Flora Yuan Seikkula SS Period 7 1 June 2018 Yuan DBQ North or South: Who Killed Reconstruction? The end of the Civil War in 1865 was a very conflicting time for the United States. On one hand, the sanguinary struggles of the war had finally come to a close. On the other hand, the desperate desire to rebuild the damage in the South quickly became very popular. This was called Reconstruction, an era focused on changing the ethos of resisting Southerners and installing equal civil rights for all citizens. Despite how important Reconstruction was for rebuilding the American economy, this desire ultimately came to an end in 1877. Although both the North and the South played roles in this nation defeat, Northern neglect primarily killed the …show more content…
After the murder of John W. Stephens, State Senator from Caswell, one of the most famous carpetbaggers drafted a letter to the New York Tribune about the Ku Klux Klan. Albion Tourgee wrote in his letter that, “...[He] [had] very little doubt that [he] shall be on of the next victims. (Doc A, letter)” The specter of being killed by the KKK himself indicates that the people involved in the murder of Stephens had gotten away with their crime and not punished by the North, thus it allowed Reconstruction to be followed with looser terms. Due to times like these where the North did not step in to counter the South’s violent actions, the South began to get away with more and more of these crimes. As a result, more Southern resistance began pouring in, making it harder for the North to continue on with their aim for …show more content…
New propaganda started being published against African Americans, and they started being depicted in a much different way than before. Before, African Americans was portrayed as innocent and kind (Doc B, comic). Nonetheless, as hope started to perish, African Americans started being portrayed as fat and unfit for government positions (Doc D, comic). In Heather Cox Richardson’s book, she states that African Americans were unsuitable to be government officials, as they needed time to recover from their tragic experiences as slaves (Doc D, book excerpt). This shows how Northern public opinion changed around the 1870’s, as they turned to propaganda and hateful articles about African Americans. This showed they drifted from their original goal and had completely lost in interest all together. Hence, their final indifference led them to give up on Reconstruction
This left them in dismay as they were nearly destroyed. Only a thread of them was hanging, and then reconstruction started. The south did not like they help they pulled down at the reconstruction. It seemed as they did not want to be rebuilt as a new place. “(Doc B) They offered me 5,000 to go with them and they said they would pay me 2,500 in cash if i would let another man go to the legislature in my place.” Colby a former slave says this as the KKK tried to bribe him to stop reconstruction. They went through extreme measures to go to a man's house, drag him away from his house, and beat him for hours, then just to bribe him. It was obvious then and there that the south just didn’t want to be
After the Union’s victory in the Civil War during 1865, the era of Reconstruction began, an era in which the prospect of rebuilding the nation once again after the catastrophic effects of the war arose. During Reconstruction, African Americans were attempted to be integrated into American society, it was questioned on what terms Confederate states would be welcomed into the country, and the economy was meant to be fixed but all of this ultimately failed. Reconstruction was not successful in rebuilding the political, economical, and racial issues in the country post Civil War as there were even more racial and discriminatory issues, a damaged federal government, and an injured economy as well.
In May 9, 1865, after the Civil War ended, America had an exciting year for African Americans were allowed to live in the South. This was an irony meaning it’s something you don’t expect or doesn’t seem to fit because Thomas Jefferson had envisioned this one hundred years later when he wrote the Declaration of Independence.During this time period about 1865 to 1877 ,Reconstruction started when federal soldiers moved in toward the South to
The United States faced a Civil War from April 12, 1861 to April 9, 1865. The Civil War was caused by disagreements between the North and the South on certain social issues and state rights, because of this, the South decided it was its own country and left the Union. After the Civil War reconstruction had to take place. Reconstruction is a program made by the federal government from 1865-1877 to repair the damage caused by the Civil War and restore southern states back to the Union (Lapsansky-Werner, et al. 958). Problems associated with Reconstruction affected the South’s ability to industrialize after the Civil War in multiple ways. This affected the nation as a whole concerning factors such as economic development, infrastructure, labor and human rights.
The Union’s victory in the Civil War in 1865 granted millions of slaves their freedom. Reconstruction is the period directly following the Civil War when the nation took strides to rebuild the country, specifically the South. After the war, there were endless questions. They wanted to know on what terms should the Confederacy be let back into the Union, and what to do with the Confederate leaders who were viewed as traitors by many in the North. Then, there was the question of what would happen to freed blacks in the South, would they now be considered equal to whites? Despite the military conflict being over, Reconstruction was in many ways still considered a war. Radical Republicans, who held sufficient power in Congress, wanted to punish the South and
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 Civil War there were still many changes that had to take place within the United States. The period of Congressional Reconstruction took place from 1865 through 1877. Although the outcome of the Civil War greatly affected things there were still various problems that had to be solved. This period of time after the Civil War was the reconstruction of congress. Congressional reconstruction was a very crucial time in American history, it changed the way of life in the South, the president caused difficulties with it, and Radical Republicans took over in congress. The goal of Congressional Reconstruction was to reunite the South with the Union. The outcome of Congressional Reconstruction resulted in a better
The Civil War, one of the most brutal and bloody wars in US History ended in 1865, and left the country in ruin. Abraham Lincoln, the president of the U.S at the time came up with the plan to re-build the country after the war. He called it Reconstruction Plan. The Reconstruction Plan was put to use right after the war in 1865 and ended in 1877. Within the Reconstruction Plan, Lincoln offered a model for reinstatement of Southern states called the 10 percent Reconstruction plan. And also, during reconstruction period, we witnessed the emerged of Black Code which created the Fourteen and Fifteen Amendments and followed up by the 1876 election and Southern Segregation.
When Reconstruction began in 1865, a broken America had just finished fighting the Civil War. In all respects, Reconstruction was a time period of
Throughout the decades immediately following the civil war, federal reconstruction rebuilt and forever changed the nation. Federal reconstruction in the south ceased in 1877 due to an abundance of social and political factors, but not without creating an everlasting impact that forever changed the nation.
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
Reconstruction in America during the post-civil war era was a both a test and boundary pushing experience that challenged racial laws and the livelihood of many African Americans. During this time period it was both a struggle and battle for everyone involved but none were hit harder than that of the black community. A great deal African Americans had to adapt to the constant fear of lynching and discrimination that was a threat on a daily basis. Especially in America during the late 1800’s through the 1960’s which was very nadir time for many African Americans; do to loss of multiple civil rights, discrimination, and segregation.
The process of rebuilding America after the Civil War from 1865 to 1877, known as the Reconstruction, fell very short of its expectations because of the negative effect it had on relationships within the country. President Lincoln came up with plans for reconstruction, however, Congress believed it was too lenient. After Lincoln’s death and events following regarding Johnson, Congress dominated the government and came up with their own plan that sets the nation up for further disagreement. The plan for Reconstruction as Congress made it, was a failure because of how it divided the government, turned the races against each other, and set up freed slaves for poverty.
" If the Reconstruction of the Southern states...had been conceived as a major national program of America, whose accomplishments at any price was well worth the effort, we should be living today in a different world... The attempts to make black men American citizens was in a certain sense all a failure, but a splendid failure." _ W.E.B Du Bios
“The Reconstruction Era, as you have all learned, occurred from approximately 1863 to 1877- just about twelve years before the majority of you were born. Within today’s eighth grade history classes, students learn about Reconstruction as being governmentally controlled by a morally and politically corrupt Republican party. You learn about reconstruction, acknowledging that the rise of the Ku Klux Klan has protected more of civilization, specifically women, as opposed to harming it by attempting to disenfranchise African Americans. And that for the small number of their wrongdoings, or ‘series of disorders’, Republican government couldn’t immediately control them, signifying that government at that time was insufficient, and ineffective. In