Obstacles During The Reconstruction Era

With the passage of a harsher fugitive slave law as a part of the Compromise of 1850, the abolitionist movement became even more fervent in its efforts to halt slavery as abolitionists assisted runaways, abused slave catchers, and outright did not follow the federal law, even in the face of federal marshalls. As a result of this outright defiance of federal law, southerners’ connotations of the abolitionist movement being associated with the entire northern population were further solidified. In conjunction with the lack of enforcement of the fugitive slave law, southerners increasingly viewed the violent confrontations in Kansas as an outright effort to uproot slavery and its expansion. In an act of defiance against Stephen Douglas’s popular sovereignty established in the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, abolitionists flooded into Kansas and Nebraska in an effort to incorporate both states as free states and directly halt the expansion of slavery into the territories. Violence and bloodshed broke out as pseudo-militia groups attacked one another in a low scale civil war.

Reconstruction in 1865 through 1877 was terminated by Southern men due to their lack of acceptance of African Americans in restricting their political rights, not following the North’s precedence of equality, and the assassination of many a men by their ever so popular Klan. Reformation began after the Civil War which was fought over sectional differences and heavy slavery in the South. Southerns had always been pro slavery which contributed to their low treatment of African Americans as a whole. Once the South lost the War they could no longer legally enslave African Americans, but that did not change their persona in the eyes of the rich white men. Equality was a concept for white men according to the South, especially considering that

Reconstruction caused prejudice and inequality. To elaborate, the creation of the Ku Klux Klan and the Black Codes were both in the time period of reconstruction, which caused chaos and violence throughout the Union. One of the goals of reconstruction was to repair the economy in the South, because it depended on slavery, which was now illegal, due to the thirteenth amendment. The South’s economic system now depended on Sharecropping, which caused former slaves to be in constant debt and was unjust to the black society. The reconstruction time period, was a time of dispute between the Union.

A terrible racist society, called the Ku Klux Klan, was created in 1865 to prevent black people from gaining rights. Eventually, in 1872, the Klan was abolished, but people still belonged to it secretly. 'Sharecropping ', a new agricultural system, made plantation owners divide their properties to allow both black and white people to work the

Plessy got arrested for this, and lost his case in court. Another reason Reconstruction was a failure was because of black codes. Black codes made rules that were similar to slavery laws. These rules limited African American’s freedom. It requires them to sign a work contract, which they could be arrested if they do not own one.

Their goal was to end the racial discrimination and segregation amongst. They believed that slavery was a sin and that it was every American’s obligation to help free them back to Africa. Not many people agreed though. Both Northerners and Southerners did not support he ways of goals of the abolitionist. They thought that it threatened the racial social order and created economic instability.

“This battle with Mr. Covey was the turning-point in my career as a slave” (69). Douglass’s actions of fighting back against Mr. Covey set the tone of vindictive, disproved that all negroes should be ruled by their white masters. Douglass was tired of his master taking control over him, so he fought back against slavery.

People in the North believed that slavery was inherently evil and inhumane, but the South disagreed, believing that slaves were property and leaving all possible work on the plantations, up to them. This then led to the great Abolitionists Movement as many people started to view slavery as evil thanks to people such as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. The next cause of the war was the new expansion throughout the U.S. This caused new states to have to choose between the Union and Confederacy, which only caused for hate and strive between the two. Another conflict was Bleeding Kansas.

Hinson argues that the black community strikes out against their own members because they are unable to fight back against white supremacy. The fear of excessive love caused by slavery causes the black community to isolate Baby Suggs and not warn the family when they see the white slave owners enter the town. In this way, the black community betrays Baby Suggs

Two specific groups strongly opposed to the movement were the Ku Klux Klan andJohn Birch’s Society. The KKK was founded in 1866 and originally opposed the RepublicanParty’s policies aimed at establishing political and economic equality for blacks. The group soonbegan to despise African Americans as a whole and took on aggressive and evil acts to tormentthem. The Civil Rights Movement in particular saw an increase in KKK activity includingbombings of black schools and churches and violence against black and white activists. JohnBirch’s Society was founded in 1958 and severely opposed the Civil Rights Movement.

Similarly, the Proclamation of 1763 also prevented the Americans from acquiring new land. Finally, the deep social and ideological differences also accelerated the secession. The South relied heavily on slavery, it was “an inseparable part of the southern way of life.” Meanwhile the North thought that it “threatened the republican ideals of white American society.” In the South, there were pro-slavery arguments by Harper to justify slavery as