Civil War Reconstruction: Success or Failure?
AP US History
06 January 2006
Reconstruction: Failure The Civil war was possibly the greatest tragedy that this country had ever faced. Years of constant arguing, compromises and cynical ideas about slavery pushed this so called "United Nation" into an atrocious collision between the Northern abolitionists and the Southern proslavery farmers and plantation owners. The nation suffered enormous losses economically and went into a downward spiral. The reconstruction period began with many leaders stepping up to try and fix this crippled country, but it didn't turn out like everyone hoped. Slavery was still the largest issue and the reconstruction halted because of the disagreements the people faced. After many years of …show more content…
All this did was cause chaos in the south because they did believe in it even thought it was an amendment. The status of an African American was the focal problem of Reconstruction. Slavery had been abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment, but the white people of the south still thought lowly of blacks and thought that they still belonged as slaves. This was shown in the "Black Codes" passed by some of the state legislatures. Northerners regarded these codes as a "Revival of slavery in disguise." The first state to pass the codes was Mississippi in November of 1865. They were a list of codes that were totally anti-Black rights and restrained many of their rights. This was one of four main events that promoted racism in the south. Another cause of racism was the creation of the Ku Klux Klan. It was created in the same month as the abolition of slavery with the Thirteenth Amendment. A group of Ex-Confederate soldiers in Tennessee met to form a secret society of white men, dedicating their lives to resisting pro Black laws and promoting racism. It functioned as a social club for ex-Confederates and southern men. They dressed up in all white and claimed they were ghosts of dead confederates. They used terrorist tactics coming out at night and murdering/beating African Americans and commonly hung them from trees. This is an example of how the idea of reconstruction just pushed some people into attacking and