Reconstruction Dbq

After four hard-fought years of the deadliest war on American soil, the Union, led by President Abraham Lincoln, defeated the Confederacy, led by president-elect Jefferson Davis. The victory of the Union resolved the matter regarding the freedom of slaves, but along came the concern of the future status of four million newly freed slaves. The United States was divided, and in response, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867. Even with the best efforts put into the Reconstruction Act of 1867, it ultimately failed in its quest and ended ten years after in 1877. What remained was the issue regarding the status of African Americans and the South’s economy.
Reconstruction failed because many white Americans still believed that African Americans were inferior to them. Congressman Boyer, said, “But it is not the complexion of the Negro that degrades him . . . [the Negro is] a race by nature inferior in mental caliber . . . the Negroes are not the equals of white Americans, and are not entitled . . . to participate in the Government of this country . . .” This idea of inferiority even exceeded to create the Ku Klux Klan, a violent group of white Americans against the idea of equality for freedmen. The Ku Klux Klan was

just on of the rallies of white men that George Thomas called for.
Congress’s failure to change the status of freedmen also played a huge role.

In a sense, Congress allowed the racist ideology to survive as they allowed numerous actions to continue to categorize African Americans in a different mindset and viewpoint. In Black Reconstruction in America,written by Dr. W. E. B. Dubois, it exposes the idea that African Americans who wished to have political power had to give up any chance for a job. Congress was unable to do anything to white Americans who intimidated African Americans that wished to vote, hold office, and other basic civil rights. This gave African Americans a choice between having an income to survive or to be part of political events, which basically did not give African Americans a choice at

all.
Congress passed an act of amnesty, which granted former Confederates the ability to hold office. In The Era of Reconstruction written by Kenneth M. Stampp, it suggests that the restoration of rights to ex-confederate/ white southerners weakened the voting rights of the freedmen. This time period also demonstrated the shift from a Republican-dominated influence to a more democratic ideology influence. This shift is responsible for the transfer of power that Republicans suffered to white southerners still fresh with their beliefs on the topic of slavery, and freedom for African Americans. An excerpt from the 1874 New York Times provides the gradual change of influence, as its states “In the House [of Representatives] the Democrat’s gains continue to increase in numbers.”
One of reconstruction’s main agendas was to do something regarding the four million slaves. Reconstruction was unable to achieve that because most Americans believed that they were inferior to them. Both Congress’s gradual change and failure to change the status of African Americans also stem from the racist mindset as well. Rutherford B. Hayes admission as President also played an essential role in the end of reconstruction. Hayes’s order of the removal of troops allowed the Ku Klux Klan to thrive and basically ended any chance of equal rights within the South.