SAMPLE ESSAY TO BE INCLUDED IN ASSIGNED READING JOURNALS

1) Why did Reconstruction fail?

Reconstruction failed for numerous reasons. Chief among those reasons was the absence of
land redistribution following the American Civil War. When slaves were emancipated they
did not receive any compensation for their prior work and the federal government refused to
break apart existing plantations to divide those large tracts of land among the freedpeople.
Without government sponsored land redistribution fewer than 10 percent of freedpeople were
able to purchase land during the decades that followed emancipation. Land ownership was
critical because the South's economy relied heavily upon agricultural production and those
without land had little opportunity to earn an annual living that exceeded their basic needs.
In addition to the absence of land redistribution, the apathy of the Northern populace also
contributed to the Reconstruction period's failures. While factions of the Republican Party
initially committed themselves to securing equal rights for freedpeople, those desires
diminished significantly within a few years following the war. Consequently northern
politicians turned a blind eye to the atrocities that were being committed in the South and
failed to use the power of the federal government to halt the rise of Black Codes and Jim
Crow legislation. Without continued support from national constituencies, freedpeople were
left in the hands of Southern governments that proved to be adverse to the demands of
freedpeople. Reconstruction also failed because of the massive amounts of white resistance
to black equality that spread throughout the South during the period. White organizations
such as the Ku Klux Klan and the White League formed and used their resources to terrorize
freedpeople and undermine the development of postwar black autonomy/ communities. Both
groups used violence as a means of preventing freedpeople from attending schools, churches,
voting, and a number of other basic liberties. These groups were in part successful because
the federal government proved unwilling to maximize the resources it devoted to halting
these groups and protecting freedpeople in general.