Who Killed the Reconstruction

The Reconstruction was an era in which the North went to the South in hope to rebuild the destroyed lands and to help enforce the new laws protecting blacks and ensuring that they stay free citizens of America. Sadly though this era of generosity and aide from the North did not last as long as many freedman had hoped. The Reconstruction was killed, the only question was who killed it, the North, or the South?Although the reconstruction was killed by both the North and the South it was the North who mainly killed the Reconstruction.

The South played a major part in the death of Reconstruction. During the Reconstruction, the south was still a dangerous place for Freedman, and anyone else who supported the reconstruction. The letter in document A was written by Albion Tourgee, who was a white northern soldier and became a judge in North Carolina after the war. The document was a letter to Senator Joseph Carter Abbott. The letter tells the senator  A State Senator was stabbed 5 or 6 times by Ku Klux Klan members, the Senator Joseph Stevens  was attacked in the Grand Jury Room in the courthouse. This letter depicts how dangerous it truly was for a supporter of the reconstruction to live in the south. Also in this letter Tourgee talks about how he feels like he is going to be next for he is also a supporter of the cause. The image from the Independent Monitor in document A also shows how the South killed the reconstruction. The image shows two men being hung from a tree, one of the men is holding a suitcase with “OHIO” written on it and the image also shows a horse with KKK written on it. The “OHIO” on the suitcase is there to represent who is being hung. It tells the viewer that it is a carpetbaggers, or  scallywags that are being hung. Another example of how the south killed the reconstruction is document B. Document B shows a testimony of Abram Colby. In his testimony Colby claimed that Klansmen kidnapped him and whipped for hours. By doing this the Klansmen were trying to use the fear tactic to break his will and make vote against the radical ticket. Later in his testimony he talks about how they tried to bribe him to remove himself from office. By doing this the South was killing the reconstruction. By scaring and beating radicals they were making the supporters of the reconstruction flee for their lives and in turn killing the reconstruction.

Although the South played a major role in the death of the reconstruction the North played even a larger role. Even though it was the south scared many Northerners  away it was not the South who gave up on the Reconstruction. The North began to get fed up with the Reconstruction and began to focus on other things. For example in document C both the quote by Gerald Danzer and the image from Harpers Weekly perfectly depict what was happening in the North. The quote by Gerald Danzer talks about how the North began to focus on other things such as “the Panic of 1873 and the corruption in Grant’s administration….”. Other things in America started to grab the attention of Grant and other supporters which meant they were taking their  gaze off the south leaving he freedman to fend for themselves. Harper’s Weekly also depicts this. The image shows President Grant head first in a barrel, throwing things out like “Whiskey Fraud”, and “Bribery”. This was meant to represent the other problems in America that Grant was focusing on. It shows how since his head was in the barrel figuring out all of the other problems he wasn't able to see what was going on in the South. Both of these pieces of evidence show how Northerners began to turn their backs on freedmen and in turn killing the reconstruction. Another example of how the North killed the Reconstruction is the pieces of evidence in document D. Document D has a passage from The Death of the Reconstruction, by Heather Cox Richardson, which is a secondary source but the passage is a quote from a primary source. The text explains how the northern thought that the freedmen were fine to run their own lives but didn't think they should be in government  because they were uneducated.  The whites believe that the blacks are more uncivilized and not fit to run government,  the whites thought that blacks couldn't handle running a state. The text shows ingrained racism was in the north. It shows how the whites believe that the blacks are a lower form of race. The image from document D also depicts this message. The image shows a Northerners portrayal of the South Carolina State Legislation during the reconstruction. This image shows all of the freedmen acting erratically almost as if they were animals, and in the middle of all of it is a white man who just looks disgusted, and tired of their screeching. This again shows how the North killed the reconstruction. This Northerner depicted the freedmen as animals, people who weren't fit to run a state.  These pieces of evidence show how the North killed the reconstruction. They killed the reconstruction because the North lost faith in the Reconstruction, leaving it to die.

In the end it was the North who killed the reconstruction. It was them who lost faith in the reconstruction and turned their backs to the reconstruction and the freedmen. The South did play the role of scaring the radicals out of the South, but it was the Northerners who gave up on the reconstruction. All in all it was the North who killed the reconstruction.