Reconstruction Dbq Essay

     After the devastation left from the Civil War, many field owners looked for new ways to replace their former slaves with field hands for farming and production use. From this need for new field hands came sharecroppers, a “response to the destitution and disorganized” agricultural results of the Civil War (Wilson 29). Sharecropping is the working of a piece of land by a tenant in exchange for a portion of the crops that they bring in for their landowners. These farmhands provided their labor, while the landowners provided living accommodations for the worker and his family, along with tools, seeds, fertilizers, and a portion of the crops that they had harvested that season. A sharecropper had “no entitlement

The sharecroppers paid "rent" with a share of the crops that they raised, with roughly one-half of all they produced belonged to the white owner (Ransom and Sutch, 1977). The landowner also advanced money to the farmer to purchase seed and other necessary farming equipment. The problem was the sharecroppers rarely, if ever, made enough money from the sale of their crops to pay back their debt. This often led to what some called "debt peonage," and it effectively bound sharecroppers to the land, and the landowner (Bowles, 2011). This was a veiled form of slavery, much like convict leasing was.

Along with being left with nothing but wasted years, casualties, and deeper in debt, the Confederates lost their cause and this made them angry. The Ku Klux Klan offered protection and support along with what they thought was justice. “To protect the weak, the innocent, and the defenseless, from the indignities, wrongs, and outrages of the lawless, the violent, and the brutal; the relieve the injured and oppressed; to succor the suffering and unfortunate and specially the widows and orphans of the Confederate soldiers.” This support and understanding that the Ku Klux Klan offered was attractive to the poor white Southerners. The Ku Klux Klan imposed extreme fear on African American, their purpose to discourage the African American vote for the Republican party. This in turn defeated the whole purpose as to why the Fifteenth Amendment was passed. A direct quote from: Political Terrorism by the Ku Klux Klan. “Q: What are they afraid of? A: Of being killed or whipped to death. Q: What has made them afraid? A: Because men that voted radical tickets they took the spite out on the women when they could get at them.” This primary document only adds to the point that African Americans during the Reconstruction period were terrorized and pressured to do what the Confederates demanded. Although all African Americans were free and Reconstruction had taken effect, African Americans in the South were still not living in peace during

During the time period of 1860 and 1877 many major changes occurred. From the beginning of the civil war to the fall of the reconstruction, the United States changed dramatically. Nearly one hundred years after the Declaration of Independence which declared all men equal, many social and constitutional alterations were necessary to protect the rights of all people, no matter their race. These social and constitutional developments that were made during 1860 to 1877 were so drastic it could be called a revolution.

“A truly united America has been created. Let’s hope that our Reconstruction bridges this condition perfectly.” Such a senatorial speech fell to be false. Instead of fulfilling Lincoln’s dream, Reconstruction turned out to be a complete failure as it divided both sides (again) and created an irreversible shift. Officially, Reconstruction is recognized to have an end, not by success, but by disaster. Unlike what is often thought amongst people, the actual death of Reconstruction was caused by both sides of America; in other words, Southern resistance and Northern neglect.

Reconstruction was the time between 1863 and 1877 when the U.S. focused on abolishing slavery, destroying the Confederacy, and reconstructing the nation and the Constitution and is also the general history of the post-Civil War era in the U.S. between 1865 and 1877. Under Abraham Lincoln, presidential reconstruction began in each state as soon as federal troops controlled most of the state. The usual ending date is 1877, when the Compromise of 1877 saw the collapse of the last Republican state governments in the South

Forever. 170). The Klan were white southerners who were organized and committed to the breaking down of Reconstruction. By methods of brutality, “the Klan during Reconstruction offers the most extensive example of homegrown terrorism in American history” (Foner. Forever. 171). The Ku Klux Klan as well as other groups killed or tormented black politicians or threatened the blacks who voted in elections. The Klan strongly disagreed with the northern idea that slaves should become part of the government. The Historian Kenneth M. Stampp states, “for their [the North] supreme offense was not corruption but attempting to organize the Negroes for political action” (Stampp. Era. 159). This corresponds with Foner’s idea that the South was not open to the idea of change but more so consumed with the idea of recreating a society similar to one of the past. However, the goal of white power groups was not just politics. The Klan wanted to restore the hierarchy once controlling the South. Foner observes that, “the organization took on the function of the antebellum slave patrols: making sure that blacks did not violate the rules and etiquette of white supremacy” (Foner. Forever. 172). Like the power the southern whites formerly held over the slave population, the Ku Klux Klan wanted to control the African American population still living in the South. They did not want the freedmen to become integrated into their society because they saw them as lesser people. By suppressing and

Reconstruction was a time of culture shift and intolerance in American society. Many white Americans were opposed to the idea of being equal to another person of a different color or ethnicity. As a result of the civil war, about 600,000 were dead. Also after the war the 13th amendment was passed which abolished slavery, the 14th amendment gave blacks American citizenship and civil rights, and the 15th amendment made it illegal to deny the someone the right to vote based on race .The term reconstruction means rebuild; Reconstruction was a plan to rebuild the south.

After the civil war there was an effort to reconstruct the south states and their society. But the north wanted to combine the African-Americans into the society. The south didn't really want the African-Americans they also wanted all the reconstruction to end. The south killed reconstruction because they didn't thrive for their interest in equal rights and their relentless violence towards the African-Americans and the north’s absence of sympathy to the African-Americans.

During the Civil War, the Confederacy and the Union battled to fight over the morality of slavery. In the end of the Civil War, the Union won and resulted in the abolishment of slavery in the United States of America. This caused the Reconstruction period between 1865 to 1877; where North began to incorporate freed slaves into society. With the North’s involvement in the South, the Southerners tried to refute the new civil rights of the slaves. In the new battle of reconstruction post Civil War, American citizens witnessed social, political, and intellectual changes.

To begin, the Sharecropping System was just a legal form of slavery. (Schultz,284) Freed blacks were once again tied to land owned by white employers. Land owners shortened blacks freedom by keeping them from owning land.(Schultz,284) Knowing they did not have money, their employers provided farming equipment, housing, and food. (Schultz,284) This meant that the land owners would gain a larger share for providing them the necessities.(Schultz,284) Sharecroppers

The Reconstruction period after the Civil War was a fail attempt at uniting a divided nation over the issue of slavery and integrating freed African Americans into society. The efforts of the North was met with large, aggressive, and often violent white southern resistance. White supremacy groups like the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) with the combination of Black Codes, laws passed by Southern states post Civil War to prevent African Americans from achieving political and economic autonomy, intimidated African Americans and pushed back their civil liberties that was gained with the establishment of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment. The 13th amendment abolished slavery, the 14th amendment granted former slaves recently freed citizenship as well as anyone who is born or naturalized in

Dubois’ summary of the Reconstruction Era is an extensive agreeable extent of black Americans finding freedom then being entrapped again. In 1865 all slaves in the USA were formally freed due to the help of President Lincoln who issued the Emancipation Proclamation stating that black Americans could no longer be owned as property and were free to leave their masters. In result, this secured them a better life and provided them with basic human rights. Despite the black americans conquering and winning the freedom of owning land, being economically stable and wining the right to vote - some of these successes were short lived. For example, white people were still superior than the blacks despite their new found freedom, they fought to keep positions

The reconstruction time period was full of violence, making it much easier for the K.K.K to get away with their actions. The civil war had just ended and America was in place of chaos when the Klu Klux Klan rose up. The violence was stemmed the racist views that thrived in the south. In 1886, there was a riot between past black soldiers and white people. White police even assisted in the violent rampages. Many people, from all classes, joined the KKK during this time to support white supremacy. The Klan punished newly freed men for many reasons, including not being cooperative with whites,

The thirteenth amendment freed slaves, but the black codes enslaved them again. The black codes blocked the thirteenth amendment from making blacks one-hundred percent free. It was just a way to get them back on the fields. One of the effects of black codes was the downfall in production. Master’s plantations became empty and their production was very low. If they didn’t have any farming going on nothing could be distributed and sold for the owners to make money. The slaves were their work they had gotten for free and now had to buy them back through the black codes. The united states of America depended heavily on slave’s capital. Half of America’s capital came from slaves. And without their slaves, they weren’t making money. No money made family owners of plantations upset so they took matters into their own hands. The secret organization (KKK) Ku Klux Klan. It was founded in Tennessee in the year 1865. The same year as the passing of the 13th amendment and Black Codes. The KKK was an effect of the freeing of slaves. It was their way to illegally kill, hunt, and torture blacks because of who they were. Their goal was to go against the reconstruction of America and lift white supremacy back to the top. After World War I, they reached at least five million members. That was at least one million more than the slaves that had been emancipated. Some of the things they did would be rituals of hanging innocent blacks on nooses and burning the cross. Or hunting down blacks and