More handpicked essays just for you.
Political impact of reconstruction
Failures of the southern reconstruction
Political impact of reconstruction
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Reconstruction Era The year is 1876 and Reconstruction is in process. Reconstruction is the rebuilding of the South. Now that the Civil War was over, the United States was creating enough opportunities that all Americans could pursue their hopes for happiness. This was an important era in American history. This showed how Americans were back then and how their decisions affected the United States of America. The South ended Reconstruction because of the KKK, racism, and lawless fear. The year was 1876 and the Civil War just ended 11 years ago. “1876 was an exciting year for America”(Roden 505). “It was the 100th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence…”(Roden 505). Reconstruction is in the process. The South was wanted and needed to rebuild. It was a big mess after the Civil War. There were a couple of known groups. The groups were Freedmen, …show more content…
Carpetbaggers, Scalawags, Radical Republicans, and the KKK. The Freedmen were African Americans who were freed during or after the Civil War. Carpetbaggers were Northerners who went South after the Civil War to help Freedmen and Reconstruction. Scalawags were Southern whites who supported Reconstruction. Radical Republicans were Northern Republican Congressmen who supported African Americans citizenship and punishment for former Confederates. The Klu Klux Klan were a white supremacist group that opposed Reconstruction and equal rights for freed slaves. During the process, amendments were made. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendment were issued. These amendments helped the lives of many African Americans. It gave them U.S. Citizenship, Civil Rights, and the right to vote. Everything was going well until something took over. It was the Election of 1876. Rutherford B. Hayes went as the Republican candidate and Samuel J. Tilden went and the Democratic candidate. Later the Compromise of 1877 granted the presidency to Hayes. In return, Hayes promised to move the last federal soldiers from the South. When Hayes did this, he was putting an end to the dying effort of the Reconstruction. North or South:Who killed Reconstruction? In this situation, I think that is was mostly the North that killed it. I also think that it was the Election of 1876 that killed it as well. When Hayes was elected, he didn’t think over for what he did and made some decisions that he would later regret. There is a group that was one of the major parts that killed Reconstruction was a terrorist group called the KKK. The KKK stands for the Klu Klux Klan. They were really against Reconstruction. They were also against the equal rights for freed slaves. What they usually did was something horrible. The KKK would kill African Americans. They would also kill government officials. One of the victims was John W. Stephens. He was a Senator from Caswell. “...to inform you that our friend John W. Stephens, State Senator from Caswell, is dead” (Tourgee 511). The KKK targeted specific people. They would target people who hold office in the South and government officials. They were not afraid and wanted to be known. What the KKK wanted was power. The KKK wanted to take over Reconstruction and end it. The KKK is part of the destruction of the Reconstruction. Racism was another component to the fall of Reconstruction. Racism was a big problem during the Reconstruction. African Americans were filled with hope when they given Civil Rights and U.S. Citizenship. Many thought the racism was over and that they would be treated equally. It turned out that Americans still treated African Americans like slaves. No one really treated African Americans equally. They would usually call them as “blacks”. They thought that they needed time to learn to be civilized. “The rising generation of… blacks needed a period of probation and instruction; a period… long enough for the black to have forgotten something of his condition as a slave…”(Richardson 517). Many thought that the African Americans were just savages and should not be treated equally. Racism was an important part of the fall of the Reconstruction. Another major part to the fall of the Reconstruction was lawless fear. For example, the KKK had no fear of anyone or anything. There was African American named Abram Colby. He was taken out of the house by the Klansmen and was whipped for several hours. “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 for three hours or more and left me for dead” (Colby 513). The reason the Klansmen hurted Abram Colby was because he voted for Grant, that he was a congressman, and that he was an African American. The men who were not afraid to commit these actions were usually first-classmen, a doctor, a lawyer, a some were farmers. There was lawless fear in the South because of such actions were made. The counterclaim is that the North was also part of the fall of Reconstruction.some evidence that the North caused some chaos, such as scandals, for Grant to lose focus on Reconstruction.
The Reconstruction might not have been Grant’s concern. Hayes later became President. When Hayes won the election and removed federal soldiers from the South. Hayes was putting an end to a dying effort of the Reconstruction. The South did end the Reconstruction as well and did have more reasons than the North. The majority of the destruction of Reconstruction was the South’s fault. The South was the one responsible for the fall of Reconstruction. The South killed Reconstruction because of the KKK, racism, and lawless fear. The KKK, lawless fear, racism were major parts of the fall of Reconstruction. The KKK was a fearless terrorist group that consisted first-class, a lawyer, and a doctor. Racism was spreaded throughout America and affected the people. Lawless fear was when someone did actions and had no fear. Everyone should care about this topic because this is a part of important history that made what America is
today.
Reconstruction was a nasty period in History. Reconstruction took place after the civil war. In the civil war there was lots of devastation. Buildings and houses were being destroyed so people needed something called Reconstruction. Reconstruction was something people really needed after the civil war because they needed to rebuild a community. Some people didn't want reconstruction because they liked destruction. Then also after the civil war slavery was abolished, as well some people don't like that either. South killed Reconstruction because South resistance had KKK, and South was murdering people.
Although it wasn’t the main reason reason Reconstruction ended, northern neglect was still a significant problem. “...in the 1870s, Northern voters grew indifferent to events in the South. Weary of the ‘Negro question and ‘sick of carpet-bag’ government, many Northern voters shifted their attention to such national concerns as the Panic of 1873 and corruption in Grant’s administration….” (Harper’s weekly Doc C) If we want to know as much information as possible about how the North lost interest in Reconstruction we must understand the
“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
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...
The Reconstruction was the process of trying to rebuild the South after the devastating effect of the Civil War. Some interesting facts during the Civil War were first, in 1869 the first college football game took place, second, African American universities became a reality, and last, in 1870, Hiram Revels was elected the first black Senator. In the end, Reconstruction died, but we’ve all been asking the same thing; North or South: Who killed the Reconstruction? Answering this question, I believe the North killed the Reconstruction by a lack of focus on it, the racism on African Americans, and being sick of assisting the South.
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.
President Abraham Lincoln envisioned a conservative plan for the reconstruction of the south. Under Lincoln’s plan, as soon as ten percent of the voters in a southern state whom have voted in 1860 and had taken an oath of loyalty to the United States, they could then elect constitutional conventions. These conventions, upon adopting new state constitutions and abolishing slavery they would then be readmitted to the union. The assassination of Abraham Lincoln would change polices towards reconstruction of the south.
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
Reconstruction is the period of rebuilding the south that succeeded the Civil War (1861-1865). This period of time is set by the question now what? The Union won the war and most of the south was destroyed. Devastation, buildings turned into crumbles and lost crops. The South was drowning in poverty. To worsen the situation there were thousands of ex-slaves that were set free by the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13 Amendment. "All these ex-slaves", Dr. Susan Walens commented, "and no place to put them," The ex-slaves weren't just homeless but they had no rights, unlike white man. The government and congress had to solve the issues present in the south and the whole nation in order to re-establish the South. These issues were economical, social and political. The United States had presidential and congressional reconstruction. Reconstruction was a failure, a great attempt to unify the nation. It was a failure due to the events that took place during this period.
Reconstruction is known as the period after the Civil war. The whole country was separated in two, people didn’t know what to do, the south was completely destroyed, and there were a lot of decisions to be made by the president. It lasted four years, and there was over half a million casualties between the union (North) and the confederate states (South). The north was declared the winner of the war after General Lee surrender in the Appomattox court house on April 9, 1865. The causes of the war was the secession of several southern states, they argued that it was up to them and it was in their rights to decide whether they should make slavery legal or illegal in their own boundaries. But the Union had other things in mind, the union wanted to decide whether or not the states were going to have slaves. This was just to make sure the country was equal on slavery and non-slavery on both sides, but states thought the union was abusing their power and being too strict on them, and that is when they decided to secede. The first state to secede was south Carolina, then they were followed by six other states, among those states were Florida, Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. These states got together and created the confederate states of America in February 4, 1861, and the president was Jefferson Davis, they also made a government similar to the one of the U.S. Constitution.
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.
... and slavery left millions of newly freed African Americans in the South without an education, a home, or a job. Before reconstruction was put in place, African Americans in the South were left roaming helplessly and hopelessly. During the reconstruction period, the African Americans’ situation did not get much better. Although helped by the government, African Americans were faced with a new problem. African Americans in the South were now being terrorized and violently discriminated by nativist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. Such groups formed in backlash to Reconstruction and canceled out all the positive factors of Reconstruction. At last, after the Compromise of 1877, the military was taken out of the South and all of the Reconstruction’s efforts were basically for nothing. African Americans in the South were back to the conditions they started with.
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.
The Civil war could very easily be known as one of the greatest tragedies in United States history. After the Civil War, the people of The United States had so much anger and hatred towards each other and the government that 11 Southern states seceded from the Nation and parted into two pieces. The Nation split into either the Northern abolitionist or the Southern planation farmers. The Reconstruction era was meant to be exactly how the name announces it to be. It was a time for the United States to fix the broken pieces the war had caused allowing the country to mend together and unite once again. The point of Reconstruction was to establish unity between the states and to also create and protect the civil rights of the former slaves. Although Reconstruction failed in many aspects such as the upraise in white supremacy and racism, the reconstruction era was a time the United States took a lead in the direction of race equality.
However, this was not good enough for Congress, which at the time was dominated by Radical Republicans who fervently called for social and economic change in the south, specifically the rights of blacks. They were especially concerned with guaranteeing black civil and voting rights, and criticized Lincoln for excluding this in the original plan for Reconstruction. After Lincoln’s death in 1865, Andrew Johnson turned Reconstruction on its head. He made several changes to the Reconstruction policy, nearly cutting Congress completely off from the process. Johnson began putting white supremacists in power of the Reconstruction government.