Dbq 10 Reconstruction: Us History Essay

There were many plus sides to the Civil War. Those plus sides were the abolishment of slavery, secession was refuted, and there was supremacy of national government. Yet, there was one difficulty which was that the Union had the challenge of figuring out what to do with free slaves. In 1867, Congress took control of Reconstruction to establish and protect citizenship rights. Congress had succeeded in many ways like having the Southern states ratify the Fourteenth Amendment to rid the military forces. But, by 1877 the Reconstruction had ended, all the work done failed, and everything reversed. Congress’ Reconstruction efforts to have equal rights for freedmen failed because the Ku Klux Klan intervened in wrong ways, freedmen were convinced to stop their actions, and editorial advocating was used as propaganda against freedmen. The Ku Klux Klan (or KKK) was, and still is in some areas, a secret organization that used terrorist tactics in an attempt to restore white supremacy in Southern states. In document two, General Thomas discusses the KKK. The purpose of the KKK was to get rid of any African Americans so the whites could hold power. They even killed those who supported the African Americans, meaning the killed whites also. They would do anything in their power to hold the power they had. They had undermined Congress’ efforts for equal rights to all by doing exactly what they did. They would go around threatening people, burned houses down, burned crosses in lawns, and of course killed any Africans. That’s not what Congress wanted. They wanted everyone to have equal treatment. The African Americans did have much to be able to stop being invaded. If they did, they would have been killed anyway. In document four, Atlanta News uses editorial advocating as propaganda. First off, editorial advocating is when the editorial representative of a newspaper or social media comes to an event in favor of a cause, or idea, and uses their position on it to further that cause. In the document the speaker states his view on the African Americans in the South. He wants the Northerners to go to the South and organize a way to rid the African’s of their rights. Many Northerners tried to convince freedmen to stop voting. Also, they tried to stop them from taking part in politics. Dr. W. E. B. DuBois was an African American Historian and wrote a book about this. Document six is a excerpt of that book. The Northerners told the Southerners if they wanted a job they needed to keep their noses out of politics and if they wanted to be apart of politics well they better not have expected a job. Basically, shut up and stay quiet. Either way, they couldn’t win. The African American didn’t have an easy life once Reconstruction ended. Everything Congress worked for reversed and the Northerners thought they had more power. Reconstruction failed for many reasons meanwhile it was supposed to be a rebuilding after the Civil War. Like many things that go on, everything doesn’t always go as planned.