Why Did Reconstruction Fail - Lecture Notes, Lecture 1 PDF

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Why did Reconstruction fail? The Reconstruction Era was known as an unfinished revolution that died off before it could make a positive impact. Reconstruction Era is known as the era between 1867 and 1877 in which slavery was formally abolished, the confederacy was disbanded, southern states readmitted into the Union, and African Americans were incorporated into the political system. However, people willing to embrace the new nation questioned what that would entail. Despite the monumental changes, reconstruction failed and was a failure. No matter what your political stance was, all parties agreed on why it failed, who made it fail, etc. Everyone knows that reconstruction failed, but why? The main reasons as to why reconstruction failed, was from multiple contributing factors such as, the compromise of 1877, the black supremacy thesis, failure to enforce the 13 th, 14th, and 15th amendments, Andrew Johnson was president during the Era of reconstruction and was in charge, at first, of reconstruction policies. However, when he decided to give his fellow southerners a good deal by simply allowing them to pledge their allegiance to the US by abolishing slavery and they were allowed back into the Union. Republicans were furious and tried to oust Johnson, but congress was only successful in removing him from the duties of reconstruction policies. The Republicans successfully passed new laws that attempted to rebuild the south and create a new south politically. The failure of the North to effectively rebuild the South and bring it back into the Union during Reconstruction is evident after the time period. When it came to the election of 1877, southerners were still in opposition to reconstruction. The compromise of 1877 was a leading factor in what sealed the deal to end reconstruction. The election of 1877 and The Compromise of 1877 are basically one in the same because the compromise of 1877 decided the winner of the 1877 election. The compromise stated that the Democrats would agree to give the Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, the presidency on the understanding that the republicans would agree to remove the federal troops from the south and end reconstruction. Another issue of Reconstruction was the integration of freed slaves into society. There were several promising times during Reconstruction when progress was made for freed African Americans. Although congress tried to do good for the recently emancipated slaves by passing the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, they also failed, which in returned helped contribute to the failure of reconstruction. Even though the south was required to adopt these three amendments into their state’s constitution, the action itself and the actions afterwards in the states were not enforced. Therefore, African Americans were not granted the rights and freedoms that they were

constitutionally given and the black supremacy thesis made things worse. The southerners used the method of containment against African Americans to intimidate them by using sheer violence towards them. Although blacks legally had the right to vote now, southerners would not allow it. The rise of the Klu Klux Klan and other white supremacy groups, in combination with Black Codes, began to intimidate freed slaves and push back their civil liberties. The Black Supremacy Thesis also led to the end of reconstruction because it allowed corrupt black officials and their republican allies. Under their leadership, irresponsible, radical and social, economic policies were created....