Social Changes in the South after the Civil War - Essay Example

One of these groups was the Ku Klux Klan. This group began as a pro-American group but quickly decided that pro-white American was the real purpose of their organization. Changes in society in the North have occurred also. The northern abolitionist groups, having achieved their goals, found new topics to focus their energies upon. Coupled with the religious fervor of the Second Great Awakening, these groups attacked the many ills they saw in society. Specifically, the temperance movement and the women suffrage movement became prominent forces for social change after the Civil War.

The status of women in society began to change as well. In the North and South, most members of a society of both sexes felt that a woman's primary responsibility was to her family and within her own home (Clinton 1999). But a growing number of women believed that this primary responsibility should not prevent them from enjoying the same civil liberties as men, especially in regards to voting. Women's voices began to be heard in more prominent ways after the civil warWork CitedCatherine Clinton.

The Other Civil War: American Women in the Nineteenth Century. Macmillan, 1999Faust, Drew Gilpin. Reconstruction: The Second Civil War. Public Broadcasting System, 2003 < http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reconstruction/kkk/sf_klan.html>