Reconstruction DBQ

The Civil War was the most destructive battle in American history. The hurricane of a battle lasted for four years and is responsible for 785,000-1,000,000 Union, Confederate, and slave casualties. The battle was fought for the overall emancipation of slaves, and the Union succeeded in fulfilling that goal. You would think that after that war and after slavery was abolished once and for all, everyone would be happy and everyone would join together and sing Kumbaya; however, that's not exactly what happened. The Reconstruction Era was more destructive for slaves than the war itself. After the war, freed slaves were denied the right to vote, they were not provided with jobs or a safe place to go once they were free, and there were groups of people

After the Civil War, a group called the Ku Klux Klan, better known today as the KKK, was formed. This group made it almost impossible for new African American citizens to exercise their rights. This group used physical assault and murder to express their opinion about African Americans at that time. In Document B, an image is shown of a member of the KKK teaming up with a member of the White League. Below the two, a small family of slaves huddles together in fear. Because the image is titled “Worse Than Slavery”, the conclusion that the KKK treated freed slaves cruelly and they showed no mercy towards them. This group in particular made it extremely hard for freed slaves to be accepted into the White American society and they prevented African Americans from utilizing their rights as new citizens of the United States. In Document H, Henry Adams, a former slave, illustrates a scene that he was involved in after the emancipation of slaves. Adams explains how he was asked by white men who he “belonged” to, and when he said no one, he was beaten by those men. He says, “I met four white men about six miles south of Keachie, De Soto Parish. One of them asked me who I belonged to. I told him no one. So him and two others struck me with a stick and told me they were going to kill me and every other Negro who

back into two groups, White Americans and African Americans. The years after the war did not benefit freed slaves because they were denied the right to vote because they were not thought to be equal to white people, they were left to fend for themselves in an economy that was already suffering, and groups like the KKK made sure that freed slaves would not be accepted back into white society. In conclusion, Reconstruction did not benefit the newly emancipated slaves, but overall helped the country ease into the lifestyle and economy that we see