Reconstruction Dbq Essay

At this point in time, the United States had just put an end to one of the bloodiest wars in history, the Civil War. It was a low point for the country, which left many wondering how we would move forward with reincorporating the states that had seceded from the union. The answer that Congress came up with was “reconstruction”. Reconstruction allowed the southern states to rejoin the union after taking the steps that Congress required like ratification of the 13th amendment, which put an end to slavery in its entirety and made the union whole again. Though all of this was done to form a more perfect union, reconstruction did not really do a great job of that. Reconstruction to an extent formed a “perfect union” which can be seen through the treatment of the formerly enslaved population. During the beginning reconstruction, …show more content…
In actuality, the Freedmen’s Bureau supported poor white people as well and helped many poor white men get jobs to support their families. On top of the propaganda, many citizens in the south took it upon themselves to make life harder for African American citizens. Groups like the KKK and the White League went out and terrorized black citizens. The KKK was notorious for their crimes with stories of the “Ku Klux Klan’s riding nightly over the country, going from county to county, and in the towns spreading terror wherever they go by robbing, whipping, ravishing[raping], and killing our people without provocation” (Document C). The KKK was not the only group violating the civil rights of the newly freed, many local governments and militias also went out of their way to harass citizens. In Mississippi it was reported by a citizen that the “militia of this county has seized every gun found in the hands of the (so called) freedmen of this section of the county. They claim that the statute of laws of Mississippi do not recognize the negro as having any rights to carry arms” (Document