needs of the post war; provide assistance

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast The Radical Republican Approach To Reconstruction

    943 Words  | 2 Pages

    After the Civil War, the Radical Republicans had a different view from that of President Andrew Johnson with respect to Reconstruction. Just like Abraham Lincoln, his predecessor who lived barely a year into the Reconstruction before he was assassinated, President Johnson was of the idea that a more lenient and conciliatory approach should be taken in the South which had faced a lot of damage due to the civil war. On the other hand, Radical Republicans were against both Lincoln’s and Johnson’s approaches and policies on reconstruction as they were too lenient. The Radical Republicans approach was more strict and firmer because it wanted the Federal government to exert more control of the South during Reconstruction by ensuring the protection

    Read More

  • Reconstruction: A Partial Success and a Partial Failure

    1407 Words  | 3 Pages

    After the Civil War ended in 1865, it was followed by an era known as Reconstruction that lasted until 1877, with the goal to rebuild the nation. Lincoln was the president at the beginning of this era, until his assassination caused his vice president, Andrew Johnson to take his place in 1865. Johnson was faced with numerous issues such as the reunification of the union and the unknown status of the ex-slaves, while compromising between the principles of the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. After the Election of 1868, Ulysses S. Grant, a former war hero with no political experience, became the nation’s new president, but was involved in numerous acts of corruption. Reconstruction successfully reintegrated the southern states into the Union through Lincoln and Johnson’s Reconstruction Plans, but was mostly a failure due to the continued discriminatory policies against African Americans, such as the Black Codes, Jim Crow laws, and sharecropping, as well as the widespread corruption of the elite in the North and the Panic of 1873,

    Read More

  • Role Of African Americans In Reconstruction

    1474 Words  | 3 Pages

    Around 1871 and 1872 Reconstruction started to decline. The main change of ideologies was presented thanks to the unpopularity of the Republican Party and the fear present mainly by the white population. After the reconstruction acts; which represented an effort to crush anti-black sentiment and to assure black votes and the Federal Army was moved away southern whites feared the power that African Americans were acquiring and decided to act upon it. The fear can be seen in a quote General Gordon “Our people have always flet that if the white troops of the Federal Army could have been stationed in those negro belts we would have been safe” (Wish, p.162) During the reconstruction era, white supremacists groups such as the KKK came into play. They were dedicated to raising terror in black communities and challenged their political and social views as well as white people that supported the black cause; although many members of this organization believed they were acting as a “peace police”(Wish, p. 153). Later on, political power swayed towards political and social white supremacist views. This can be seen during the compromise of 1877. There was a great dispute during the presidential election of 1876. Republican Hayes and Democrat Tilden fought for the White House. Eventually they came to the agreement that Hayes would be president if he removed federal

    Read More

  • Demise of the Second Reconstruction

    2219 Words  | 5 Pages

    Decline of the Second Reconstruction The Second Reconstruction is broadly defined as the time period in America after the passing of the Civil rights act of 1964, which brought about the necessity for an efficient transition into racial and sociopolitical equality. During the following years this was not achieved and several movements were constituted that attempted to bring this wish into reality through enthusiastic albeit unsuccessful political, social and cultural actions. The following is a chronological narrative and sociopolitical analysis of those attempts. Prelude: Nixon Administration and the Suppression of a Revolution In the late 1960’s American politics were shifting at a National level with liberalism being less supported as its politics were perceived as flawed, both by people on the left who thought that liberalism was not as effective as more radical political enterprises and by conservatives who believed that liberal politics were ostensibly crippling the American economy.

    Read More

  • Essay About Reconstruction

    542 Words  | 2 Pages

    Reconstruction efforts were paralyzed by the Republicans after the death of Lincoln. The Republicans were many capitalists originating the North. Their actions were principally geared towards overthrowing the black leadership in South and retain the white sovereignty that existed before. The Southern whites did not defend the blacks instead backed the northern capitalists in the mission of transforming black government in South to White state (Foner Par

    Read More

  • The Political And Social Failure Of Reconstruction

    796 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.”

    Read More

  • Reconstruction in America After the Civil War

    879 Words  | 2 Pages

    America has gone through many hardships and struggles since coming together as a nation involving war and changes in the political system. Many highly regarded leaders in America have come bestowing their own ideas and foundation to provide a better life for “Americans”, but no other war or political change is more infamous than the civil war and reconstruction. Reconstruction started in 1865 and ended in 1877 and still to date one of the most debated issues in American history on whether reconstruction was a failure or success as well as a contest over the memory, meaning, and ending of the war. According to, “Major Problems in American History” David W. Blight of Yale University and Steven Hahn of the University of Pennsylvania take different stances on the meaning of reconstruction, and what caused its demise. David W. Blight argues that reconstruction was a conflict between two solely significant, but incompatible objectives that “vied” for attention both reconciliation and emancipation. On the other hand Steven Hahn argues that former slaves and confederates were willing and prepared to fight for what they believed in “reflecting a long tradition of southern violence that had previously undergirded slavery” Hahn also believes that reconstruction ended when the North grew tired of the 16 year freedom conflict. Although many people are unsure, Hahn’s arguments presents a more favorable appeal from support from his argument oppose to Blight. The inevitable end of reconstruction was the North pulling federal troops from the south allowing white rule to reign again and proving time travel exist as freed Africans in the south again had their civil, political, and economical position oppressed.

    Read More

  • "The New View of Reconstruction"

    315 Words  | 1 Pages

    People attending schools before 1960’s were learning about certain “unscrupulous carpetbaggers”, “traitorous scalawags”, and the “Radical Republicans”(223). According to the historians before the event of 1960’s revision, these people are the reason that the “white community of South banded together to overthrow these “black” governments and restore home rule”(223). While this might have been true if it was not for the fact that the “carpetbaggers were former Union soldiers”, “Scalawags… emerged as “Old Line” Whig Unionists”(227). Eric Foner wrote the lines in his thesis “The New View of Reconstruction” to show us how completely of target the historians before the 1960’s revision were in their beliefs.

    Read More

  • Success of Reconstruction

    765 Words  | 2 Pages

    Reconstruction was the time period following the Civil War, which lasted from 1865 to 1877, in which the United States began to rebuild. The term can also refer to the process the federal government used to readmit the defeated Confederate states to the Union. While all aspects of Reconstruction were not successful, the main goal of the time period was carried out, making Reconstruction over all successful. During this time, the Confederate states were readmitted to the Union, the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments were ratified, and African Americans were freed from slavery and able to start new lives.

    Read More

  • Reasons why the South Won Reconstruction

    837 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Who Killed Reconstruction

    682 Words  | 2 Pages

    The North’s negligence also contributed to the end of Reconstruction. The North had failed to notice the many racially motivated atrocities that occurred in the South durin...

    Read More

More about Reconstruction's End

Open Document