Assignment Problem: Write two paragraphs on why you think the South was allowed to continue in such a violent fashion Post-Civil War. But, consider the word "allowed" here; was it allowed at all, or did the government and legislatures just think that South would eventually crumble into itself and essentially...burn itself out? (In my opinion, that would mean the Federal Government not stepping up because of their fear in riling the South up again.)
If indeed it was "allowed," was it due to the South's continued production through sharecropping and its help (monetarily) to society as a whole, or could it simply have been something such as their population/land mass? Remember, the South was just so large that it would have been almost impossible to enforce Jim Crow laws across the Reconstruction South. Also, think about this; could the aforementioned legislators or even the police force have been intertwined with their own Southern beliefs, so indiscretions went unreported? Basically, did people have Southern sympathies and think this is what they deserved? What do you think?