Who's To Blame For The Failure Of Reconstruction?

The resulting outcome of Reconstruction has been labeled as both a success and a failure. At the end of the four-year Civil War, and nearly 250 years of slavery, President Lincoln’s intentions were to unify a shattered nation. Thus, began the Reconstruction era. Reconstruction succeeded in the installation of the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery, the 14th Amendment defining citizenship and protecting all Americans under the law and extending suffrage to all men in the 15th Amendment. The Freedman’s Bureau and Civil Rights Act also sought to help African Americans to participate equally in government, in society and in the economy. Black men were elected to political office in every level of government and all Southern states drafted new constitutions and ratified Reconstruction amendments.

The Reconstruction period is the name given to the time in between 1863 and 1877. This period’s main goal was to reunite the United States of America after the most substantial event of disunity in American existence: The Civil War. Reconstruction consisted of many proposed plans and attempts to reinstate the Southern states back into the union. In the early stages, there was some promise as to what reconstruction had the ability to accomplish, because some political groups had the right ideas about what was necessary to pick up the fragments of a war-torn nation, in order to reconstruct it into a prospering, free, and equal nation it had the potential to be. This reconstruction had had few successes and ultimately failed in the end—due to

Northern Neglect meant that many Northerns decided to turn their backs to the African Americans, and ignore their issue. In Document C, there’s a quote that confirms this judgment, “...the tide of the public opinion in the North began to turn against Reconstruction policies”. As it clearly proves that Northern's started to overlook Reconstruction and wonder if it's worth fighting for. “the blacks, as people, are unfitted for the proper exercise of political duties,” quotes Document D. In this document there is a cartoon portraying black Americans poorly in a government office, while trying to persuade its audience to realize that black Americans do not mix well in their government. Northerns began to fill their heads with thoughts of wondering is helping the blacks is really for the better. Cartoons such as these, brainwashed them into ignoring the

The truth is both sides ruined the chances of reconstruction.They are both at fault. The south and the northerners had an equal part at failing to continue the reconstruction because from the south there was an organization; a cult called the Ku klux Klan.The kkk did not accept african americans. They were so cruel and inhumane to them the kkk would slaughter , manipulate, and even taunt them till the african americans would fear them(Doc A, B)As for the North , there was a lot of corruption due to Former President grant that committed fraud and caused the “ panic of 1873 “ which caused lots of jobs to discontinue and people to worry from it.(doc C)

The Reconstruction Era lasted up to 1877 from the time just after the Civil War. The Reconstruction failed to bring about social and economic equality to the former slaves due to the southern whites’ resentful and bitter outlook on the matter, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Jim Crow laws.

I think that the North killed Reconstruction. If the north had taken more of a hold on south then the KKK would not have run around killing people. And if the north had been there in the south then the KKK would not have existed either. If the north had kept its focus on the south then it maybe reconstruction would have worked better. The north was more focused on the scandal (doc C) and if they had trusted the freedman more (doc D) then maybe Reconstruction would have been a success.

The original purpose of Reconstruction was to restore the buildings and the economy of the south the best they could, but without the immoral element of slavery. But, reconstruction under the Johnson Presidency was a failure for a few reasons: 1) Convict Leasing, 2) Sharecropping, 3) the Ku Klux Klan, 4) Segregation in schools, even in the North, 5) Carpetbaggers/Scalawags, 6) misleading statistics, and 7) racism.

“...the slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery”(Dubois). The Reconstruction wasn’t just a time of leaving slavery behind us, it was a time of progression and development. In 1869, four years after the Civil War, the first ever college football game ensued, and in 1870 Hiram Revels was the first African American senator. Then, in 1877, the first ever easter egg hunt occurred. Moving past all the fun of the Reconstruction, is the death of it. The Reconstruction died due to the efforts, or lack thereof on the North. A financial crisis, racism, and a lack of effort brought the Reconstruction to a halting stop.

After the Civil War, the radical Republicans attempted to reconstruct the nation by binding the tear between the two different sections of America while also attempting to give freed slaves the rights that they deserved. Although their intentions were good, the reconstruction ultimately failed. The ratification of the 13th and the 14th amendment successfully ended slavery, but it did not help freedmen conform to society. Slaves who were freed as a result often had no money and would have to work under white employers anyways. Moreover, freedmen would have to get resources loaned to them by their white employers, which would lead the freedmen to develop severe debt instead of making an income. Even though the 14th amendment stated that every

In hindsight it is sometimes claimed that Reconstruction was a failure. Although there was some good that came out of the Reconstruction it was mostly just a relentless uphill battle against Southerners and immoral politicians that were here to delay change and keep racism alive. Reconstruction brought the Ku Klux Klan who displayed great resistance, and poverty that swept the South once the blacks were freed. The freedom of these black slaves led to discriminatory legislatures such as the Black Codes and the Jim Crow laws to keep the blacks constrained from actually being free. The South was then encountered with corruption and high property taxes, as a rebuild was in order to reestablish the war torn part of the nation.

The Reconstruction era was a period of time after the civil war of 1865-1877. The President and later the Congress would both put forth ideas and initiatives. Legislative responses and shifts in political power would mark this era with moderate success but in the end, a failure.

However, the most likely target to blame is the side of the South. The North actually assisted in the progression of Reconstruction by legalizing the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments - which abolished slavery, ensured that blacks were equal to whites, and prohibited suffrage based on race - creating laws to enforce the amendments through military force, establishing black churches, schools, “and universities like Howard, Fisk, Morehouse, and Hampton.” (Background Essay) Without these endeavors, higher education for blacks would have perished and the numerous contributions of African-Americans would have been erased throughout history. With all these evidences to support the North’s innocence, the South is more responsible as it actively fought against the North through the KKK, contemptible leaders, and illegal solutions, such as poll taxes to react to the South’s greatest obstacle - the 15th amendment. As the South protested relentlessly to bolster their need for a modern slave society, the North forfeited and allowed the South to regain its previous condition as they knew Reconstruction was beginning to wilt. If the South transferred their tenacity to join hands with their brothers up north, our current world wouldn’t have issues resulting from segregation. A possibility of an accepting country was offered to the South, but the South rejected it. As such, the era

McPherson wrote, “At the beginning of 1867 no black man could vote in the South, a year later they were a majority of registered voters in several ex-Confederate states.” Also adding to this evidence is the fact that four years after the war blacks held 15 percent of southern offices.

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 the former Confederacy and to readmit the land in the former Confederacy back into the United States as states. Reconstruction yielded many benefits for African Americans. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments freed African Americans, made them citizens, and gave them the right to vote respectively. The Freedmen’s Bureau also provided African Americans and poor whites with education, jobs, and supplies. Despite this, Reconstruction was cut short in 1877. The North killed Reconstruction because of racism, negligence, and distractions.

After the North won the civil war, it was time to rebuild this nation. This period of reconstruction was supposed to have a profound change on society. Unfortunately this was not the case. Reconstruction did not fundamentally alter this nation. Not to say that nothing happened, but nothing that really made a change or difference happened. First, the control of the south was given right back to the planter elite. Also, even though slavery was abolished; blacks were not free. Finally, Congress and President Johnson could not get along. Although the civil war reshaped this country profoundly. The reconstruction efforts did little but scratch a surface, before being quickly wiped away.