Social And Political Effects Of Radical Reconstruction Essay

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Identify and assess the social and political effects of radical Reconstruction in the American South. Republicans “undertook to promote political equality in a society characterized by equality in almost nothing else,” William McKee Evans reminds us. The 12 year period from the end of the civil War in 1865 to the demise of reconstruction in 1877 saw increasing restlessness, politically and socially, in the American South. Most agree that the southern Governments during the reconstruction period achieved success educationally and economically, the lingering issue of equality was a beast that had failed to have been tamed. The equality issue was the main cause of social unrest in the South during the reconstruction era. The radical reconstruction …show more content…

This population were dubbed carpetbaggers due to the percieved conception they carried most of their belonging in carpetbags, most were there to promote education while some looked to modernize a society that lagged behind a the north in terms of transportation and technology. Similarly, White southern Unionists, or scalawags, were supportive of northern policies and often tried to gain political positions in the south. Carpetbaggers and scalawags were looked upon disdainfully by a majority of the south, and in some corners were viewed on equal terms with the blacks. ‘The choice was between salvation at the hand of the negro or destruction at the hand of the …show more content…

The klan were formed by a group of men deeply opposed to all things associated with the reconstrucuion program. They despised the influx of carpetbaggers and scalawags in the south and were infuriated by the large number of blacks taking up political positions. The main aim of the clan was to strike terror into these pockets of society by masking their faces and carrying arms as well as resorting to lynching and vioeltn night raids. ‘The complicity of the democratic party and the silence of prominent whites in the face of such outrages stood as an indictment of the moral code the south had inherited from the days of

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