Abdul Mohammed U. S. History
February 25, 2015 Ms. Serrano
Reconstruction
The reconstruction was an era from 1863 to 1877, used to rebuild the damage done in the South by the Civil War. Mostly focused on helping African Americans become accepted into modern society, the reconstruction tore America apart. The reconstruction era in America was killed because of violence promoted towards blacks in the south by the Ku Klux Klan. While the North tried their best to help the South, the southerners constantly committed violence that annoyed that annoyed the North and caused them to walk away. The failure of reconstruction can be blamed on both sides (North or South), but based on the actions the South carried out; they were the reason why reconstruction failed. The South was a big downfall of the reconstruction because of the violence inflicted by the Ku Klux Klan. The Ku Klux Klan was out to get any person for the reconstruction and anyone who supported or helped the reconstruction. From document 3 a letter written by Albion Tourgee to New York Tribune, May 1870, about the KKK he said, “It is my mournful duty to inform you that our friend John W. Stephens, State Senator from Caswell, is dead. He was foully murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in the Grand Jury room of the Court House on Saturday……… I have very little doubt that I shall be one of the next victims. My steps have been dogged for months and only….”. These gruesome acts are one of the reasons for the North’s discontent with the South and eventual lack of support in the reconstruction activities. The South created confusions by targeting black officials and people of power in the Southern community, a testimony from Abram Colby a former slave who was elected to the Georgia State legislature and then attacked by Klansmen from document 5 he said, “………. Some are first class men in our town. One is a lawyer, one a doctor, and some are farmers… they said I had voted for Grant and had carried the Negroes against them. About two days before they whipped me they offered me $5,000 to go with them…” The Klansmen prompted terror in Southern communities by targeting African American officials; making the community more vulnerable and the townspeople couldn’t do anything about because a majority of the white officials were members of the Ku Klux Klan. The North passed laws that allowed former slaves to be free and self independence but then again the South created laws (black codes) that allowed them to behind national laws to keep slaves back in bondage, from document 2 “SHARECROPPERS’ CYCLE OF POVERTY” shows how the South managed to keep blacks to work on their plantation and demanded more crops from the slaves since the slaves owned them. If not for the mysterious violence of the KKK and the Klansmen attacking
