After The Civil War: Who Killed The Reconstruction?

The North and South both ended Reconstruction. After the Civil War there was a time if rebuilding the nation called Reconstruction. During this time everyone had their own thoughts about the North and South, people of different race, and political offices. This leads us to a major thought, how the North and South ended Reconstruction. As people targeted carpetbaggers and scalawags, African American voters and Government Officials Reconstruction became more tense, also problems and racism in the North sprung about.

The South killed reconstruction in multiple ways. The south ended reconstruction because of the non-violence racism, many terrorist groups, and igniting State issues. These factors led to the end of reconstruction because it held back the United states instead of moving forward after the 'lost cause' meaning the civil war. The South brought a end to helping rebuild them after the civil war.

Although reconstruction was an era of rebuilding and accepting African Americans into their community, the South were still resentful of the African Americans. In their eyes, they just couldn’t redeem them as citizens in the society. Not everybody was satisfied with how the path of reconstruction was unfolding so they resorted to violence to create bumps in the road as an attempt to end reconstruction.

Hundreds, maybe thousands, African Americans died from whites lynching them during reconstruction. The 13th amendment (freed slaves), 14th amendment ( equal rights), and the 15th amendment (gave all male people the right to vote) were created during reconstruction to give African Americans equal rights. Rutherford Hayes was elected president. …the slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery. W.E.B. Dubois" (Background Essay).

Northern Neglect and Southern Resistance both played major roles that influenced the termination of Reconstruction, in which Freedmen were being noticed as equal in our society. Towards the end of the Civil War, slaves began to have hope in America because the tables were beginning to turn. It was the 100th anniversary of The Declaration of Independence, and former slave states started allowing black Americans in their home (Background Essay). Three Amendments were formed to officially end slavery, provide rights and protection, and made it illegal to deny someone to vote based on their race (Background Essay). It was paradise. Although, new groups such as the KKK (Klu-Klux-Klan) were formed, and Northerns didn’t seem to be themselves, changes were being made. Paradise was over. Our question is now, Who Killed Reconstruction? I believe the South killed reconstruction because of their violent and murderous actions toward the former slaves.

Overview: The twelve years after the Civil War proved to be a difficult time for America. Called Reconstruction by historians, this era saw an increase of freedom for former slaves. However, there was also great resistance to change. In 1877 attempts to reconstruct the South officially ended, leaving white-only governments in power. This DBQ asks you to decide who, North or South, was most responsible for the end of Reconstruction

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.

In the lead-up to WWI, the United States faced a variety of economic fortunes and misfortunes. After the Civil War, there had been unprecedented economic growth, however the Panic of 1873, shook the economy to its core. Recovering from the Panic took the recovery of American industries, such as tobacco farming and cotton. However, competition in both of these areas had increased and markets that previously relied on American exports, such as Great Britain, had found, or created, new sources for these goods. That left the US in a position where it needed to find new markets for its goods. And if Europe wasn’t that market, then it had to be South or East.

Government had brought the seceded Southern states back into the Union, and they ended slavery and they tried their best to protect newly emancipated the slaves. But they rebuilt the nation after a lot more four years of fighting. The reconstruction occurred in 2 phases, the Presidential Reconstruction was very lenient in order Southern states to rejoin the Union quickly, this was initiated by President Lincoln but was carried out by President Andrew Johnson. The Congressional Reconstruction was stricter and protected rights from former slaves and they kept Confederate leaders from regaining power. But, before the Civil War Lincoln proposed his 10% Plan, which was lenient and allowed the Confederate states could re-enter the Union when, 10% of their population had sworn an Oath of Loyalty and they ratified the 13th Amendment ending all slavery. But, the Radicals in Congress had rejected his plan because, it did not protect ex-slaves and didn’t keep them from regaining power, they also wanted to have 50% of the population to swear to an oath of loyalty. But, the states could come back once they ratified the 13th amendment. But, the southern passed black codes in order to keep African- Americans from getting any land, jobs, voting rights, and also protection under the law. Finally, in 1865, the Freedmen's Bureau had been established and offered assistance to former slaves and to protect their new

When President Lincoln requested that I come to the White House I was surprised. The Civil War had ended along with my service to the Union. As we talked I understood that the President was determined to bring the South back into the Union. He believed in the United States of American. His plans for Reconstruction included the rebuilding of the South which was heavily damaged because most of the battles were fought in the South. Freed slaves and white soldiers, were competing for the few jobs that were available. The mainstay of the economy was agriculture. Now there was no money for seed, labor, or taxes. President Lincoln proposed that I tour the Southern States. I would also evaluate what would it take to rebuild and repair the cities. My

At the end of the Civil War slavery was outlawed by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution and the blacks was finally free. In the South there was a sense of anger and shame in losing the war. The Reconstruction era was put into effect by Congress in 1866 and lasted until 1877. Reconstruction was aimed at reorganizing the Southern states after the Civil War. The reconstruction plan granted the means for readmitting the southern states into the Union, and tried to come up with the methods by which whites and blacks could live together in a non-slave society. However during reconstruction the United States government took actions to protect freedman and with each action the south countered with actions that would try to eradicate the laws put in place by the winning northern forces for example, the infamous Jim Crow Laws. The law segregated the whites and the blacks, thus can be commonly heard as “separate is not equal.” The Reconstruction was still seen as a success towards the United States as a whole in many ways as it unified the nations.

In Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War, Nicholas Lemann describes how reconstruction failed because of the violent strategies and intimidation of white southerners to African Americans, which took place mainly in Southern states like Mississippi and Louisiana. Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation to free slaves in the south in 1863. Later on, the thirteenth amendment was ratified to abolish slavery in 1865. Even though these documents were completed, African Americans were still fighting for their rights and went through hardships to keep their rights with the help of a few leaders. White Southerners believed that racial hierarchy was the natural order and that’s the only order they will go by.

The Civil War left a country divided not only by property lines and borders but by beliefs as well. Not just religious beliefs, moral beliefs also. It left both sides, north and south struggling, trying to figure out what their next move towards reuniting the divided America was going to be. The period following the end of the Civil War would become known as the “Reconstruction Era.” An era that raised just as many questions as it did answers. A reconstruction of America that seems to carry on many decades later.

Racism has been a horrific existence in our society since before the 1870's. Around 1876, America was just beginning to open up enough job opportunities for all Americans. After the Civil War, a freedman was just allowed to become full citizens. Did the North or South demolish the reformation of the South? The South killed reconstruction by using violent racist groups, non-violent racism, and igniting state issues.

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.