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. One reason the North killed …show more content…
Obviously, this was a foolhardy move by the North. The amnesty of Southerners gave racist Southerners another chance to dominate the South with racism and hate. The North also had failed to stop black codes. These laws restricted African Americans’ rights such as congregating, bearing arms, working for other African Americans, and coming within town limits (Black Codes). Finally, the North was oblivious to the antics of the Ku Klux Klan, a white nationalist hate group. After the murder of John W. Stephens, Albion Tourgee claimed that he had “very little doubt that I (sic) shall be one of the next victims” (Tourgee, 1870). If Albion Tourgee had so little doubt that he would be a victim of the Ku Klux Klan, then it was probably not safe for Republicans, scalawags, and carpetbaggers in the South during Reconstruction. The North was responsible for providing safety in the South for Republicans, carpetbaggers, scalawags, and African Americans. This would have proved that the North was negligent. Therefore, if the North had not been negligent, the African Americans, scalawags, and carpetbaggers would have been safe during and after Reconstruction even if the South had intentions to harm them. During the course of Reconstruction, the North was distracted and needed to shift their focus from Reconstruction to other affairs. The Panic of 1873 created an atmosphere where people began to oppose Reconstruction (Danzer, 1998). The Grant
The North ended Reconstruction due to the corruption of the government. At that time President Grant was so consumed with accusations of corruption, that he lost focus on continuing the Reconstruction efforts. According to document C“... many Northern voters shifted their attention to such national concerns as the Panic of 1873 and corruption in Grant’s administration…” This indicates that the North were more concerned about the national economy than the ideals of reconstruction. The
Death to Reconstruction! In the North and the South war took place, its name, The Civil War. The Civil War was for the rights of the slaves and the right for their freedom in the South. After the war, the rest of the countries were trying to reconnect as a unified government which is called Reconstruction. The North believed in the freedom of all slaves, but the South thought otherwise, all that the North wanted was to persevere slavery. Now the big question, one might say the big elephant in the room, who killed Reconstruction? Was it the North or the South? Both the North and the South were the reason why Reconstruction died for these two reasons: The KKK was killing the people from the South to intimidate the supporter/believer
The reconstruction was an era when African Americans tried to fit in and to rebuild the South. The reconstruction started in 1876. Some troops started to leave the South. The KKK was also starting to rebel against the government. The North took their focus of reconstruction and focused on scandals. This essay is trustworthy because I used primary sources. The South was the cause for the end of the reconstruction because the KKK was killing people, KKK was forcing people to vote democratic ticket, and South did nothing about the KKK.
The Reconstruction of the United States was an experiment in interracial democracy. The Civil War victory by the North brought to a close the establishment of slavery but, in turn, opened Pandora's box. The questions and answers pertaining to economical, political, and social equality for freedmen had yet to be addressed on a practical level. The Southern states, still bitter from defeat and economic stresses, strongly rejected the societal transformations thrust upon them. The Northern states' focal point remained on the necessary political powers by which to enact constitutional amendments, therefore empowering the federal government with the capabilities to enforce the principles of equal rights. On paper, slavery was abolished, but in reality, African-Americans were once again enslaved on a ship without the security or knowledge of what the next port held for them. The Civil War had not truly ended. It was still active under the guise of Reconstruction, but now coats and flags of many colors existed, and battles were merely fought on alternate battlefields. A war of ideas lacking in substantial practicality resulted in repetitious battles being won and loss. The motivating forces that set Reconstruction into motion were for the most part the North's quest for unification among states', and the emancipation of slaves. However, the primary objective of Reconstruction was to grant political, economical, and social opportunities for the freedmen. The
The North may have won the war, but they did a horrible job in trying to win the peace. The south had their new form of slavery, which was contained in the "Black Codes"; laws passed throughout the South that laid heavy restrictions on what, who, and where African-Americans could be. President Johnson saw that the only way to get the freedmen as subordinates again was to let the south back in he started signing pardons so fast that they had to assign an office to help him keep up. Johnson didn't interfere with the south and they continued their plantations, with the plantation owners running the south, in essence becoming exactly what they were before the war. It was like it had never happened. When
Geoffrey Chaucer once said, “all good things must come to an end”. This quote perfectly describes the period of Reconstruction in the United States. During 1876, America gained a lot of opportunities and technology, such as the recently developed railroads. They still had to recover from the Civil War, so they started Reconstruction Policies to reconnect the southern and northern states into one union. The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were passed to help African Americans gain their rights, but then the new election came up. It was very controversial and to avoid a crisis, the government made Rutherford B.Hayes president if he removed federal soldiers from the South. This officially ended Reconstruction. Many people still wonder… Did the North or the South kill Reconstruction? The South is to blame for the termination of Reconstruction for three
With the era of American Reconstruction in America during the mid to late 1800’s came a sense of opportunity and hope for its people. America was on the move as nation, railroads being built faster than ever and the freedmen looking to find their niche in society. Although in the beginning the government provided support for these new citizens, efforts toward reconstruction faded as the years passed. Those efforts faded to a point where they were all but nonexistent, and with the unwritten Compromise of 1877, what feeble efforts that were left of reconstruction were now all but dead. Politically, reconstruction failed to provide equality by pulling Federal troops from the South, allowing former Confederate officials and slave owners
After four years of fighting between the Union and the Confederacy in the American Civil War, it was finally decided in 1864 that the 11 southern states that seceded from the nation would be restored into the Union once again. However, the problems of reconstructing the Union were just as difficult as the war itself had been. Because most of the war was fought on Southern ground, the South had been devastated both physically and economically. Helping former slaves and making state governments loyal to the Union also presented various problems that would take years to resolve.
After the conclusion of America’s Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln pitched the idea of “Reconstruction,” which would bring the southern states back into the Union. President Lincoln, according to many radical Republicans, was too gentle on the south. The government was divided on how to solve the issue of readmitting the southern states back into the Union. In addition to that, the government was not certain on what rights to enumerate to the newly emancipated slaves. These issues became more difficult to solve after President Lincoln was murdered. Lincoln’s successor, Vice President Andrew Johnson, was a Tennessee Democrat that lacked respect of the Republican Congress. The legislative and executive branches of the American government
The unethical methods America was governed by was a significant cause of the death of Reconstruction. It all began within the Grant Administration when “many Northern voters shifted their attention to such national concerns as the Panic of 1873 and corruption in Grant’s administration. . . . Although political violence continued in the South . . . the tide of the public opinion in the North began to turn against Reconstruction policies” (Danzer 515). This evidence shows that the corruption in the Government took priority. At the time many papers were trying to show and illustrate how deep the malfeasance ran. In one display President Grant is seen digging through a barrel of corruption that holds things such as: bribery, fraud, belknap and so much more (Harper’s Weekly 515). The rings on the barrel represent and show different levels of corruption within the administration. Moving forward in history the Election of 1876 exposed that the North truly did lose interest in Reconstruction. The election was heated almost resulting in a second civil war, “To avoid a crisis, and informal agreement - now called the Compromise of 1877- granted Hayes the Presidency. In return and this was a huge point, Hayes promised to remove the last federal soldiers from the South” ( Roden 505). The Republican candidate won now there was room for the South to do what they wanted. If the North had stayed on track for reconstruction
In 1865, the United States government implemented what was known as Reconstruction. Its’ purpose was to remove slavery from the south, and give African-American’s the freedom in which they deserved. However, the freedom that they deserved was not the freedom that they received. With documents like The Black Codes restricting them from numerous privileges that white people had and the terroristic organization known as the Klu Klux Klan attacking and killing them, African-American’s were still being oppressed by their government as well as their fellow man. Slavery may have been abolished, but African-American’s were not yet given the freedom and rights that their white counterparts took for granted.
Due to the gradual elimination of African-American rights and the withdrawal of Federal troops from the South to enforce such rights, the end of Reconstruction surfaced in 1877. In the eyes of blacks, Reconstruction was a point in history where they could see their civil rights expanding before their very own eyes. On the contrary, whites were deeply disturbed at the way their once “white supremacy” government was dwindling in the rear-view mirror behind them. This fourteen year period known as Reconstruction houses the memories of temporary freedom, scandal, backdoor deals, and the unresolved social, political, and economical issues of our country.
Reconstruction was a period of time after the Civil War (1865-1877) that was supposed to be the rebuilding of America. It was also the process used to readmit all the Confederate states back into the Union. There was controversy, however, on how to go about rebuilding the nation. Abraham Lincoln proposed a lenient plan. After he was assassinated, Andrew Johnson proposed a very similar plan. The Radical Republicans, a group of legislators that were in favor of freedmen’s rights, were opposed to both plans under “Presidential Reconstruction”. They initiated “Congressional Reconstruction”. Because of the conflicting views, there was little cooperation between the Executive and Legislative branches. This lead to many unsuccessful
During the time of Reconstruction, the federal government did little to help the people of America as a whole, they concentrated on bettering African American lives and “reconstructing” the South. The focus during this time period was to protect the rights of African Americans, which had long and hard been fought for. The federal government made it their priority to ensure equal rights among all black people. Also, the readmission of the Confederate states was essential to the federal
1. The war in 1862 was only more than a year old and the people in both the Union and Confederate sides didn’t anticipate it would last that long, but it is going to go on. Close to the end of the summer in this same year, the Union has made huge progress in claiming confederate lands, winning some major battles. They have put the confederacy in the defensive. They have taken over New Orleans, with even black troops major on the ground of New Orleans. They have taken Missouri and are working hard to take over the Mississippi Valley and maybe even Richmond itself. Bruce Catton puts it this way in The Civil War, “Except for guerrilla activity, Kentucky and Missouri has been swept clear of armed confederates, Western Tennessee had been reclaimed, there was a Yankee army in Cumberland Gap, another one was approaching chattanooga, and a third was sprawled out from Memphis to Corinth, preparing to splice down through Mississippi and touch hands with the Union occupation forces in Baton Rouge and New Orleans” (85) So not only that they Union had taken over regions, they are advancing as well, but they did not win the way this year for some reason. Firstly, because they did not have generals and army heads capable of taking them to victory. General Halleck, chief of the Union Armies and Pope in charge of one of the Union armies in Virginia, were major examples of this.