Topic: Analyzing The Impact of Reconstruction: Success or Failure?

Reconstruction and the North 1870s: North growing tired of Reconstruction: Expensive ($$, manpower) Taking too long South too stubborn Political divisiveness Why help blacks? Government Corruption at all levels (graft, bribery) North preoccupied with its own issues (industrialization, etc.) 1877: Reconstruction ends

The Ku Klux Klan Ku Klux Klan (1866) The “Invisible Empire” Founded by ex confederate soldiers (General N. Forrest) Scare tactics to intimidate freedmen and their allies “ghosts”, burnings, beatings, lynching Prevent freedmen from exercising their rights Stops voting (Georgia 1868 incident) Congress tries to stop Klan w/ Force Act 1870 However, Klan succeeds in intimidation

The “Redeemer Governments” 1870s: As Union troops pull out of South, new local southern governments elected Blacks voted out Democrats repeal many Reconstruction reforms The “Young Southern Democrat” Limits on Freedmen political rights Poll Taxes, Literacy Tests, etc. All legal

The “New South” Emerges The “Solid South” for Democrats (Republicans powerless there for decades) Southern resentments continue However, secession is never an option again South begins to industrialize (never as much as the North) Creation of a new “social order” Segregation law of the land Plessey v. Ferguson “separate but equal” Jim Crow Laws

Conclusion In your assessment, was Reconstruction a success or failure? On what do you base this answer?