History homework help. Read the article and answer the question. At least 3 complete sentences in length.
Reconstruction and the KKK
Southern Perspective of the War
When the Civil War ended in 1865, virtually all southerners had been touched by it. The war was fought largely in the south and since the south had a much smaller population than the north, almost all southern men fought in the war. Statistics gathered later show that 90% of men of fighting age had to fight in the war for the south. The north only needed 50% of their population. In some towns, no man of fighting age returned because they had all died in a battle or two here and there. Those that did return, came back with scars. The bullet evolved during the war which made battle more deadly and dangerous. The particular bullet used in the Civil War is heavy and does not merely put a hole in a soldier’s arm or leg. The bullet shatters bone when it hits it, causing it to almost implode. The only treatment then, or now, for that type of injury was amputation. The problem facing men who were shot in an arm or leg was that they would get at best whiskey for anesthesia. Given that many southern men were hard drinkers, one shot of whiskey would not do very much and I doubt the pain of that procedure would have been one they could forget easily. The men who return in the south were literally walking reminders of the war. Those who did not survive were buried sometimes on the field they fell on. If Union troops won the battle, Confederate soldiers were buried in mass graves with nothing, no personal effects, being passed on to loved ones. They would probably be informed later. The lack of knowledge about what happened to loved ones in the south, left many with a real lack of a sense of closure and created a sense of victimization among survivors.
Those left behind on the farm or home in town received news in pieces. There was no CNN with up to the minute reporting. They got news here and there. They heard about Sherman’s March to the Sea. They saw the price of everyday items skyrocket under the massive inflation caused by the Confederacy’s currency. Those caught in the path of Sherman could be caught completely off guard. Soldiers just march up to the door, order everyone out of the house, and the torch the house and any other buildings like barns. That night, they would sleep in the field knowing their crops had been destroyed along with their house and all their animals killed, some of the remains being put in the well so they can’t even use the water. The point of Sherman’s March to the Sea was to demoralize the south, and it worked. The war impacted the way of life for almost all white southerners. ‘
When the war ended, elite southerners went to work right away to keep slavery intact, even if only in theory. They knew poor whites in the south would not understand why they lost the war and could see themselves as having a lot in common with newly freed, but poor, African Americans. The concept of the “Lost Cause” played into that sense of victimization and had a real unifying effect on the white population. They claimed they fought a lost cause, something noble to fight for, but they had been spared for a greater purpose in their loss. They would “rise again”. It was a way to also psychologically understand their loss in the war.
African American Perspective of the War
For African Americans, this was not a “lost cause”, but a great victory for freedom and liberty. Once they learned the war was over and slavery was ended with the 13th Amendment, two things happened. First of all, African Americans now began looking for lost loved ones. One of the cruelest aspects of slavery was the fact that family members in the slave quarters could be bought and sold at whim. Instead of runaway slave ads, you now start to see ads looking for loved ones who “I believe was sold to a plantation in Nashville” for example. Others simply ask for help in finding the lost loved one with detailed descriptions. The second thing to happen when people were told they were free, was to celebrate. Spontaneous celebrations took place all over the south. In Norfolk, Virginia, a parade broke out as people marched and sang.
Then came the work of figuring out what to do next. Many African American leaders in the church began writing down stated goals for the community. Some of the goals included land ownership, civil rights, voting rights, and education. The issue with land ownership many thought would be solved by the federal government. Sherman’s Field Order No. 15 took land confiscated from planation owners. There was the Southern Homestead Act that put land in 40 acre plots and the Freedman’s Bureau that also rented out land in 40 acre plots. Civil rights and voting rights would come in time, a long time. The education issue was also handled by the Freedman’s Bureau. They organized teachers and schools in the south and coordinated people and money from the north. Migrating to a different town proved more difficult. White southerners began operating under an unwritten rule not to sell goods to people they didn’t know. That made traveling difficult for African Americans if not impossible. The church helped to organize people by helping them save money and contact churches in the north that could provide for the group that wanted to move there. So groups would move at once and carry letters with them that had been sent and returned from those northern churches. That way anyone who tried to harass them would know that someone was waiting for them in the north. The church provided many other needs for local communities and white elites began to clamp down and try to maintain slavery despite losing it as an institution.
Federal Reconstruction and the KKK
When the war ended, there were no clear guidelines as to what would happen next. What would the status of African Americans be in the south? How would the loss of “property” be handled for plantation owners? What would the legal guidelines be for states to rejoin the Union? Would they be punished? Most northerners who had largely been untouched by the war nevertheless wanted punishment. Lincoln had argued that the states had never left despite southern arguments that they had. Now southerners were arguing that Lincoln was right and since they had never left, they did not need to be punished. Lincoln had an idea as to how to handle this, but was assassinated before any of it could be played out.
With Lincoln gone and Congress not in session, the task of Reconstruction fell to vice president Andrew Johnson. Johnson made an interesting choice for Lincoln in the last election because Johnson was a southerner. He was however, the only southerner to remain in Washington when his state seceded though, proving his loyalty. Now he had to provide the guidelines. Most of those guidelines were not fully followed though and Johnson seemed uninterested in forcing things. He also pardoned key southern leaders and returned land confiscated by Sherman. Republicans in Congress wanted stern measures and when they came into session again after another round of elections they decided to get to work. They took more seats and so felt they had the mandate of the American people in doing so. They took political power away from southern leaders with the Military Reconstruction Act. It placed the south under 5 federal districts governed by a completely different set of leaders with the cooperation of the military who would go back in. Southerners viewed this as a second invasion. African Americans were given the right to vote and hold office and many did just that. For southerners, this amounted to a travesty. Under this new law those who had held office were no longer eligible, meaning that all the Confederate leaders were no longer in power in any way.
In the midst of this chaos for southerners, the KKK was established. It began as a secret society of ex Confederate soldiers and quickly escalated. They engaged in terrorist activities against anyone in the south attempting any real change. They targeted and harassed people in the middle of the night and resorted to outright violence and murder more than once. Most often the targets were African American religious leaders and political leaders. In 1871 Congress appointed a committee to investigate the KKK as they felt they were a threat to liberty. Given the views of those in the south during and after the war, they found support among the white population. The group fell into significant decline after 1876 when military reconstruction ended.
KKK and Today: Question for Discussion
The KKK are a lot like a volcano, they become very active in times of major change. Their founding took place during great change with the end of the Civil War. They went into decline, but then came back in the 1920s, again a time of big cultural change. They go dormant again until the 1960s. In the 1960s, questions about the legitimacy of the group were tackled in the Supreme Court. The argument for their existence is that they have the First Amendment rights of free speech and right to assemble. So here is our discussion board question:
Do you think the KKK should be protected by the First Amendment?
Remember that you must post a comment and respond to someone else in a second comment in order to receive full credit. Look up the language of the First Amendment and use that in your argument either way. Good luck!
