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Essay On Why Was The South Responsible For Reconstruction

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Reconstruction, meaning to rebuild, was a desperate time for the South. Every little thing that they owned was completely destroyed. It all started with the Civil War or also called “The War Between States”. The South wanted to gain control over the government to get rid of laws that they did not support. However, when the North had abolished slavery and made everyone equal, that really upset the South because they wanted to have power over the slaves, but they also wanted more territory, and so they declared war against the North. There was a lot of tension between both sides, they considered each other weak, but the North had way more weapons than the South which gave them a higher chance of winning. The war lasted from 1861-1865. In the …show more content…

They could not reconstruct their territory since “A ‘reconstructed’ South was supposed to include people of all races living together as equals(...)but the issue of racial equality could not be resolved through”(The 13th Amendment, page 77). The South made things complicated for themselves, they did not want to be equal with African Americans which was why reconstruction ended in the first place. The importance of this is that it shows how they could not rebuild their society due to the fact that they did not want to share any rights with the African Americans, but only rule over them. On top of that “The Southern states wanted to assert their authority over the federal government so they could abolish(...)laws interfering with the South’s right to keep slaves”(Causes of the Civil War). So we see how perverse and self-centered the South are, all they care about is themselves and about what they want. Nonetheless, this is important because reconstruction is based on equality and unity, but the South did not display these qualities. It also helps us to see that the end of reconstruction lies in the hands of the

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