Preview

How Did African Americans Contribute To The Failure Of Reconstruction

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
650 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Did African Americans Contribute To The Failure Of Reconstruction
After the Civil War, the South was in a state of ruin. Not only did they owe two billion dollars, but during the war the Union had engaged in Total War. This meant towns, cities, rural areas, and entire communities were destroyed or severely damaged. Since the South’s economy was based off of agriculture, they had a very tough time recovering. The North’s economy was also damaged, but since they were more business based, it was easier to recover. The US needed to rebuild its economy, but they also needed to have a way to re-integrate the Confederate states back into the Union. This led to the Reconstruction.
Some aspects of the Reconstruction were successful because it let African Americans be able to achieve many political rights. After the
…show more content…
The Reconstruction also improved education, and it was forced upon in the south. However, the Reconstruction also had its failures. As African Americans began to receive rights, there were people who did not like it, like the KKK. The KKK (Ku Klux Klan) was a group of people who wore white robes and caps pretended to be the ghosts of dead Confederate soldiers. The KKK did not like that African Americans were free and seen equal as whites, not slaves working on a plantation, where the KKK thought they belonged. They would do anything they could to show their hatred of African Americans, mostly through violent acts like attacking them and burning their homes. They were racists to African Americans in the south, and north also. Although the KKK is most known for their racist behavior towards African Americans, they also discriminate against carpetbaggers, scalawags, Jews, Catholics, Republicans, and homosexuals. Another failure of the Reconstruction was the raising of taxes in order to rebuild the south. The raising of taxes also led to more poverty, although not the only thing that led to poverty. With the destruction of rural areas that had farms

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    At the end of the American Civil War, most of the factories, farms, and cities in the South had been devastated. In a process known as the Reconstruction, the federal government began to rebuild the war-torn South. The government also sought to restore the relationship of the South with the Union.…

    • 3995 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    By Johnson’s Reconstruction Proclamations, most Southerners were offered full restoration of rights as long as they took an oath to support the government. Furthermore, these Proclamations appointed provincial governors to reestablish governments in seceded states, required returning states to proclaim the illegality of succession, and declared slavery illegal. However, although the South was prepared to accept both these proclamations and the end of slavery, they were not prepared to accept the slaves which had been freed. A group named the Ku Klux Klan was founded, intending to frighten the Negroes away from voting. In addition, the Black Codes were enacted by Southern state legislatures, binding the Negroes to their previous jobs.…

    • 277 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    After the Civil War, the southern soldiers were going back to devastated cities, destroyed railroads, and many cities were burned to the ground as a result of Sherman’s march from sea to sea. After the Civil War occurred, the slaves were given freedom from their owners, and slavery was banned. That attempt at reconstruction was not a complete fail, but it took a little bit of time for America to give social and economic equality to slaves. There were many attempts made by several different presidents, but not all seemed to work due to the South’s stubbornness. The failure of reconstruction later did not bring social and economic equality to former slaves in the south because of things like the Jim Crow laws and the South’s strong disproval of the outcome of the war.…

    • 766 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Reconstruction was not a complete failure but a "radical & noble attempt" to bring equality to the black man. It took three options to bring about a decent change for the former slaves .To help fix the problem in 1865 congress created the Freedmen's Bureau the first federal welfare system to provide food, clothing, confiscated land, and education. This idea was able to succeed in education; unfortunately it was ended in 1872.…

    • 267 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The amount of racism towards black people was generally going down in the Northern States but in the Southern States the laws restricted black people to roam America a free citizens. Even when racism began to be abolished their came the KKK also known as the Ku Klux Klan in the Southern States claiming to be heroes by lynching people who would do nothing wrong.…

    • 262 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    As you know the agriculture economy wasn’t paid labors it was nothing but slaves so when the war ended with the North being Victorious and the union staying together, The heart of the south's economy was ripped out. The north's industrial economy never occupied such a large slave labor like that south did, so most states abolish slavery by 1800. So, as you can guess the North was never affected. Most may think that slavery was the worst thing for the South at this period of time but they also had other issues,the devastation of war had ruined farms and cities, Some northerners wanted economic revenge on the south, The confederate money,war bonds that people once had were worthless, lastly they were forced to change to a social and economic structure because of the end of…

    • 762 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    It can be argued that Reconstruction was promising as under the 14th Amendment it was stated that all persons born or naturalised in the USA should be regarded as citizens and be guaranteed equality before the law. This was highly significant and promising for African Americans as it meant that they would have the same rights as white Americans…

    • 1719 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    After the civil war the south was in ruins. Since the north used the total war tactic the south was destroyed. Homes and infrastructure were destroyed, agriculture was blown up and destroyed, and disease was spreading everywhere, causing people to die from hunger, disease, and poverty. Post – civil war in the south for the African Americans were especially bad. Being that most African Americans were refugees, homeless, or separated from family due to slavery, were lost, not knowing what to do next. As you can tell, the south was a complete mess after the civil war. The south at this time did not have the resources they needed to reconstruct the infrastructure (bridges, buildings, and roads) and land by themselves, they needed serious help from the north. The need for reconstruction was outrageous, they needed to make this an organized reconstruction so it wasn’t complete chaos from start to finish. Reconstruction was necessary in order to making to politically bring the south back onto the union and make them states again. Also, reconstruction was necessary to make African Americans equal citizens.…

    • 625 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Reconstruction was the period during which the United States began to rebuild after the Civil War, lasting from 1865 to 1877. It was to repair the North and the South politically, economically and socially. After the Civil War, the South’s economy was completely ruined and needed help from the Union government; which they were trying to stay way from. The Reconstruction can be evaluated both as a success and a failure. Its successes were the restoration of the eleven confederate states back to the union, giving African-Americans (ex-slaves) their freedom and rights and providing aid to the freed slaves and poor whites. Its failures were the Anti-African Americans groups such as the KKK, the Black Codes, not protecting the rights of the freedmen and the southern corruption. Although African-Americans were freed and gained their rights because of 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, and the ex-eleven confederate states came back to the union, the Reconstruction was more of a failure than a success.…

    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    African Americans experienced strong hatred from the South. Reconstruction was a failure because of ratification, government corruption, and racism. The 13th amendment, 14th amendment, and 15th amendment were passed African Americans were never free they were still segregated. The "Negroes found themselves systematically separated from whites ("Seeds of Failure in Radical Policy", 304).…

    • 568 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The impacts of the Reconstruction Era was there blacks are still looked down as second class citizens. (“PinkMonkey”) The noble intentions were completely different but sadly did not turn out that way. The impact still denied basic right of African Americans. In reality the government was not ready to break the plantation system and get rid of slaves completely. Many cultural groups gathered to protest against this discrimination. They were trying to prove this injustice in the…

    • 897 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    By refusing to change politically, the South facilitated the failure of Reconstruction. Weak federal mandate contributed to the political decimation of the South. As a result, religious extremism and racism led to anarchic forms of oppression including socially sanctioned lynching of African-Americans and the validation of the KKK. As the KKK became a surrogate political institution in the South, so too did voter suppression, restricted access to land ownership, and other issues. Sectional reunion “could not have been achieved without the resubjugation of many of those people whom the war had freed from centuries of bondage,” (Blight 3).…

    • 1494 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The KKK was a group of white males against the rights of African Americans. They intimidated, destroyed the property of, assaulted, and murdered thousands of African Americans and Civil rights activists. In an attempt to intimidate anyone who supported African Americans rights. The group would also lynch people which is public execution often by hanging in order to frighten a minority group. They threatened and discriminated the teachers and students, the teachers were threatened regardless of their race.…

    • 902 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Reconstructions goals were merely achieved, After the Reconstruction ended African Americans everything stayed the same, they had more rights when the Civil War was in place everything remained the same there was no exact change. The amount of hope that was pouring in the blacks was bringing many hopes up but ended in total devastation. The Reconstruction was the event which led to lives changing constantly it had its success and its failures Its turning point in America when life was restarted. African Americans lost many rights like the right to vote, having health care, the right ot get a proper education and many more rights where taken away. Soon after the Reconstitution the republicans interest in supporting the right blacks, then the democrats got full control of the south leading to capitalism rising again. The Reconstruction transformed African Americans for a short time. More than 2 centuries African Americans were given new lives. Although it was not like equality it was more of a labor of destroying life. But this small change was a huge improvement from being incarcerated all their life time. The most important thing that The Reconstruction succeeded was it freed slaves in the south replacing it with…

    • 495 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Southern black Americans faced many challenges following the Civil War. Although several major improvements were made, life for blacks in the South was far from perfect. This process of hoping to rebuild the war-torn South is known as the Reconstruction Era. There were many policies implemented during this time with the intentions of helping freed slaves. Initially Reconstruction looked good for blacks, as they were finally freed from slavery and the passing of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments were passed. These were aimed at helping to give blacks equal protection. However, black Americans’ struggle to gain equality was far from over, making this a very controversial era in American history.…

    • 759 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays