Reconstruction had drastically varying levels of effects on ex-confederates and freedmen. After the civil war ended the United States had to reintegrate both a formerly slave population and a formerly rebellious population back into the country. Under Andrew Johnson, the guiding reconstruction principle was that the South never had a right to secede in the first place. Under such a mentality, as long as ex-confederates peacefully joined the union, there was little or no punishment for their transgressions. Between 1865 and 1867 Johnson appointed provisional governors and ordered them to call state conventions to establish new all-white governments "To represent them, they chose former Confederates" (Roark, 428). These newly constructed …show more content…
The system of sharecropping replaced slavery in many places throughout the South. Landowners would provide housing, and tools to the share croppers and in return, sharecroppers received a share of their crop. The amount to be earned by freedmen was established by the landowners, and they had little to no opportunity for social or economic mobility. Sharecropping for the freedmen, especially in areas where Black Codes were enforced, result in a kind of serfdom that tied workers to the land they did not own "[a]t the core of the black codes... [l]egislators sought to hustle freedmen back to the plantations" (Roark, 428). Displeased by the results of reconstructed south mimicking the pre-Civil war system, Republicans in Congress, they took the lead in reconstruction after 1867. Radical Republicans felt the war had been fought for equal rights and wanted to see the powers of the national government expanded. The aforementioned Black Codes were a primary source of inequality as "many ways in which the rights of "freedom" were abridged" (Cobbs, 3). In an unionized effort, this lead to the passing of the civil rights bill which defined persons born in the United States as citizens and established nationwide equality before the law of
After the Civil War, America went through a period of Reconstruction. This was when former Confederate states were readmitted to the Union. Lincoln had a plan that would allow them to come back, but they wouldn’t be able to do it easily. He would make 10% of the population swear an oath of loyalty and establish a government to be recognized. However, he was assassinated in Ford’s Theater and Andrew Johnson became the president; Johnson provided an easy path for Southerners. Congress did their best to ensure equal rights to freedmen, but failed because of groups who were against Reconstruction, white southern Democrats gaining control within the government and the lack of having a plan in place for recently freedmen.
Reconstruction could be considered one of the largest projects ever undertaken. The mess that was the south, left in the ruins of a bloody war, called for drastic measures. The inquisition that begs to be asked is whether or not this venture was a success. Unfortunately the answer isn't as simple as "yes" or "no". Although many promises were broken, the much-debated goals of Reconstruction are still present in the minds of today's leaders as we continue to rebuild our country.
Former slave owners needed a way to get cheap labor, and the black population needed farmable land, labor, and money. This conflict resulted in a practice called sharecropping, sharecropping is a system where black laborers would rent farm land from former owners in exchange for a certain amount of crops at the end of the year: a swindling process that would be detrimental to the black farming community. Sharecropping increased the black community’s reliance on their former owner’s farm land, and this harmed the southern economy greatly: sharecropping made the south rely more on cotton and agriculture just as the price of these goods was decreasing further harming the economy. While the black community gained individual freedom from their owners in their daily lives they still had to repay at the end of the year, this was hard to do considering the cost of seeds, tools, and food for yourself. Sharecropping increased dependency in all the wrong places on all the wrong things, free slaves needed new land and independence from their former owners and sharecropping did the exact opposite.
Following Lincoln’s tragic assassination, President Andrew Johnson took on the accountability of making Reconstruction a reality. Andrew Johnson wanted to use Lincoln’s ideas of reconstruction but in a modified form. Since Congress would be in recess for eight more months Johnson decided to go ahead with his plan. Johnson's goal in reconstruction was to grant amnesty to all former Confederates (except high officials), the ordinances of secession were to be revoked, Confederate debts would repudiate, and the states had to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment. Once the states swore to a loyalty oath to abide by the conditions they would be allowed to return to the Union. After swearing to the oath Confederate States would be allowed to govern themselves. With this power the states implemented the creation of a system of black codes that restricted the actions of freed slaves in much the same way, if not exactly the same way, that slaves were restricted under the old law. The end result of his plan was a hopeless conflict with the Radical Republicans who dominated Congress, passed measures over Johnson's vetoes, and attempted to limit the power of the executive concerning appointments and removals.
... The cause was forfeited not by Republicans, who welcomed the African-American votes, but to the elite North who had concluded that the formal end of slavery was all the freed man needed and their unpreparedness for the ex-slaves to participate in the Southern commonwealth was evident. Racism, severe economic depression, an exhausted North and troubled South, and a campaign of organized violence toward the freed man, overturned Reconstruction. The North withdrew the last of the federal troops with the passing of The Compromise of 1877. The freed slaves continued to practice few voting rights until 1890, but they were soon stripped of all political, social and economic powers. Not until the civil rights movement in the 1950’s and 1960’s were the freedoms that were fought for by our Republican forefathers nearly 100 years before, finally seen through to fruition.
Reconstruction efforts were paralyzed by the Republicans after the death of Lincoln. The Republicans were many capitalists originating the North. Their actions were principally geared towards overthrowing the black leadership in South and retain the white sovereignty that existed before. The Southern whites did not defend the blacks instead backed the northern capitalists in the mission of transforming black government in South to White state (Foner Par
The era of Reconstruction had intended to mend the problems resulting from the American Civil War. Unfortunately, southern Radicalists made enormous efforts to prevent this as they believed in white supremacy. These Radicalists did not want to permit African Americans the ability to vote however they were forced to when accepting readmission into the Union under the Fourteenth Amendment. To counter this, these confederates created "Black Codes" to ensure racial segregation and even forged white supremacy organizations. All of these events along with Republican scandals led to the inevitable failure of the Reconstruction era.
The primary sources I selected to write about have do with the horrible years of the Reconstruction Period, how freedom for former slaves was a huge issue and debate across the whole nation, especially the south because of the views slave holders had. From these primary sources we see what former slave holders had to say about their views on the freedom of slaves, and the views of former slaves as well on freedom and the sacrifices and pain they had to go through to be where they are at today.
William Mason Grosvenor believes that Reconstruction should be harsh. Grosvenor has two main arguments to support this belief, manifest destiny and the potential for the reoccurrence of a similar event to the war if Reconstruction was carried out in a lenient manner. Grosvenor argues that the country, pre-Civil War, was never truly a single unified country, but rather a group of peoples with vastly different values held together by a constitution which they had outgrown, saying, “[n]o chemical union had ever taken place; for that the white-hot crucible of civil war was found necessary.” Furthermore, Grosvenor believes that the succession of the South demonstrated this divide while simultaneously violating the doctrine of manifest destiny through
The Americans of African and European Ancestry did not have a very good relationship during the Civil war. They were a major cause of the Civil War. But, did they fix or rebuild that relationship after the war from the years 1865 to 1900? My opinion would be no. I do not believe that the Americans of African and European ancestry successfully rebuilt their relationship right after the Civil war. Even though slavery was finally slowly getting abolished, there was still much discrimination against the African Americans. The Jim Crow laws and the black codes discriminated against black people. The Ku Klux Klan in particular discriminated against black people. Even though the United States government tried to put laws into the Constitution to protect black people, the African Americans were discriminated in every aspect of life from housing, working, educating, and even going to public restrooms!
However, this was not good enough for Congress, which at the time was dominated by Radical Republicans who fervently called for social and economic change in the south, specifically the rights of blacks. They were especially concerned with guaranteeing black civil and voting rights, and criticized Lincoln for excluding this in the original plan for Reconstruction. After Lincoln’s death in 1865, Andrew Johnson turned Reconstruction on its head. He made several changes to the Reconstruction policy, nearly cutting Congress completely off from the process. Johnson began putting white supremacists in power of the Reconstruction government.
As a nation, America has faced some troublesome times through her life span. As history goes on, people never forget about the Reconstruction era. Reconstruction was refers to the efforts made in the United State between 1865 and 1877. As the saying goes, ¨All good things must come to an end¨ which is exactly the case. The reputation Reconstruction has is labeled both a success and a failure.
By the 1870s Reconstruction had made some progress to provide the former slaves with equal rights under the law, including the right to vote, and with education to achieve literacy. During Reconstruction, most states in the South established public education, although funding was variable. However, much of the initial progress towards equal rights was rolled back between 1873 and 1877, when conservative whites (calling themselves "Redeemers") took power throughout the former Confederacy. In 1877 President Rutherford Hayes withdrew federal troops, causing the collapse of the remaining three Republican state governments. Through the enactment of Jim Crow laws and through extralegal means, the Redeemers subsequently enforced a system of racial segregation which stayed in place throughout the South into the 1960s.
Reconstruction was intended to give African-Americans the chance for a new and better life. Many of them stayed with their old masters after being freed, while others left in search of opportunity through education as well as land ownership. However this was not exactly an easy task. There were many things standing in their way, chiefly white supremacists and the laws and restrictions they placed upon African-Americans. Beginning with the 'black codes' established by President Johnson's reconstruction plan, blacks were required to have a curfew as well as carry identification. Labor contracts established under Johnson's Reconstruction even bound the 'freedmen' to their respective plantations. A few years later, another set of laws known as the 'Jim Crow' laws directly undermined the status of blacks by placing unfair restrictions on everything from voting rights all the way to the segregation of water fountains. Besides these restrictions, the blacks had to deal with the Democratic Party whose northern wing even denounced racial equality. As a result of democratic hostility and the Republican Party's support of Black suffrage, freedmen greatly supported the Republican Party.
William Howard Russell once said, "Little did I conceive of the greatness of the defeat, the magnitude of the disaster which it had entailed upon the United States. So short-lived has been the American Union, that men who saw it rise may live to see it fall.” At one point in History, the United States was not one nation. The Civil War had created many issues for the United States and the country was desperate for a solution. This solution was thought to be reconstruction. Reconstruction was the attempt from the early 60's until the late 70's to resolve the issues of the war after slavery was dismissed and the Confederacy was defeated. Reconstruction also attempted to address how states would again become part of the Union, the status of Confederate leaders, and the status of African Americans across the United States.