The KKK in the South Kills Reconstruction

                When a child thinks of opposites, he/she may think of hot and cold, yes and no, smart and stupid.  When someone thinks of opposites that occurred during the 19^th century in the United States, he/she will think of black and white, north and south.  Opposites in history have been the central cause to many conflicts.  During the 19^th century in the United States, the reconstruction was occurring; a time after the civil war, when reorganization or reestablishment of the seceded US states was taking place.  The reconstruction was not just a physical reconstruction, but a time when blacks and whites social and equality issues were being discussed and acted upon.  In the United States during the late 19^th century, the conflicts between black and white people increased after the end of reconstruction.  Reconstruction is considered to have ended with The Compromise of 1877.  This compromise allowed Hayes to win the electoral vote and the presidency, but in return he had to immediately remove Union troops from the south who were assisting with reconstruction.  Leading up to this compromise there were many different actions taken by the North and South that led up to the demise of reconstruction.  While the North contributed to ending reconstruction, the main cause was the violent treatment of blacks by the South.

                In the south, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), a group of white men who terrorized people including blacks, created violence that led towards the end of reconstruction.  One senator, John W. Stephens, from Caswell was murdered by the KKK for being a “brave Republican” (Document A).  He was considered a scalawag; someone from the south who supported blacks and the efforts made by carpetbaggers and freedmen.  Carpetbaggers, northerners who went south to aid in reconstruction, were also threatened by the KKK.  Tourgee, the author of the letter to a senator, states that he feels threatened by the KKK (Document A).  Tourgee was a carpetbagger and supported blacks during reconstruction.  He said that “any member of Congress who, especially from the South, does not support, advocate, and urge immediate active and thorough measures to put an end to these outrages…is a coward, a traitor, or a fool” (Document A).  Tourgee believed that the KKK posed a major threat to his and other carpetbagger and scalawags’ safety (Document A).  If the carpetbaggers and scalawags supporting and aiding in reconstruction were threatened or killed, it would lead to an end in reconstruction.  

The picture of two white carpetbaggers and scalawags with a KKK donkey, anonymously posted in the Independent Monitor, shows that the KKK was threatening to hang carpetbaggers and scalawags which would also lead to the end of aid from them, resulting in the ruin of the reconstruction effort (Document A).  The KKK not only threatened carpetbaggers and scalawags, but they also threatened blacks who wanted to vote for radical republicans.  Blacks voted for radical republicans because they were northern republican congressmen who supported African-American citizenship and punishment for former Confederates.  Radical republicans supported reconstruction.  The KKK, consisting of many former Confederates, did not want radical republicans voted into office.  Colby, a former black slave was elected to the Georgia State Legislature during reconstruction and Colby testified that the KKK “whipped me a thousand licks more, with sticks and straps that had buckles on the ends of them” (Document B).  The KKK also tried to buy his legislative seat from Colby and Colby testified that “they would pay me $2,500 in cash if I would let another man go to the legislature in my place” (Document B).  The KKK used violent approaches to stop blacks from voting as seen in the picture from Harper’s Weekly where two KKK are holding a gun up to a black man’s head to keep him from voting (Document B).  

By keeping blacks from voting, radical republicans lost votes.  Since radical republicans supported reconstruction, by keeping them from gaining any political power, the KKK was able to help stop reconstruction.  Through keeping blacks from voting and by acting violently upon carpetbaggers and scalawags, the KKK in the South was a main contributor of the end of reconstruction.

               

                In the North, the reconstruction was not a priority, but if the KKK had not been acting violently towards blacks and others supporting reconstruction, the North’s lack of interest would not have been a hindrance to keeping reconstruction going.  The North was not against reconstruction; their focus however was elsewhere.  Instead of being worried about reconstruction, they were worried about the Panic of 1873, an economic crisis, and the corruption in the government (Document C).  

As seen in the picture, Grant, the president in charge during this period of corruption and crisis is submerged headfirst in a barrel (Document C).  He is trying to get to the bottom of the corruption in the government, but while he has his head buried in these issues, he is unaware of what is happening in the country (Document C).  He is unaware of and not worried about reconstruction because he (and other northerners) are distracted by what they believe are more important issues (Document C).  This distraction leads to less support from the north to continue reconstruction.  However, if the KKK in the South was not threatening blacks and trying to end reconstruction, reconstruction would have been able to continue to some degree even with the North’s lack of caring.  One of the largest contributions the North had to ending reconstruction was that the majority of the white population’s expressed their view that black people were “unfitted for the proper exercise of political duties” (Document D).  In the Boston Evening Transcript, there was an article that argued “blacks needed a period of probation and instruction; a period…long enough for the black to have forgotten something of his condition as a slave” (Document D).  The article claimed that black people needed to become educated and wait until they were more civilized and no longer could remember being a slave before being granted any political rights (Document D).  

In the picture printed in Harper’s Weekly, a common magazine at the time, there is an image of black people trying to exercise political duties (Document D).  They are drawn like monkeys and there is clearly chaos which is shown through the fighting (Document D).  This image shows blacks to be incapable of having any political rights.  Holding back black’s political rights in turn held back the reconstruction, however unlike the violence of the KKK it did not cause the reconstruction to completely end.  While the North contributed to the end of reconstruction with its views of blacks and lack of interest, the North’s actions alone would not have caused the end of reconstruction without the violence of the KKK in the south.

                During the 19^th century in the United States, the country faced many problems.  There were social, economic, and political issues.  The government was corrupt, there was an economic crisis, and reconstruction abruptly came to an end.  Blacks were trying to gain careers, as well as political, and other rights.  The North with its own concerns and low opinion of blacks did not continue to support the reconstruction and blacks’ advancement.  While a few Northerners, like carpetbaggers and radical republicans tried to support the reconstruction efforts, the KKK stopped these efforts with the violent actions they took.  While the North contributed to the end of reconstruction, the violence of the KKK in the South caused the reconstruction to eventually be ended by the government with the Compromise of 1877.

Document A: Albion Tourgee, Letter on Ku Klux Klan Activities. New York Tribune, May 1870.

Image: Independent Monitor, September 1, 1868. Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Alabama.

Document B: Abram Colby, testimony to a joint House and Senate Committee in 1872.

Image: Harper's Weekly, October 21, 1876.

Document C: Gerald Danzer et al., The Americans, McDougal Littell, 1998.

Image: Harper's Weekly, 1876.

Document D: Heather Cox Richardson, The Death of Reconstruction: Race, Labor and Politics in the Post-Civil War North, 1865-1901. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2001.

Image: The cover of Harper's Weekly, March 14, 1874.