Preserving The Nation 01-09-08

Even though the war and reconstruction is over, the South is not going to let go of their personal views on how the government should be run. The southern government found ways to work around the laws set by the constitution and also by amendments such as "Black Codes". These put restrictions on African Americans of this time, they almost sent the message of "Yeah, you have a chance to contribute your ideas to the government, but we're going to make sure that you dont meet any requirements to do so." Along with restricted polital rights, the south also organized "sharecropping". In this idea slave would have a small piece of land that they were able to call their own, but the pay was low and would put them in debt. As the years grew the debt became greater, the idea that had once seemed good to many, soon became more of a hassle then slavery itself, people were not able to care for their familys the way they should and were working for money that they were no longer recieving. Besides political and economical views, there were extremist racial views. Although the war was over, the South had not come to any level of peace towards African Americans. Groups such as the Ku-Klux-Klan were created. These extremists made life an everyday nightmare for African Americans using murder as their main weapon. Welcome to the overlook of the obstacels the South set for African Americans up to 1877.

If perhaps the United States had used military or political force towards the South, they would have either found yet another way around the forced rules that were being laid down or maybe even retaliated against the military starting yet another war or even more groups relating to the Ku-Klux-Klan as a target of hatred. These groups would focucs on wipping out the African-American race as a reliever to their problems. The peoples of this time were so single minded that they blamed other races for their sufferage, if they were to do something wrong they would simply shift the blame on an African-American. Forcing anything against their beliefs would not help anything but would just throw more gas into a fire that is already out of control. Contributing to an already single-minded ignorant government (The South) is no way to preserve a nation that has already gone through that much.