Question

Many white Southerners felt threatened by the political, economic, and social effects of Reconstruction. Briefly describe four examples of how white Southerners' responses to Reconstruction made life unsafe in the South.

Answer 1

@oliver69

Answer 2

The first example would be the Reconstruction implemented by Congress, which lasted from 1866 to 1877, was aimed at reorganizing the Southern states after the Civil War, providing the means for readmitting them into the Union and defining the means by which whites and blacks could live together in a nonslave society. The South, however, saw Reconstruction as a humiliating, even vengeful imposition and did not welcome it.

The second example would be during the years after the war, black and white teachers from the North and South, missionary organizations, churches, and schools worked tirelessly to allow the emancipated population to learn. Former slaves of every age took advantage of the opportunity to become literate. Grandfathers and their grandchildren sat together in classrooms seeking to obtain the tools of freedom.

The third example would be after the Civil War, with the protection of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1866, African Americans enjoyed a period when they were allowed to vote, actively participate in the political process, acquire the land of former owners, seek their own employment, and use public accommodations, where the whites didn't like it at all.

The fourth example would be that white southern people hated Thomas Nast's depiction of emancipation at the end of the Civil War envisions the future of free blacks in the U.S. and contrasts it with various cruelties of the institution of slavery.