Reconstruction Dbq

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Abraham Lincoln ran against Stephan Douglas for senator. They debated about slavery, both having different views on slavery. Lincoln argued against the spread of slavery while Douglas debated that each territory should have the right to decide whether each state should become free or slaved. Lincoln lost the election, but gained a national reputation that won him the Republican nomination for President in 1860. President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation that promises freedom for the slaves. Lincoln wanted to reconstruct the country, to rebuild, trust and make peace. While planning of the Reconstruction, one of America’s bloodiest wars was taking place, the Civil War, between the North and the South of the United States. The Northerners wanted to limit the spread of slavery and the …show more content…

If it weren’t for these laws that they enforced, racism would be a lot different than how things are today. The southerners resisted the new social and political rights bestowed upon free blacks by the Black Codes and the Ku Klux Klan. Former rebel states enacted harsh laws known as the Black Codes. The Black Codes are laws designed to limit the freedom of blacks, to control them, and to force them back onto the farm laborers and to work for the white landlords. Some codes prohibited blacks from owning firearms, buying liquor, or engaging in any trade or business other than farming. The Ku Klux Klan was a social club of confederate veterans that developed a paramilitary organization. The Klan was originally formed to combat a series of post-Civil War policy decisions that many of the southern people felt it was unfair and harsh. Many radical members of Congress desired to not only reorganize the social structure of the south, but to punish it as well. The Klan went on a rampage by whipping, hanging, shooting, burning, and cutting the blacks and any whites who would help

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