Who Killed Reconstruction Dbq Essay

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The failure of Reconstruction led to over ninety years of struggle for the rights of African Americans and caused major setbacks in the South. Reconstruction was the time from 1865 to 1877 when the United States attempted to rebuild the nation following the Civil War. Reconstruction was a struggle for many Americans, and it became known as the ‘Second Civil War’. Its main goals were to readmit the former Confederate states and its people back into the Union and to introduce African Americans into society. Who killed reconstruction: North or South? Reconstruction means to rebuild something that has been damaged or destroyed. Both Southern resistance and Northern neglect contributed to the death of Reconstruction. However, Southern resistance was the greater problem. Although it wasn’t the main reason Reconstruction ended, Northern neglect was still a significant problem. According to Document C, “many Northern voters shifted their attention to such national concerns as …show more content…

Document A states, “John W. Stephens, State Senator from Caswell, is dead. He was found murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in the Grand Jury room.” This details the brutal and exemplary murder of a Republican by the white terrorist group known as the KKK. Intimidation tactics like this threatened reconstruction because it made Republicans hesitant to run for office for fear of violence. This prevented the passing of acts that would advance African Americans in society. In addition, Document B states, “[the Klansmen] broke my door open, took me out of bed, took me to the woods and whipped me three hours or more.” This shows more intimidation tactics that white southerners used in order to keep Republicans out of office. This prevented Southern governments from helping African Americans. To sum it up, resistance in the form of aggression in the South killed Reconstruction by preventing the governments from helping African

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