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The Reconstruction Era Essay

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The Reconstruction Era The Reconstruction era was a time in American History after the Civil War of 1861-1865, and it lasted up until the Compromise of 1877. During the Reconstruction period people made attempts to rebuild the country after the bloody war. The goal was to bring former confederate states right back into the United States along with providing social, political, and economic opportunities for African Americans in the post slavery South. This freedom for ex-slaves meant that they could dress as they pleased, reconnect with their loved ones, change their names, uniting their families in a single household, women could refuse full time field work, men could take the place as the head of their families and so much more. Many Southern …show more content…

In the election of 1869 the Republican party had lost when Tennessee and Virginia became the first states to return to conservative Democratic control. Moderate Republican leaders that also came to power claimed that they were willing to abandon southern blacks in order to support northern businesses. Conservatives called this the time of redemption so they could “redeem” themselves. The Klan began to grow rapidly and although African Americans fought back with all they had against the Klan, they sadly succeeded in destroying Republican organizations and demoralizing entire communities and freed people. For instance, the Colfax Massacre occurred on April 13, 1873. This violent act arose over a power struggle between white southern democrats and white republicans and their black supporters. This massacre took place in Colfax, Louisiana and as many as 150 African Americans died because of this. White people's goal was to terrorize African Americans as much as they could because they thought it was the right thing to do. Thaddeus Stevens was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania, and one of the leaders of the Radical Republican Party during the 1860s. Stevens was a huge voice and fought for freedom rights, he constantly strived for black masses. He was chairman of the House Ways and Means committee during the Civil War and played a huge role. Thaddeus focused his …show more content…

This was the first presidential election of the Reconstruction era and Republican Ulysses S. Grant won the election. He defeated Horatio Seymour of the Democratic Party. This election took place after the civil war and the abolition of slavery, along with that, this was also the first election African Americans could vote in the reconstructed Southern

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Nicholas Lemann begins his book “Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War” with the 1873 Colfax, Louisiana massacre where a White League militia comprised of former Confederate soldiers killed black Republican voters. The Colfax massacre was perhaps the bloodiest event of Reconstruction. Lemann views this event as a startup of what would happen later in Mississippi if Federal troops did not defend black voters. Lemann blames Ulysses S. Grant’s Secretary of War, William W. Belknap, for not stopping the White Line activity in Louisiana and Mississippi. Grant had worked hard to stop the Ku Klux Klan in the early 1870s with Congress passing legislation and Federal troops putting down Klan activity.

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The reconstruction of the United States was a period in the history of the United States that began after the extermination of the secessionist war, in 1865, and extended until the year of 1877. The period is marked by the gradual retorning of the states that had separated from the country and formed the Confederate States of America, the status of the Confederation leaders, and the beginning of the process of integrating AFRO-American former slaves. The United States government at the time was dominated by the Republican Party. Republican leaders agreed that remnants of the political power of the former slave masters, much like Confederate nationalism, would have to be suppressed.

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He took initiative and started protests. He slowly but surely would up-scale this to change the constitution. After that, he became a very loved and successful congressman for georgia 's 5th district. John lewis started out in humble background.

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The Colfax Massacre, also known as the Colfax Riot, took place in the small town of Colfax, Louisiana, on April 13th, 1873. This occurred during an ongoing feud between opposing political parties, the Democrats and the Republicans. On this day in history, a mob of white Democratic rebels, including Union and ex-Confederate soldiers, launched an attack on the Grant Parish Courthouse. This Courthouse was the center of civilian life within the community.

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After a series of race related riots and bloody encounters in southern states, the Grant administration sent in federal troops to restore order, quell the “war of races” mentality, and protect the rights of all people. With the economic depression, the Grant administration gradually changed from a stance of federal intervention to “hands off” oversight. This change led to an incredibly violent 1875 election year as white league and Democrat institutions used terror, intimidation tactics, and illegal voting tactics to retake state governments. In an attempt to hold the lower north states in the upcoming Presidential election, the Grant administration took no direct action to suppress the violence resurgence of white supremacy. In following year’s election, three states returned with disputed voter results for the Presidency and left no clear winner.

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During reconstruction, African Americans wanted to be considered as “real men”, rather than inferior men. Even though African Americans were freedmen now, they were still not treated as equals to white men. African Americans were excluded from railway cars, omnibuses, stagecoaches, and steamboats entirely, or they were assigned to specific sections that they were secluded within. African Americans were permitted to vote, and some even held office. They were determined to exercise their rights as citizens, which they finally were granted, and became as involved as they could.

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This is when the lynchings, murders, whippings, and more, were happening. Grant sent detectives undercover to the states where the majority of the assaults were happening. The Justice Department was going to find a way to break up the Klan (Bartoletti 131). In the year of 1871, starting in May and ending in December, the government went and got testimonies from everyone they possibly could have (Bartoletti 133). After this, the Klansmen in South Carolina were told to surrender.

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The Klansmen weren’t placated with the development of black schools and churches. Therefore, they burned down black schools and churches, destroying the freedmen's rights to attend schools and religious events. Throughout 1868 to 1871 in Alabama, hundreds of blacks got murdered and violence was spread everywhere. During 1870 at Calhoun County, there were six people from a black school that got killed by the KKK, yet barely any Klansmen were brought to justice. The KKK did control the freedmen’s social behaviors, but not as successful compared to the political terrorism.

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The Reconstruction Era occurred in 1865, it was was a period after the Civil War in which America was focused on rebuilding the broken South. In 1867, the Radical reconstruction gave former slaves a voice in government. During this era, formers slaves gained a platform in the government, with some blacks as Congressmen. However, not everyone supported the idea of Reconstruction. Less than a decade after the Reconstruction period, a small group composed of democratic ex-confederate veterans, white farmers and white southerners sympathetic to white supremacy joined forces together to form the Ku Klux Klan.

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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.

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The American civil war led to the reunion of the South and the North. But, its consequences led the Republicans to take the lead of reconstructing what the war had destroyed especially in the South because it contained larger numbers of newly freed slaves. Just after the civil war, America entered into what was called as the reconstruction era. Reconstruction refers to when “the federal government established the terms on which rebellious Southern states would be integrated back into the Union” (Watts 246). As a further matter, it also meant “the process of helping the 4 million freed slaves after the civil war [to] make the transition to freedom” (DeFord and Schwarz 96).

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The Reconstruction era ending was among the years of 1873 to 1877 under the leadership of Lincoln, Johnson, Grant, and Hayes. There were a few main events that ended the Reconstruction era, one of these being the change from Republican power to Democratic power of the House. A depression in the economy was intense throughout the country in 1873. Focus turned away from the south, northern voters became less captivated in the Reconstruction of the south and more focused on the economy in the north.

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Having the right to vote, African Americans were beginning to take a stand in the regions when it came to office and government representation. Many African Americans joined voting polls; in some states, they outnumbered whites. With this, many African Americans voted for Republican representatives, and soon African Americans would enter state legislature elections. Though they were usually a minority, in South Carolina, black legislators rules the lower house and state senate. Within short time, there would be more blacks in government, like P.B.S Pinchback- a black governor in Louisiana.

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In the 1870s, southern Democrats began to muster more political power as former Confederates began to vote again. It was a movement that gathered energy up until the Compromise of 1877, in the process known as the Redemption. White Democratic Southerners saw themselves as redeeming the South by regaining power. They appealed to scalawags (white Southerners who supported the Republican Party after the civil war and during the time of reconstruction). More importantly, in a second wave of violence following the suppression of the Ku Klux Klan, violence began to increase in the Deep South.

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Reconstruction is the time period after the Civil War, where the country attempted to improve the Union. There were many successes, but what also comes along with success is failure. During the reconstruction many failures were present; such as the lack of racial equality and blatant racism towards blacks, a failing economy in the South, and tense relations between the North and the South. This created a very intense and challenging period of time for the Union.

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