Although the Union won the Civil War, it was the seceding states that won Reconstruction. Reconstruction saw the introduction of white supremacy groups, widespread lynchings, and political violence. Ultimately, those led by the Redeemers brought about the end of the Reconstruction era through a series of behind-the-scenes deals with the Republicans. With the help of the Redeemers and the Democratic Party, segregation and white supremacy were reinforced for nearly eighty years, effectively suppressing generations of black people, preventing them from exercising the most fundamental rights guaranteed by the Thirteenth , Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essay After the end of the Civil War, white Southerners feared the impact of Reconstruction on the Southern way of life. While slavery had been eradicated, "there was a strong desire to maintain a caste system" in the south.[1] White Southerners feared that black independence would spell disaster for the Southern order of life. This feeling of fear gave way to lynching and terror to reinforce white supremacy over blacks. The number of lynchings that took place during Reconstruction and the decades that followed are impossible to count. Lynchings, however, are not the only way to sow fear among black people and prevent them from exercising their basic rights. Many African Americans accused of crimes had to rely on white paternalism to avoid harsh punishment. If they were able to appoint a white man of good standing in the community, the punishment they would receive for the crime would be much less than if he had no white man to vouch for him. Black dependence on whites was not the only method of systematic oppression used during Reconstruction. While Reconstruction provided blacks with many tools for advancement, such as the rise of black churches and schools, it also saw the rise of militias organized to prevent the ever-increasing number of African Americans from voting in elections. The KKK, White Line, and Red Shirts were all organizations that used fear, intimidation, and violence to promote white supremacy and sow fear among African Americans. Aside from lynchings and white supremacist groups, Reconstruction efforts to advance blacks in the South faced strong opposition from Democrats, even Northern Democrats, as well as Republicans. Instead of offering a compromise to Reconstruction, they flatly rejected it and called for "immediate amnesty for ex-Confederates and the restoration of the former Confederate States to their antebellum status."[2] They also opposed the Freedmen's Bureau, a government agency intended to help southern blacks adjust to a free life after the Civil War. In addition to Democratic opposition to reconstruction efforts, Republicans also disagreed over how reconstruction should be carried out. Their main goal after the war was to strengthen their own party as much as possible and rebuild the economy. As Fellman says in the manual, "one of the main reasons they supported black suffrage was to support Southern Republicans."[3] However, when they realized that very few southerners supported widespread black suffrage, they quickly left this issue aside. Reconstruction efforts aimed at equalizing African Americans..