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Dbq Who Killed Reconstruction

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Who Killed Reconstruction? The question "Who Killed Reconstruction" is a hotly-debated topic that often divides opinion. We have the apathetic North and the racist South, the abolitionist and ones that do not want to go forward. First, lets look at the South or the Confederacy. The South had a huge economic drop when slavery became illegal in America after the Civil War. Since blacks were free, had the right to vote, and was granted citizenship, many white Southerners wanted to keep them in their place. They thought of many ways to make sure that blacks in the south were kept as second class citizens, but the government proposed the 14th, 15th, and 16th amendment to make sure that the South would not do anything to keep blacks from getting …show more content…

Conservatism in the South stopped another act of social progression. Who Killed Reconstruction? Well I would say both, but we have to think about another factor in this issue. The South made it hard for abolitionist to push for a change. With the killing of Politicians, the radicalism of the KKK, the literacy test, the black fear... They were willing to ruin their economy all to keep a group of people down in social status. Even though the North was equal, but not fair. Even if Republicans were apathetic and just gave up... The South it the blame for the killing of reconstruction as that was their goal all along. Democrats, KKK members, and racist southerners wanted reconstruction to end. We can also say that, in a way, Republicans wanted reconstruction to change. There were bigger issues at hand and it was economically draining on the South. A lot of people up North did not like the fact that black Americans were soon sharing a social status with white Americans. The North was no safe space for blacks, there was still prejudice and unfair brutality. One of the only reasons the North was anti-slavery was because they simply did not use it, they used poor white people and other lower class minorities to boost the Northern Industrial work. But that did not stop the inherent prejudice that a majority of people had during that

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