Why The South Killed Reconstruction

The Civil War left traumatized people and many destroyed cities, which led to the Reconstruction. The Reconstruction was the process of trying to rebuild the South after the Civil War. The North and South had an interesting past in the year of 1876. The election of 1876 was a very controversial election, it was the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.In 1870, Hiram Revels was the first black senator. The North ended the Reconstruction because they were too busy to look after the South, they were racist to African Americans, and they removed soldiers from Southern states.

The Reconstruction time period was 1865 to 1877. During the period, the states that had seceded were readmitted as part of the Union. In my opinion, the Reconstruction time period was a failure.

The American civil war led to the reunion of the South and the North. But, its consequences led the Republicans to take the lead of reconstructing what the war had destroyed especially in the South because it contained larger numbers of newly freed slaves. Just after the civil war, America entered into what was called as the reconstruction era. Reconstruction refers to when “the federal government established the terms on which rebellious Southern states would be integrated back into the Union” (Watts 246). As a further matter, it also meant “the process of helping the 4 million freed slaves after the civil war [to] make the transition to freedom” (DeFord and Schwarz 96).

While the issue of slavery evidently contributed to the divide that resulted in the American Civil War, it is debated whether prevailing ideals of racism caused the failure of the era following the war known as Reconstruction. With the abolishment of slavery, many of the southern states had to reassemble the social, economic, and political systems instilled in their societies. The Reconstruction Era was originally led by a radical republican government that pushed to raise taxes, establish coalition governments, and deprive former confederates of superiority they might have once held. However, during this time common views were obtained that the South could recover independently and that African Americans

After the Civil War, “Lives of black slaves had improved greatly and there was hope for emancipation of slaves in those states. However, The Compromise of 1877 took away all hope for slaves.” (Source 8) This “compromise” made slaves’ lives even more difficult than it was before. As soon as progress was being made, this set it back even more than it was before. This was from the perspective of a former Louisiana slave, Henry Adams, “The whole South - every state in the South - had got into the hands of the very men that held us as slaves.” (Source 7) This basically ripped any chance of freedom and equal

Following the civil war, the south killed the reconstruction of the United States. (Reconstruction was putting the country back together after the Civil War) There are many reasons why, the south slowed down the reconstruction of the United States, the main reason was freedmen were not seen as equals to the white. The blacks were forced to vote for republicans, the blacks were looked at as free but not as equals in the south, the most powerful people lawyers, doctors and dentists who could make a difference were members of the Ku Klux Klan, who were against reconstruction. The southern leaders of the government only wanted white people in power, the north pulled out all its soldiers from the south, making it even more difficult for the freedmen to be free and equal.

The thirteenth amendment stated that all former slaves were granted freedom. The reconstruction period, “did create the essential constitutional foundation for further advances in the quest for equality”. It laid the building blocks for the future building for civil rights not just for blacks but women and other minorities. Former slaves, “ found comfort in their family and in the churches they established”. Blacks took community in each other and bonded over the mutual idea of freedom . They found each others company comforting a new way rather than the idea of fear bring them together. African Americans also, “enthusiastically participated in politics”. Black happily voted and became equal, by law, to whites because their voices were heard when it came to the

Although reconstruction brought essential changes for African American slaves it ultimately failed its purpose of unifying the nation. However, in order to comprehend why reconstruction failed it is important to understand the two phases it underwent. In addition, it is also crucial to look at the different plans that were propose in order to reunify the nation and if they were successful or not.

In history growing up I learned that slavery ended when president Lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation. After this law was passed, African Americans were embarking a new journey, Radical reconstruction. The end of slavery was only the beginning. It was the beginning of and unjust, corrupted system. Reconstruction was a brief period following the Civil War in which an attempt was made by the federal government to disenfranchise the former slaveholding oligarchy and to improve the economic, educational, political, and human rights conditions of poor whites and blacks in the South (Feagin, Feagin 2011).

When the union won the civil war in 1865 it gave millions slaves their freedom but there was a bigger process in rebuilding the south. As Andrew Johnson in 1865 new southern state leaders passed “Blacks Codes” to control the behavior of former slaves and blacks. Many people in the north were very upset about these codes. since the North was very upset with this indecent that happened. It wore away their supporter known as the presidential reconstruction and led to victories of the radical parts of the republican party. During the radical reconstruction that happen in 1867, blacks finally gained opportunity to speak for the first time in american history. They were able to win elections to southern states leaders and even congress. However there were many groups that didn 't not like blacks and they came back in a violent way for them to restore power from the

In the 19th century, slavery and the Reconstruction was a sore subject for the South. Reconstruction forged civil rights for African-Americans, but once the North’s influenced waned in the South, the South terrorized African-Americans and blocked them from accessing their newfound rights. While Reconstruction may have brought civil rights, those rights were quickly squashed by the South’s racism. Even after certain freedoms were securely gained, every new attempt to make African-Americans equal to the white populace was contested.

The reconstruction period happened because the south refused to set slaves free. Thousands of people died and were forced to vote against their beliefs. Making people “come to their senses” turned out to be a little harder than the north originally thought. The south being the main reason why reconstruction was a failure with acts like the KKK, Black Codes, and the thought that blacks couldn’t be elected officials were the main reasons why reconstruction failed the way that it did.

In the 1870s fights broke out, people were murdered, and the country was in chaos. It left us wondering who's to blame for the end of Reconstruction? After the Civil war slaves became freedmen but they didn’t have rights. An era called Reconstruction by historians began. Some people supported it. Carpetbaggers were northerners that went South to help Reconstruction efforts and freedmen. The Scalawags were Southern whites who supported Reconstruction. Radical Republicans were congressmen that supported African-American citizenship and punishment for former confederates. The KKK (Ku Klux Klan) didn't like the former slaves freedom or Reconstruction.The North put the army in the South to hold elections for new state governments and protect the freedmen. It seemed for a while that equal rights for the African-Americans would soon be granted. The thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendments were made. But then the South began

During the Reconstruction period, between 1865 and 1877, the nation had a lot of work to do. After the Civil War, their was a huge impact left on the south. All slaves in the south were set free to help the union win the war. This did not make everyone happy. They had to learn to live and support themselves on their own. On their journey to being independent, they came across many obstacles. They were considered free, however they was not really “free.”

Eric Foner’s A Short History of Reconstruction, is an abridged version of the multiple award-winning Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution (1988), offers a summary of some of the most influential pieces of history with his arguments regarding themes, such as the way South was changed amid and after this time, the development of racial mentalities and designs and the part of African Americans in bringing change within the Reconstruction. Additionally, another subject that Foner states in the book, is the development of a national state through the Civil War and Reconstruction that confined another arrangement of purposes with level rights to all Americans paying little to their race and the way changes in the North’s economy after