What were the main factors for the overthrow of Reconstruction in Give Me Liberty! Chapter 15?
In Chapter 15 of Eric Foner's book Give Me Liberty! An American History, the main factors for the North and South overthrowing Reconstruction included racism and federal overreach.
For Foner, racism was the primary reason Reconstruction failed. Fonner writes that the “basic reason for opposition to Reconstruction” was that “most white Southerners could not accept the idea of former slaves voting, holding office, and enjoying equality before the law.” White Southerners expressed their disdain for Reconstruction with violence. Black people in the South were regularly killed and assaulted. The South also formed organizations like the Ku Klux Klan to systematically terrorize Black people.
In the North, a number of politicians in Washington grew wary of Reconstruction because they thought that it gave the federal government too much power. According to some Northerners, “The South should be able to solve its problems without constant interference from Washington.” The federal government...
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abolished slavery and gave Black people citizenship and voting rights. To continue to do more would constitute federal overreach or undue interference. Paraphrasing the Liberal Republicans who opposed Reconstruction, Foner writes, “Now, Blacks should rely on their own resources, not demand further assistance.”
For additional factors, consider how corruption, high taxes, and trying economic times made Reconstruction less appealing. The United States went through a keen economic depression in 1873. Malfeasance plagued the administration of Ulysses S. Grant. Finally, to finance Reconstruction programs, people had to pay higher taxes. Of course, none of the above factors can be neatly separated from the factor of racism.
What were the main factors for the overthrow of Reconstruction according to Give Me Liberty! by Gerry Spence?
In Give Me Liberty!, Eric Foner addressed the overthrow of Reconstruction in Chapter 15. He says that Reconstruction was overthrown because of a backlash against its achievements, a renewal of states’ opposition to federal policies and practices, including outrage over the expense and related corruption. Reconstruction had brought many changes to African American social, economic, and political participation, but racist attitudes and discrimination not only continued but in some places increased. Foner emphasizes Southern Americans’ opposition to formerly enslaved peoples exercising their newly-recognized rights, including the right to vote, and being elected to office. This opposition was often conveyed through violence, including fatal attacks on Black people, and the related establishment of all-white associations that condoned or organized such attacks. In the North, white voters increasingly protested the expense of programs that were carried out in the South, which they paid for but did not perceive as benefitting them.
Foner emphasizes that racism undergirded opposition and both organized and impromptu violence. He writes,
The most basic reason for opposition to Reconstruction, however, was that most white southerners could not accept the idea of former slaves voting, holding office, and enjoying equality before the law.
Northern opposition to the expense was tied up with the view that corrupt politicians were pocketing kickbacks, not just spending the funds as intended. Foner states that corruption included
a scramble for influence that produced bribery, insider dealing, and a get-rich-quick atmosphere . . . .The rising taxes needed to pay for . . . public facilities . . . were another cause of opposition to Reconstruction.
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