Why Did Reconstruction Become Violent Case Study

1. Why did reconstruction become violent? How did congress and the Grant administration try to curb the violence?

• Reconstruction became violent because the southern whites were enraged the former slaves were gaining equality, so they used violence as a way to suppress the freedmen. The former confederates did not want colored to hold the same rights such as being able to vote. A well-known group called the Ku Klux Klan would attack black voters, freedmen’s bureau workers, and republican members in response to black suffrage. Congress and the Grant administration did not approve of the Klan’s actions, so they passed acts to try and end the Klan’s violence. The acts put federal troops in the south to protect freedmen during voting and allowed

Firstly, the railroads allowed people to travel west and have a connection to the east. This allowed for the expansion of the nation to be easier and more profitable, since the people in the west could trade and sell to the east. The railroad also created many jobs for men seeking and labor and created a traveling brothel of women that would follow the men working on the railroad. Secondly, the railroad made it possible for mass production and consumption to occur since large amounts of raw materials could be transported to factories and the product distributed.

4. What critical factors led to the conquest of Native American tribes and their forced relocation to reservation?

• After the civil war, Americans began to look west for opportunities to make money such as the gold in California. The government started to give land away to people that they “acquired” from the Native Americans. Technically the Native Americans never sold their lands to the government because the Native Americans had no concept of possession; they believed that no one could own nature. As conflict began between Natives and Americans, the Natives did not stand a chance against the American’s superior weaponry and decimation of the