Reconstruction Dbq

Historian Eric Foner once said "What remains certain is that Reconstruction failed, and that for blacks its failure was a disaster whose magnitude cannot be obscured by the genuine accomplishments that did endure”. Foner believed that while the efforts of the reconstruction process thrived initially, they did not last in the long run. Efforts were met with so much resistance and an eventual lack of care, that eventually they could not endure. Even though slavery ended in 1865, the struggle for African Americans’ to truly earn their rights was far from over: it had just begun. Reconstruction was the greatest failure of the 19th century because of it economically suppressed African Americans, disenfranchised them, and failed to prevent violence …show more content…
The Reuniters wanted to unite the north and south as a whole and provide a way for freedmen to efficiently support themselves. White Supremacists sought a return to the Antebellum status quo and wanted to “put the Negro back in their place”. Radical Republicans simply wished to punish the South for leaving the Union. Together, these visions combined to produce the era now known as Reconstruction.
One of the reasons Reconstruction was the greatest failure of the 19th century was the economic suppression of African Americans. An illustrative example of such is the crop lien system used in the late 1800’s, which allowed individuals who were unable to purchase land to rent tools and land on credit (History). Because the Reconstruction government did not provide freedmen with any means of sustaining themselves, they were often forced by necessity to rent land from their former masters.Tenants were often forced into exploitative, legally binding contracts which trapped them in a cycle of debt (Agricultural Problems), leaving freedmen unable to advance economically, meaning they were stuck working the same cotton-picking jobs they did when they were slaves. In this way the crop lien system was at its worst basically slavery, something that Reconstruction …show more content…
African American disenfranchisement is evident in the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898, during which White Supremacists from the Democratic Party overthrew the elected government after the city council became one third African American after the election, drove out African Americans in scores, and destroyed businesses and houses in the black neighborhood of Wilmington (Wilmington). None of the members of the riot were held responsible for the arson and murder they had committed; in fact the state did not even issue an official reprimand. This sort of intimidation was not an isolated event, but in fact endemic to the South. The Wilmington Insurrection disenfranchised African Americans by forcing them to choose between voting rights and safety. Additionally, it discouraged black voting by displaying the futility of their attempts at political representation; all the struggles they went through in electing an official was reversed in a single night of violence. This problem was also exacerbated by the lack of a government reaction which set the stage for continued violence such as in the Tulsa Race Riot. According to Blackpast.org, the Tulsa Race Riot was “Two days of violence by whites against blacks left an estimated 50 people dead, hundreds injured, and more than 1,000 black owned homes and businesses destroyed.” (Blackpast). While the Tulsa Race Riot did

Show More