Violence, discrimination and destruction were some of the terror that blacks faced in the South after the Civil War. In 1876, it was the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence for the United States. The Civil War had recently ended and the slaves who were just freed were given rights so they could rebuild their lives. The freedmen were given the right to vote from the 15th Amendment in time for the election between the Republican, Hayes, and the Democrat, Tilden. Reconstruction was the twelve year period after the Civil War when there were attempts to help former slaves have freedom in the South. The South destroyed the efforts to help former slaves attain freedom because they were violent towards anyone who supported Reconstruction.
Although the South mainly killed Reconstruction, the North neglected the South because they were distracted with their own issues. One example of this is how Grant, who was unexpectedly elected for president after being a hero for the Union in the Civil War, began to focus his attention to national problems, like the Panic of 1873. In the political cartoon below, Grant is trying to dig to the bottom of the barrel in order to dig out all of the problems that occurred in the North at the time. By doing this, Grant cannot see what is going on around him since he is only looking in the barrel. This represents that when Grant was focused on national concerns, he could not pay attention to the terrible way that blacks were being treated in the South. Another example of how the North negatively impacted the growth of former slaves’ lives is that they did not agree with the fact that former slaves could vote. In 1873 the Boston Evening Transcript wrote a letter saying, “The blacks, as a people, are unfitted for the proper exercise of political duties.” Even though blacks were given the right to vote and to be involved in office, they had few political rights because the majority of white Americans did not think that blacks were prepared to be in office. The North believed that former slaves needed time to learn about the United States’ systems and to become civilized. They thought that the government would become chaotic if blacks were allowed into office right away. Even though the South was responsible for ruining the efforts to help former slaves gain freedom after the Civil War, the North did have affect on the poor treatment of Southerners.
Harper’s Weekly, 1876.
In addition to the North lacking their protection to the South, the South was the major killer of Reconstruction because of their violence. One example of this terror is one that Albion Tourgee, a white, Northern soldier who was a judge during Reconstruction, wrote in his letter to the North Carolina Republican Senator in 1870. He states, “He was foully murdered by the Ku-Klux in the Grand Jury room of the Court House on Saturday… He was stabbed five or six times, and then hanged on a hook in the Grand Jury room.” The KKK threatened whites who were supported Reconstruction, especially carpetbaggers and scalawags. Many whites who wanted to go into office as Republicans were afraid to because of the white supremacy groups. Another example of violence in the South was when the Ku Klux Klan members would threaten blacks into not voting. The image below shows two white men holding guns up to a black man’s head before voting. The majority of blacks voted for Radical Republicans, which disturbed the KKK. Therefore, the Klan would frighten the blacks so that they would not use the voting rights that they had recently earned. Reconstruction was ruined due to the brutality of the South.
Harper’s Weekly, October 21, 1876.
After the Civil War in the United States, slaves were freed but were not given a chance to create new lives. The North was supposed to aid the freedmen into starting civilized lives for themselves. The North was distracted on their own problems, along with national problems, so they lost interest in helping the South. On the other hand, the Southern white supremacy groups treated blacks, and any whites who supported Reconstruction, horribly. Since the South threatened any assistance of Reconstruction, they were responsible for the destruction of it.
Article Sources:
Heather Cox Richardson, The Death of Reconstruction: Labor, and Politics in the Post-Civil War North, 1865-1901. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2001.
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