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History easy The civil rights movement
Civil rights movement in the USA
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Reconstruction has been brutally murdered! For a little over a decade after the Civil War, the victorious North launched a campaign of social, economic, and political recovery in South. Martial law was also implemented in the South. Eventually, the North hoped to admit the territory in the former Confederacy back into the United States as states. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments freed the African Americans, made them citizens, and gave them the right to vote. Despite this, Reconstruction was unfortunately cut short in 1877. The North killed Recosntruction because of racism, negligence, and distractions. 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. The North’s negligence also contributed to the end of Reconstruction. The North had failed to notice the many racially motivated atrocities that occurred in the South durin... ... middle of paper ... ... states that, “in the 1870s, northern voters grew indifferent to the events in the South,” (Danzer, 1998). This proved that the North was clearly distracted and began to guide their focus away from Reconstruction, which happened in the South, to their own problems in the North. If the North had not been so preoccupied, they may have been able to focus on Reconstruction and perhaps extend the length of Reconstruction. In conclusion, the evidence from the documents prove that the North was racist, negligent, and distracted, thus proving them guilty of killing Reconstruction. Therefore, if the North had not been racist, negligent, or distracted, the North would have been more enthusiastic about Reconstruction, been able to properly execute Reconstruction, and the North would have been able to focus on Reconstruction more. That is why the North killed Reconstruction.
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
Reconstruction began in 1865 and ended in 1877. Reconstruction is known as the rebuilding of the U.S. following the Civil War where they would allow southern's back into the union.The military then organized for new elections, which were three groups and they were; freedmen, carpetbaggers, and
Even when the Amendment abolished slavery in 1865, and the black people embraced education, built their own churches, reunited with their broken families and worked very hard in the sharecropping system, nothing was enough for the Reconstruction to succeed. Whites never gave total freedom to African Americans. Blacks were forced to endure curfews, passes, and living on rented land, which put them in a similar situation as slaves. In
Imagine a historian, author of an award-winning dissertation and several books. He is an experienced lecturer and respected scholar; he is at the forefront of his field. His research methodology sets the bar for other academicians. He is so highly esteemed, in fact, that an article he has prepared is to be presented to and discussed by the United States’ oldest and largest society of professional historians. These are precisely the circumstances in which Ulrich B. Phillips wrote his 1928 essay, “The Central Theme of Southern History.” In this treatise he set forth a thesis which on its face is not revolutionary: that the cause behind which the South stood unified was not slavery, as such, but white supremacy. Over the course of fourteen elegantly written pages, Phillips advances his thesis with evidence from a variety of primary sources gleaned from his years of research. All of his reasoning and experience add weight to his distillation of Southern history into this one fairly simple idea, an idea so deceptively simple that it invites further study.
"Why Did the North Win the Civil War." SOCIAL STUDIES HELP. Retrieved on 18 May 2005,
The United States had a 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. It was 1865, black men were tasting freedom, the confederation was defeated, the south was defeated, but the unchained blacks had no real freedom. " A man maybe free and yet not independent," Mississippi planter Samuel Agnew observed in his diary (Foner 481).
...iled to gain the recognition of the European nations, North's superior resources made the outcome inevitable, and moral of the South towards the end of the war. The Civil War was a trying time for both the North and the South alike, but the question of its outcome was obvious from the start. The North was guaranteed a decisive victory over the ill-equipped South. Northerners, prepared to endure the deficit of war, were startled to find that they were experiencing an enormous industrial boom even after the first year of war. To the South, however, the war was a draining and debilitating leech, sucking the land dry of any appearance of economical formidability. The debate continues whether or not the South could have won the Civil war. It’s always going to be a bunch of “what ifs?”
America has gone through many hardships and struggles since coming together as a nation involving war and changes in the political system. Many highly regarded leaders in America have come bestowing their own ideas and foundation to provide a better life for “Americans”, but no other war or political change is more infamous than the civil war and reconstruction. Reconstruction started in 1865 and ended in 1877 and still to date one of the most debated issues in American history on whether reconstruction was a failure or success as well as a contest over the memory, meaning, and ending of the war. According to, “Major Problems in American History” David W. Blight of Yale University and Steven Hahn of the University of Pennsylvania take different stances on the meaning of reconstruction, and what caused its demise. David W. Blight argues that reconstruction was a conflict between two solely significant, but incompatible objectives that “vied” for attention both reconciliation and emancipation. On the other hand Steven Hahn argues that former slaves and confederates were willing and prepared to fight for what they believed in “reflecting a long tradition of southern violence that had previously undergirded slavery” Hahn also believes that reconstruction ended when the North grew tired of the 16 year freedom conflict. Although many people are unsure, Hahn’s arguments presents a more favorable appeal from support from his argument oppose to Blight. The inevitable end of reconstruction was the North pulling federal troops from the south allowing white rule to reign again and proving time travel exist as freed Africans in the south again had their civil, political, and economical position oppressed.
Norther neglect caused the end to reconstruction because of no focus on Reconstruction. In the 1780’s northerners were not focused on reconstruction but on the scandals in grants administration and the panic of 1873. They began to became unconcerned about southern affairs. Affairs like the equal rights talk and corruption in the south. Being unconcerned their opinions were beginning to swing against Reconstruction. During grants precedence grants focus would be split between Reconstruction and corruption in his presidency. Trying to stop this corruption he might have had more focus on the scandals in his administration. Meanwhile Reconstruction would fade into the background. while this is happening the people would lose faith in the government
The Civil War, the deadliest war in American History, ended in a vicious divide of opinions and Northern and Southern States. This war ended in 1865 and thus began the Reconstruction Era where the U.S. tried to unite and the Confederate States were accepted back into the Union. In Reconstruction, the 13th-15th Amendments concerning Civil Rights and African Americans were ratified. The 13th Amendment abolishing slavery, the 14th awarding citizenship, and the 15th providing the right to vote. African Americans made huge advancements for their rights during this Era, however, Reconstruction ended in 1876. Reconstruction ended because of Northern neglect and Southern resistance. However, Southern resistance was the
I believe the South is ultimately responsible for the end of reconstruction. They resisted the North’s control and manipulated the African Americans and all who opposed their beliefs. This along with the actions of Andrew Johnson, a southerner, kept the Reconstruction from continuing. The south was still running on their own agenda at this point and they didn't want the north imposing anything in them.
1876 America had been progressing by the railroads being built, and ranches filling up in the west. Everything had been ruined by the upcoming election. After the civil war, the reconstruction was in place to reconnect the eleven states that had left the union and welcomed the ex-slaves called freedmen. The north sent troops to the south under the US army rule. People had thought that the reconstruction was going to work because the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment were established. Those amendments gave African
As the Civil War drew to an end in 1865, plans were being made for the economic, social, and political reconstruction of a region that faced war and many years of racism. It was a time in which the United States would put the broken pieces back together and the Southern states would rejoin the Union. Reconstruction involved many political leaders, goals, and accomplishments. Its outcome can be argued as both a success and failure.
Although the North did not think African-Americans deserved to be enslaved, they thought that “the blacks, as a people… [were] unfitted for the proper exercise of political duties” (Document D, 1873). This shows that northerners did not believe that freedmen were fit to run a government because for them, African-Americans would need time to be educated on how the system works due to the fact that blacks were only recently freed from slavery; thus they did not support freedmen in their quest to earn positions in the federal along with state governments. Document D also shows us an image that was published in Harper’s Weekly, which exemplifies what a Northern illustrator imagined Southern State Legislatures to be like. Two black men are drawn arguing barbarically and slightly resembling gorillas. The classy, white men in the image looks tired as he just wanted to work in peace. This insinuates that northerners played a huge role in killing Reconstruction because not all of them supported black
Historians judge Reconstruction as a period of political corruption and conflict. Although the slaves were freed, the North failed to address their needs or provide protection from violence. Even though Reconstruction-era governments made progress in rebuilding the South, the South sought to bring down radical regimes. The failure of Reconstruction pushed the equality and freedom of blacks out of focus, until the 20th century when it would become a national issue (“The End