The Failure of Southern Civil War Reconstruction

The Failure of Southern Civil War Reconstruction

The time of Reconstruction for the South was wrought with many conflicting factors, which ultimately brought about the end, and noted failure, of the plan. Opposing elements in the political realm, coupled with economic hardships following the war, and the attempt to redesign the entire social structure of the South slowly but assuredly destroyed the plan of Reconstruction.

Although the original design of the plan seem plausible, as things progressed, it became more and more evident that the problems of the South were not being solved by severe laws and continuing malevolence against previous Confederates. In May 1872, Congress passed a comprehensive Amnesty Act, restoring full governmental rights to all but about 500 Confederate supporters.

Progressively Southern states began electing members of the Democratic Party into office, displacing thus termed carpetbagger governments and scaring blacks from voting or striving to hold public office often through the use of fear tactics. By 1876 the Republicans continued in power in just three Southern states. As a piece of the negotiation that determined the disputed presidential elections that year in preference of Rutherford B. Hayes, the Republicans pledged to terminate Radical Reconstruction, thereby allowing practically all of the control of the South to the Democratic Party. In 1877 Hayes removed the remaining government military, virtually forsaking federal accountability for ensuring blacks' civil rights.

The South was still a region shattered by warfare, impeded by a deficit caused by a mediocre administration, and depraved by a decade of racial fighting. Unfortunately, the battle of domestic racial policy moved from one stance to another. Forasmuch as it had maintained severe punishments against Southern white leaders, it now sanctioned increased and degrading types of discrimination toward blacks. The end of the 19th century brought about an abundance of Jim Crow laws in Southern states that divided public schools, referred to as segregation, prohibited or restricted black admittance to many civic facilities, such as centers, lodging and dining facilities, and refused most blacks the privilege to vote by creating poll taxes and autocratic reading tests.

Slaves were granted their liberty, but not equalization. The North utterly neglected to meet the financial necessity of the freedmen. Attempts including the Freedmen's