Similarities Between Revolutionaries And Radical Republicans

On the left side of the political spectrum was Revolutionaries, Radical Republicans, and Moderate Republicans. Revolutionaries were extremely opposed to slavery, and wanted not only for slaves to be freed, but also for them to have equal rights to white people. They wanted to completely turn the current system upside-down and were willing to use violence and break away from the system in order to do so. Revolutionaries were mostly free blacks, and their bitterness from being enslaved was a factor that drove their acts of violence and strengthened their desire for equality. Radical Republicans were Liberals. They had very similar ideas to the Revolutionaries but were less willing to use violence. They wanted the current system to drastically change, however some of them only wanted to end slavery because they didn’t like how much power plantation owners had.

Reactionaries and Conservatives wanted not only to prevent change, but to reverse it once it had been made. Once blacks were freed from slavery and were on the path to gaining equal rights, left wings did everything in their power to bring things back to the way they were. Plantation owners were largely in favor of slavery because it was the basis of southern economy. Reactionary groups such as the Ku Klux Klan were willing to use extreme violence in order to show their opposition to freed blacks and reduce competition. Also on the right were Conservatives, who accepted slow change, however when liberals tried to push for change, they would reverse it. Irish immigrants were also democratic, they didn’t want the slaves to be free because freed slaves took their jobs. Irish immigrants also didn’t sympathize blacks because they had to risk their lives for black rights in a war that they didn’t want to be a part