The Ending of Reconstruction It was the one hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and people were expecting great things. Reconstruction was off to a great start and people were welcoming the freedmen into the North. Reconstruction was a period after the Civil War where the North was helping build the South back up to what it was before the war. Blacks were even becoming senators just five years after the Civil war. Unfortunately the great Reconstruction era was coming to an end. It was either Northern neglect or Southern resistance that ended the reconstruction of the South. Northern neglect destroyed the reconstruction effort because they agreed to take the troops out of the South and they became unwilling to help …show more content…
The North was to blame because they became unwilling to help the freedmen. The North was beginning to think that blacks were not up to the challenge of becoming politicians. The people that had fought an entire war to free the slaves were now backing away. They were foolishly believing that the freedmen were lazy, arrogant fat cats.(Richardson, 517) The North knew it was wrong and false but they believed it anyway. The North was also attempting to justify denying the freedmen equal rights. In Document C it states another example of the North’s selfishness and how they were “weary of the ‘Negro Question’ ” . The North basically got tired of defending the freedmen and selfishly backed away. The North was so strongly against slavery and then it turned its back upon the freedmen. The people of the North were at fault because they believed the lies about the freedmen. In conclusion, it was Northern neglect that killed the Reconstruction. Even though the South did kill Northerners with the KKK, some resistance should have been expected. Also the KKK could have been stopped if they had left the troops in the South. Northern neglect destroyed the reconstruction effort because they agreed to take the troops out of the South and they became unwilling to help the