DBQ 10: Reconstruction’s Failure After the Civil War, the United States of America had to go through reconstruction. It was meant to be a smooth easy going process, but after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln reconstruction became more harmful to the southerners. Congress had many efforts to ensure equal rights to the freedmen, but this had failed. There were many reasons why it failed like the creation of secret organizations just like the KKK.
Other reasons include white southerners and northerners convincing the freed blacks to vote for who they want starting the beginning of the Scalawags and the Carpetbaggers, and also not having equality in government not letting the southern politics in government. The Ku Klux Klan, also known as the KKK, was considered America’s first terrorist group. They were a group that wanted white supremacy in America. They terrorized and killed many African Americans using techniques such as torture, murder, and they would hurt you economically if you owned a business, they would boycott your business and would have others boycott it also.
These tactics made African Americans scared and the KKK’s goal was to put terror in The African Americans and have white Supremacy. This made not as many votes come in, since the white southerners weren’t allowed to vote, because many African Americans were scared to vote and hold office since the Constitution now allowed the freed black to have these basic rights. The beginning of the Scalawags and Carpetbaggers was a big thing back when it happened and took away the idea of having the freed blacks vote for themself. The Scalawags were the southerners who took the opportunity to vote for who they wanted to vote for.
The southerners did this by making the freed blacks vote who they wanted to vote for because the freed black weren’t smart enough to understand what was going on. The Carpetbaggers were the northerners who came down to the South to do the same as the Scalawags but by being influential to the freed blacks and it was to protect the Republican Party in Government. Many saw not having equality in voting was a big problem during military reconstruction. Many in the south believed it was unfair to take away basic right like voting and also not letting Southern politicians into government.
This began the beginning of the Scalawags as explained in the previous paragraph and also the KKK terrorizing the freed blacks from voting. The southerners did anything they can to stop the freed blacks from voting or have the freed blacks vote for who they want. These are some reasons why reconstruction failed. Many terrorist groups began to form, the Scalawags and the Carpetbaggers began to form, and doing corrupt things like making the freed blacks vote for who the white southerners wanted in office. Even though these things made reconstruction fail, there were some successful things like the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments
