Who Killed Reconstruction

The elections of 1800 and 1864 had made the Republicans victorious in the electorate. However, the South’s influence on the electorate had significantly decreased and the Democratic Party was divided as well. After the Civil War, with only a few requirements for readmission, Conservatives wanted the south to accept the abolition of slavery. Led by Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner, the Radical Republicans wanted the military leaders of the Confederacy to be punished. The punishments would include the confiscation of Southern property and suffrage for freedmen.

The traditional view on Reconstruction labeled it as a terrible point in the democracy of America. According to this view, Andrew Johnson, like Abraham Lincoln, wished to pardon the Confederates and reunite them with the Union. Radical Republicans, who wished to dominate the South, disposed of Johnson’s plan and gave power to former slaves, carpetbaggers, and southern whites who cooperated with the Republican Party of the North, all of which were unfit to lead southern governments. In the end, this angered many in the South, including the Ku Klux Klan, who claimed patriotism to restore white supremacy. With this take on the Reconstruction in mind, it is hard to see how Lincoln would have made a difference in the events that occurred.

Shown in Thomas Nast’s Reconstruction Era Cartoon in 1874, a member of the KKK is seen shaking hands and making deals with the politician, but it is important to note that the deal goes both ways (Doc I). Nast comments that Reconstruction and South retaliation against African Americans in worse than slavery, and that is a white northern sentiment. This cartoon displays the social changes, how the politics of the new Union have been shaped by the social preferences of the South. Again this is a revolutionary ideal because the government is in the back pocket of the KKK, and the Constitution is being skirted by the very people that are elected to uphold

Maceo Cardinale Kwik Reconstruction Reconstruction was the twelve years after the civil war. Those twelve years were full of readjustment fixing the ruin the United States had fallen into. The problems that had the United states in disarray were how to, rebuild the South, reunite the states, and ensure the rights and protection of the newly freed African Americans. The civil war left the South in shambles, and newly freed slaves struggled to adjust to their new freedom. Most Southerners hated reconstruction and everything else about the North.

Who ended the reconstruction of the south? Was it the south or the north? Or did they just give up on it? I will be explaining how they both ended the reconstruction of the south after the north completely burnt it down to the ground. The south and the north ended because of these three reasons.

Who killed Reconstruction: The North or South? 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 Radical Republicans were a faction within the United States’ political Republican Party that maintained extremely controversial ideas opposed by a number of people (Tulloch, 1999). These ideas included the view that the emancipation of slaves should be fully implemented and civil rights for this group should be legally established (Tulloch, 1999). The group was also largely against allowing former officers of the Confederacy holding political power in Southern States. Opposition to the efforts of Radical Republicans was strongly administered by Moderate and conservative Republications who were largely against the Reconstruction movement and equality for freed slaves (Tulloch, 1999). Perhaps most notably, Radical Republicans were in strong opposition to the choice of then President Abraham Lincoln to allow General George B. McClellan to be a military leader in efforts to return states in the South that had succeeded to the Union (Richardson, 2004).

24 November 2015 The Real Death of Reconstruction There is no easy way to decide who can be held accountable for the end of the Reconstruction Era. Attempts to rebuild the South ceased to exist in 1877, just over ten years after the Confederacy surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant in Appomattox Court House, Virginia. It seemed as though everything was on the right track in 1876, the one hundred year anniversary of The United States. That was, however, until the South waged conflict against black and white citizens of The United States.

The fear of activists gaining control motivated the Klan to further protect white dominance in America. The statistics show that their method of fear worked, as the majority of Blacks did not come near any voting booths. Moreover, The Klan also used fire as a weapon of intimidation against African Americans. Vernon Dahmer was an activist than ran a voting registration center, within his own store. After having his registry announced over the radio, Dahmer’s house and store were attacked with fire.

But, when these officials were elected to Congress, they passed the “black codes” and thus the relations between the president and legislators became worst (Schriefer, Sivell and Arch R1). These so called “Black Codes” were “a series of laws to deprive blacks of their constitutional rights” that they were enacted mainly by Deep South legislatures. Black Codes differ from a state to another but they were stricter in the Deep South as they were sometimes irrationally austere. (Hazen 30) Furthermore, with the emergence of organizations such as the Red Shirts and the White League with the rise of the Conservative White Democrats’ power, efforts to prevent Black Americans from voting were escalating (Watts 247), even if the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S constitution that gave the Blacks the right to vote had been ratified in 1870.

The South killed Reconstruction most by their resistance against the North. Reconstruction started after the Civil war between 1865-1876. During the Civil War, the North and South battled, (The North won) and the South laid in ruins. The United States was willing to let the South back in under some conditions, and that marked the day Reconstruction started. During the Reconstruction era, the South resisted the North’s help and Reconstruction died.

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.

The Reconstruction period lasted from 1865 to 1877. The thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendment were created during the twelve years of rebuilding the country. All of the amendments were made to protect former slaves and their rights but on paper they did not have any rights. The reconstruction period had its successes and failures.

While there were exceptions of individuals fighting for more than equality by law for African Americans, such as John D. Baldwin who argued “a question concerning human rights” (Frederickson 379), there were racist ideals held that transcended political parties and regional affiliations alike. Radical democrats sought the most resistance with political leaders such as Representative James Brooks who preached in opposition to integration by claiming “the negro is not the equal of the white man, much less his master” (Frederickson 379). Arguments of black inferiority became based upon the false ethnology presented by Josiah Nott that physically and mentally ranked the black race below other races. Even radical republicans became contradictory in their views claiming African Americans were different due to their inability to conquer and dominate like white people had; insinuating that white domination could not be challenged. Although there was a period following the Reconstruction Acts of 1867 and 1868 in which former slaves were granted citizenship, their involvement in politics became rendered by the lack of education previously provided to slaves and inability of “withstanding the economic, political, and paramilitary opposition of the white majority” (Frederickson 382).

Reconstruction a Failure or Success? Throughout the years, America has gone through many different political changes. Many presidents selected with different plans for our future. Sadly, many of those objectives have failed or came to an end.