preview

Dbq North Or South Who Killed Reconstruction Essay

Decent Essays

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

Get Access