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Seth Weymouth
Mrs.Seaton/Mr.Blomenkamp
English III/U.S. History
29 October 2014
Reconstruction of the South
Think back to when the Civil War finally ended after five terrible years of battle and a poor farmer is trying to pick up his life make a living for his family. The southern reconstruction of 1865 was suppose to aid the farmer in reestablish his life and homestead, yet the years delay postponed the inevitable. After the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, the Reconstruction Bill halted, due to the policies for President Ulysses S. Grant. When many people thought reconstruction was killed, it was actually just delayed and was later reinstated by President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1877. In the eleven years it took for the South to
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get back on track, the economy took a turn for the worst. The South was in a major economic decline from the destruction of the land and the terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan. The destruction on the land caused economic depression from ruining the farmers land.
The civil war freed the slaves in the South which severely hurt the farmers production. Farmers lost a substantial amount of money from the loss of free labor. Now that the slaves were free, the farmers were forced to either pay the slaves or do the work themselves. This was a huge set back for the agricultural economy because the plantations were not as effective as they once were. On top of the loss of labor, the farmer’s fields and plantations were destroyed. The vast fields were used as battlegrounds in the Civil War. The fields and crops were destroyed and ruined. With the production at a screeching halt, farmers were put in a dilemma. With the crops un-salvageable, the farmers were not exporting anything. The Southern states were put in an economic depression without the export of goods. Property values plummeted due to the economic …show more content…
decline. The terrorism from Ku Klux Klan created fear in the South which delayed the freedom to slaves.
The Ku Klux Klan used violence to strike fear in black voters. The clan members didn’t believe that blacks were equal to the superior white people. The Ku Klux Klan targeted any black farmers, businessmen, politicians, and all other African Americans in their wake. They attacked schoolteachers that taught blacks and would often attack black students going to and from school. They would also attack any white people that were supporting black rights (Morales1).For instance, the Ku Klux Klan murdered and hung a state senator at court house as an example. The members killed him because they wanted to ward people off from voting for equality for African Americans. Freedom for slavery was a bumpy, hazardous path that had many rough edges which was a huge delay (McCardell296). Another way the clan tried to deter the political world was the abducted a George State Legislature from his home and viciously beat him because he would not forfeit his morals about the freedom for blacks. They bribed him with lots money to persuade him to leave his office but he stayed true to his beliefs. The Ku Klux Klan killed or injured thousands of African Americans and supports (Morales1). At this time of the reconstruction, the Ku Klux Klan was at a down fall. They’re main intentions were to discourage blacks and black supporters. But as the Reconstruction era progressed, people, both black and white,
were voicing out their opinions against the Ku Klux Klan. As the Ku Klux Klan lost their mass fear, progress finally resumed and reconstruction was now back on track. The South could start reconstructing their damaged land and blacks got rights they rightfully deserve for many years. The destruction of the land and the terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan put the South in a major economic depression. The after math of the civil war is a burden that both sides had to share. Work Cited Fortna, Virginia Page, and Reyko Huang. “Democratization After Civil War: A Brush-Clearing Exercise.” International Studies Quarterly 56.4 (2012): 801-808. EBSCO Host. Web. 28 Oct. 2014. McCardell JR., John M. “Reflections on the Civil War.” Sewanee Review 122.2 (2014): 295- 303.EBSCO Host. Web. 28 Oct. 2014. Morales, Leslie Anderson. “The Ku Klux KLAN.” Footsteps 6.4 (2004): 29. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 5 Nov. 2014.
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.
After the Civil War, America went through a period of Reconstruction. This was when former Confederate states were readmitted to the Union. Lincoln had a plan that would allow them to come back, but they wouldn’t be able to do it easily. He would make 10% of the population swear an oath of loyalty and establish a government to be recognized. However, he was assassinated in Ford’s Theater and Andrew Johnson became the president; Johnson provided an easy path for Southerners. Congress did their best to ensure equal rights to freedmen, but failed because of groups who were against Reconstruction, white southern Democrats gaining control within the government and the lack of having a plan in place for recently freedmen.
The North’s neglect and greediness caused the reconstruction to be a failure.The corrupt government, terrorist organizations, unfocused president, and ignorance were also part of the ending of the reconstruction. President Lincoln didn’t want the civil war he wanted to keep the nation together. When Lincoln went into office he wasn't planning on getting rid of slavery nor starting a civil war. Before the reconstruction era was the civil war. Many good things and bad things came from the civil war. The civil war was a war between the North and the South. The war for the north was to end slavery, but for the south it was about rights and liberty. It wasn’t until afterwards that Americans started to notice the good and the bad. Not as many people
An example of the KKK using violence was “John W. Stephens, State Senator from Caswell, is dead. He was foully murdered by the Ku-Klux in the Grand Jury room of the Courthouse.” This was making a big impact on Reconstruction because the KKK was killing anybody that supported Reconstruction. Another piece of evidence of the KKK killing reconstruction was, “[the Klansmen] broke my door open, took me out of bed, took me to the woods and whipped me three hours or more and left me for dead. They said to me, “Do you think you will ever vote another damned Radical ticket?” “They said I had voted for Grant and had carried the Negroes against them. About two days before they whipped me they offered me $5,000 to go with them and they said they would pay me $2,500 in cash if I would let another man to go the legislature in my place.” This negatively impacted reconstruction because the KKK were killing and bribing anybody who voted the Radical Ticket. Overall, there’s plenty of reasons the KKK put a negative impact on the Reconstruction of the
The reconstruction of the south after the Civil War was one of the biggest struggles of nation because of the turmoil and dramatic change in the country. The South was faced with the issue of black citizens and that they will have equal rights that the whites have. Additionally, the emancipation of slaves caused many riots and conflicts because the white citizens did not approve of the fact that their society is integrated. The biggest issue that the South faced was trying to incorporate the newly freed slaves into the society because they are uneducated and are unable to sustain themselves economically. The death of Abe Lincoln proved harmful to the nation because the Congress and Johnson were not able to agree on a reconstruction plan and they had different opinions. The emancipation of slaves was a major milestone in the history of the United States, but it caused more problems than solutions in the beginning of reconstruction.
The Reconstruction Era that followed the Civil War was created to represent a period of political, economical, and social reconstruction of the Northern Union and the eleven Confederate states of the South. Though the conclusion the Civil War and commencement of the Reconstruction Era represented the conclusion of slavery throughout the United States, it did not guarantee African Americans racial equality and freedom from prejudice and segregation in Southern states of the U.S. The few advancements during the Reconstruction Era, such as the establishments of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments failed to out weigh the extreme segregation caused by the early Black Codes and Jim Crow laws , gruesome violence derived from lynching
The souths conditions after the war were horriable, as if there wasnt a south to even begin with. After the civil war the land was in ruins and destroyed by the north, William Techumseh Sherman had burned everything from the Mississippi to the Georgia coast committing rampant war crimes along the way and even burned Atlanta to the ground! Confederate currency was useless, which led to banks being pointless even though they were already ruined. Then there wasnt any law or authority, many slaves ran and became free which lossed in total at least two billion dollars worth and governments bassicly vanquished.
The Civil War was fought hard and caused mass destruction not just physically but socially. After the South failed to be victorious, the North immediately acted upon reconstructing what was lost. Reconstruction began very strong and promising until Abraham Lincoln died and the new president Andrew Johnson overrode his 10% plan. A turn in the original plan failed to achieve the political, economic, and social effects it originally intended.
One reason why the South killed the Reconstruction was because the Ku Klux Klan was making it difficult for the government to focus on the Reconstruction. This can be supported by the fact that the Ku Klux Klan was murdering people (Tourgee 511). Since the Ku Klux Klan was murdering people the government had to focus more on the Ku Klux Klan instead of the Reconstruction. This led to the government sending in troops, which also supports the idea that the Ku Klux Klan made it difficult for the government to focus on the Reconstruction (Tourgee 511). To add to the stress, the Ku Klux Klan showed a lot of intimidation. It states in Document A, “He was stabbed
The Civil War fragmented the United States by not only state borders, but by ideals and beliefs such as how much power the federal and state governments should hold, slavery, and other key issues at the time. By the end of the war, the Union had the responsibility to bring the former states of the Confederacy back into the union, rebuild both their economies and state governments, and address the large population of newly freed slaves. From period of 1865 to 1877, the period of Reconstruction in the south was only furthered slowed by resistance from portions of white population in the south who wished for their way of life to remain the same as their where before the war. During the years of Reconstruction, the whites’ resistance slowly began
The Reconstruction debate has haunted historians since the process began. First, both politicians and citizens argued about how the ordeal should be carried out. Then, the historians analyzed and debated over the success of Reconstruction and the true motives of those who pushed for Reconstruction; for instance, questions regarding whether the radical Republicans really cared about obtaining freedoms for freed African Americans (rather than solely caring about revenge and power) and whether Reconstruction actually worked reigned. To answer such questions, various historians over time set forth different theories.
“War was easy. The hard part was cleaning up afterward.” In this essay we will be talking about the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments and their contents, contexts, and consequences. Also the successes and failures of the Reconstruction, lastly the election of 1876. The Reconstruction era after the Civil War had both beneficial and non beneficial happenings that helped shape our country into what it is today.
The Reconstruction was the historical period after the Civil War where the United States was rebuilding itself. This time period lasted approximately twelve years from 1865-1877. The Reconstruction was when the Union was allowing the South to come back. The North or the Union had one main condition for re-admittance; the South had to at least have ten percent of the voting population take an oath of allegiance to the Union (Wormser). For many Americans the Reconstruction was a time of “great pain and endless questions” (U.S. History). President Abraham Lincoln and the Radical Republicans had a different approach for the Reconstruction. President Lincoln and the Radical Republicans had different goals, views on slavery, plans for Southern land,
1865 was the start of a brand new. In American history reconstruction after the Civil War the United States was left ruins so the northern states Help South rebuild and make it easier to rejoin the Union the Northerners and Republicans try to help with their efforts were very successful. Reconstruction was a failure. During Reconstruction African-Americans games many rights but these right student last their voting rights for restricted segregation laws were put into place and secret societies were made for threatened and endangered African American life wasn't any better for African Americans or the southerners after the Civil War
Washington believes that reconstruction is doomed for failure since the beginning of the period because the people looked to the government on how to act, people being not educated so they wouldn’t be ready for the duties of citizen ship, and the ignorance of the African Americans and their dependence on the government for everything. It was also because of how early it was after the age of slavery but Washington still attempted many different ways to help promote the reconstruction in hopes that one day that African Americans would be considered equals and not just the lower tier of the spectrum. There were too many factors that would hinder the reconstruction as a whole so that it would never be successful.