Reconstruction is, “the period, generally dated from 1865 to 1877, during which the nation’s laws and Constitution were rewritten to guarantee the basic rights of the former slaves, and biracial governments came to power throughout the defeated Confederacy.” The fall of reconstruction started with the Grant administration scandals caused by grant’s “hands-off style of leadership” which lead to officials in his administration to enrich themselves through illegal schemes. Many republicans began to question the wisdom of maintaining a strong federal role in the affairs of southern states. Northern Whites chose white unity with white southerners rather than black equality. The Ku Klux Klan, a white terrorist group helped with the undoing of reconstruction. “The Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist organizations targeted local Republican leaders, white and black, and other African Americans who challenged white authority,” causing a set back with reconstruction . With threats, beatings and killings the Democratic Party managed to scare away more than 60,000 black and republican Mississippi voters. This was to allow the democrats to take control of the state legislature. This was better known as the Mississippi Plan, other states adopted a form of this plan and soon the Reconstruction governments fell to a new class called the Redeemers. …show more content…
Hayes promised to withdraw federal troops from the south in 1877, allowing formal Confederate officials and slave owners to return to power, thus ending reconstruction. Once the south had power again the sharecropping system kept blacks on the land owned by rich white farmers and this system became very popular. Blacks had very little economic power and had to fight for civil rights on their own because northern whites lost interest in
Reconstruction is during which the United States began to rebuild the Southern society after they lost to the civil war. It lasted from 1865 to 1877, and it was initiated by President Lincoln until his assassination in 1865. President Johnson continued Lincoln’s agenda to continue the Reconstruction. Throughout the process of Reconstruction, one of its main purpose was to guarantees for equal rights for all people, especially for the African Americans. Even though slavery was abolished after the civil war, many Southerners were still against the idea of equal rights for all black people, such as the Republicans.
However, all acts of reconstruction were cut short when the South ultimately killed it. People like the Ku Klux Klan helped to ensure that reconstruction would be stopped and the South would regain its power. The Ku Klux Klan was one of the main groups of people that destroyed reconstruction because of their extreme ways. They used violence as a way to achieve their goal of destroying reconstruction. They killed many people just because of the color of their skin.
Finally the marking of the end of Reconstruction was the Election of 1876 and the new President Republican Hayes. Great upset to the Democrats their solution for Republicans to get anything done in congress was to make filibusters. With the constant and neverending interruption the two parties came to agree on the Compromise of 1877. This meant the removal of troops out of the south. This lead to the south once again being controlled by white Democrats.
Once the Civil War ended in 1861, the United States had to undergo a long period of Reconstruction. There was a large amount of lives loss from the war and America had lost a lot of money as well as resources from the war effort. The Southern states were rejoining the Union and now slaves were free to find their own living. This led to the Republicans, ex-Confederates, and freed slaves all forming their own agendas during the Reconstruction period. However, not everyone was as successful as they hoped to be.
The American Civil War ultimately preserved the Union and freed the slaves with the Emancipation Proclamation. Yet, it left a legacy of economic and social problems that required postwar solutions. The goal of Reconstruction from the end of the Confederacy to 1877 rested on the physical, economic, and political transformation of the South. However, Reconstruction was complicated by the legacies from both the South and North of the Civil War. During Reconstruction, a lack of political focus failed to solve the sectional differences, and the elimination of the freed slaves' newly gained rights with the Black Codes allowed for the same Southern leadership to come back into power.
Reconstruction was a period of time dedicated to rebuilding the nation after the Civil War. The war ended with the South being defeated and their economy being devastated. Many Southerners struggled after the war with rebuilding their land and lives. The President and Congress had to decide the terms for which the former Confederate states would be permitted to join the Union. President Lincoln’s plan for reuniting the country was found in the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction.
The Ku Klux Klan, made up of former Confederate officers who idealized an antebellum Southern heritage, became folk heroes by terrorizing outsiders who challenged race relations by assisting blacks. Catholics, foreigners, former slaves, and their sympathizers were targeted for wanting to push reforms that went against the Southern way of life. As one historian points out, the KKK gained sympathy because they were seen as defenders and policemen of the people who protected the prevailing values of society, including Protestantism, whiteness, and genteel southern culture (Kinshasa 15). The KKK and its sister organizations were even sponsored by state governments, such as Kentucky and Mississippi, as a police force to maintain the status quo (Parsons 160). The presence of the Klan and other forms of white resistance offered white residents a form of security during this uncertain time period.
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 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).
Reconstruction was a program used to help the south rebuild and join
Reconstruction is the time period after the Civil War, where the country attempted to improve the Union. There were many successes, but what also comes along with success is failure. During the reconstruction many failures were present; such as the lack of racial equality and blatant racism towards blacks, a failing economy in the South, and tense relations between the North and the South. This created a very intense and challenging period of time for the Union.
Reconstruction era, which was followed by post-civil war, was meant to unite the states back together, reconstruct properties, and most importantly, abolish slavery in the South. Although the factors such as amendments legally freed former slaves, yet WRITE THESIS After the end of civil war in 1865, Reconstruction era, which was controlled by President Abraham Lincoln, appeared to quickly coalesce the Northern and Southern states. reconstruction amendments, which were approved between 1865 and 1870, played a huge role on giving legal rights to blacks and former slaves. 13th amendment constitutionally abolished slavery in 1865 and followed up by that, 14th and 15th amendment admitted equal citizenship, protection, and rights of suffrage despite the one’s race or skin color. Former slaves were no longer belongings of their owners.
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.
The Reconstruction Era in the U.S. was from 1865-1877, and the Civil war in 1865 gave million of slaves their freedom, but the process of rebuilding the south durning this time introduced many challenges. Reconstruction was a period of time in America that was difficult for the African American slaves and one of the most critical periods in American History. Like all things in life, Reconstruction did come to an end, the conclusion has been labeled both a victory and a loss. Abraham Lincoln started his plan for the reconstruction of the South during the Civil War. He arranged the Ten-Percent Plan for Reconstruction in 1863.
Frederickson argues African Americans simply did not have the time or preparation to oppose racist forces. Using paramilitary forces, southern redeemers easily made threats to reconstruction forces as seen through the emergence of the violent Ku Klux Klan during the election of 1866. The opportunity for African Americans to gain a stance in society was short lived by the racist efforts of democrats in the south and impartial ideals from