Question

Who killed reconstruction

Answer 1

The south caused the reconstruction to crash and fail. There was violence in the South against all people who supported the rights of blacks and the Reconstruction was the main reason for the failure of the Reconstruction. Although the north’s choice to ignore what was going on in the south was a reason for failure along with the southern violence. The south is more at fault for the tragedy. The Reconstruction begun following the Civil War, in 1865, and continued through the late 1860’s and to the 1870’s. Despite the best efforts of the Radical Republican party to assists blacks, and the efforts of the Grant to help the southern economy, the southern violence would not stop.Even though the Northerners ignored the south, the south is still more to blame. The KKK was a violent group of people who sought after to kill freedmen and supporters of them. (Doc A). Scalawags and carpetbaggers were whites who supported the reconstruction and expanding the rights of blacks. One example of the KKK was when the KKK targeted a black member of the Georgia State Legislature; Abram Colby. They tried to pay him off from voting on the radical republican ticket. Colby stood for what he believed in and refused. A couple of days later, the KKK took Abram and almost beat him to death. They left him for dead, but he still survived. Colby stated that “no man can make a free speech in my county. I do not believe it can be done anywhere in Georgia.” (Doc B). This shows how he cannot have a freedom of speech without the fear of being tortured by the KKK. The KKK scared politicians to prevent civil rights in the South.Even though the failure of the Reconstruction was primarily caused by the south, the north also was a significant reason for the failure. Many northerners were supportive of the Reconstruction when it begun, and supported for Black equality. However, by the mid-late 1870’s , the north had other problems and it lost public support. (C). The people of the north focused on the corruption in Grant’s Administration. As the public started to lose interest, Grant himself began to lose focus on the problems of the south and civil reform. Grant focused on other problems. In addition, most northerners did not think much of freed people; the blacks who were recently freed from slavery, were fit for government. Northerners were anti-slavery, but believed that blacks needed time to be educated on the system (Doc D). The white northerners viewed the blacks obnoxious and crazy in the government and thought they would not be able to govern.The South’s violent actions was the main reason for the failure of reconstruction. Although the North ignored the South’s violence, it was the fault of the southerners for committing the violence. The northerners and southerners were both not fully attached to the idea of equality of blacks, and the racism allowed the white supremacist groups in the south to scare political blacks and radical republicans.