As the civil war started to end, many decisions during this time period led to a revolution that would change the nation forever. After the victory of the civil war, there was a period of reconstruction, which was an attempt to reunite the north and south whiling fixing what needs to be fixed. Abraham Lincoln, who was elected president in 1861, announced The Emancipation Proclamation of 1862 which was meant to end slavery in the United States, The 13th Amendment was essentially to abolish slavery and involuntary servitude in the U.S., except in the case when it’s needed for punishment It was passed by the congress and ratified in 1865. 14th Amendment was another law in which it benefited the blacks in the country. It granted citizenship …show more content…
to everyone born in the United States, and it also included freed slaves. And The 15th Amendment granted male African- American’s the right to vote. In 1865, the Lincoln Assassination happened on April 14th.
Lincoln was fatally shot at a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer and famous actor. This led to Andrew Jackson’s presidency. After the war, slaves were freed but they needed guidance to begin their new life. Freedmen’s Bureau was an act in which it helped former black slaves and whites who were in poverty. It was initiated by Congress in 1865. Due to the war, south's plantations and various communities were completely destroyed. This bureau supplied basic necessities, like food, a place to live, medical aid, organized schools and legal support. Yet the bureau wasn’t thoroughly in action by cause of deficiency in personnel and fundings, as well as reconstruction. The bureau was eventually shut down in 1872. In 1863 (during the Civil War) conscription laws were passed by the Congress. The Union, which was the north, and the Confederate, which was the south, were in need of volunteers to fight in war, but since that didn’t function well these laws were passed. Men from ages 20 to 40 were mandated to go to war and serve for their side. Those who don’t go to war or find a substitute would pay a fine of $300. This led to New York Draft Riots in 1863 because wealthy U.S. citizens would be able to get out of the draft, while the poor/middle class were forced. 1,115 people were killed in this very brutal
riot. This is the era where women speak up for themselves and purification. A group called the National Woman’s Christian Temperance took a stand on limiting the alcohol in the nation. They believed that alcohol leads to nothing but domestic abuse, so they revolted against the owners of saloons. The leader of the group was Frances Willard. Due to the outcome of the war the southerners were agitated, so the whites assembled into several groups to terrorize both white and blacks in the south. One of these societies was the Ku Klux Klan founded in 1866. It was an underground group who dressed in a white robe, a mask, and a white conelike hat. They would murder, beat. lynch, and whip every black person or whites who voted or who are involved in schooling with no exceptions. In addition to the Ku Klux Klan, Ulysses Grant created the Enforcement Acts, or the Ku Klux Klan Act during the reconstruction period. These acts were meant to actualize the amendments in the Constitution and black’s right to hold office, serve the government/jurries, and the right to vote. The Pony Express was the first ever mail system from the midwest to California founded by William H. Russell and others in 1860. It was needed for faster communication to the west. These men rode on horses across a 2000-mile track, there were 80 riders and 400-500 horses. After 19 months it got shut down due to the invention of the Pacific Telegraph Line.
Whites never gave total freedom to African Americans. Blacks were forced to endure curfews, passes, and living on rented land, which put them in a similar situation as slaves. In 1866, the KKK started a wave of violence and abuse against negroes in the south, destroying their properties, assaulting and killing them in different ways, just because angry white people do not want the blacks to stand up and join in political or any kind of issues or freedom. The Fourteenth Amendment did surely constitute the biggest development of government force following the approval of the Constitution.
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.
...dom and right to vote established by the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, blacks were still oppressed by strong black codes and Jim Crow laws. The federal government created strong legislation for blacks to be helped and educated, but it was ineffective due to strong opposition. Although blacks cried out to agencies, such as the Freemen's Bureau, declaring that they were "in a more unpleasant condition than our former" (Document E), their cries were often overshadowed by violence.
The Civil War marked a defining moment in United States history. Long simmering sectional tensions reached critical when eleven slaveholding states seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. Political disagreement gave way to war as the Confederates insisted they had the right to leave the Union, while the loyal states refused to allow them to go. Four years of fighting claimed almost 1.5 million casualties, resulting in a Union victory. Even though the North won the war, they did a horrible job in trying to win the peace, or in other words, the Reconstruction era. Rather than eliminating slavery in the South, the Southerners had a new form of slavery, which was run by a new set of codes called "Black Codes”. With the help of President Johnson, the South continued their plantations, in essence becoming exactly what they were before the war. Overall, the South won Reconstruction because in the end they got slavery (without the name), they got an easy pass back into the Union, and things reverted back to the way they had been prior the war.
The Civil War was period of change in American history. Following the warfare, congress established a federal agency named the Freedmen’s Bureau to facilitate the freed people’s transition from slavery to freedom. Southern blacks encountered the worst chaos, displacement, illnesses, poverty and epidemics, which were limiting to the bureaus successes during reconstruction (Finley 2013, 82). During the war, lack of basic needs and medicine hindered the efforts of improving economic social and political freedom. As a result, the Freedmen’s Bureau was designed to help black southerners transition from slavery to freedom. The challenges faced during this transition were enormous, as the civil war had ruined the region completely. The farms faced destruction during the war and huge amounts of capital depleted in the war. When the civil war ended, the social order of the region was chaotic and slave owners as well as their former slaves were forced to interact socially in a different way than before (Finley 2012, 82). The Freedmen’s Bureau was a unique effort by the federal government to improve the social wellbeing of the American nation. Major General Oliver Howard headed the Free...
The Civil war was possibly the greatest tragedy that this country had ever faced. Years of constant arguing, compromises and cynical ideas about slavery pushed this so called "United Nation" into an atrocious collision between the Northern abolitionists and the Southern proslavery farmers and plantation owners. The nation suffered enormous losses economically and went into a downward spiral. The reconstruction period began with many leaders stepping up to try and fix this crippled country, but it didn't turn out like everyone hoped. Slavery was still the largest issue and the reconstruction halted because of the disagreements the people faced. After many years of working, compromising and passing laws, the task proved itself to be impossible, as the country remained to be separated. The lack of unity was present because most of the amendments, laws and rules passed during reconstruction were created to protect and ensure the rights of African Americans. However the South continued to promote slavery and "putting blacks in their place" until the 1950's.
The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments are the amendments adopted to the United States Constitution after the Civil War. In succession, these amendments were adopted to the Constitution. Thirteenth Amendment The 13th amendment was adopted speedily in the aftermath of the Civil War, with the simple direct purpose of forbidding slavery anywhere in the United States. The 13th Amendment took authority away from the states, so that no state could institute slavery, and it attempted to constitutionally grant the natural right of liberty. Thought that this amendment would suffice, Congressional Republicans pushed the amendment through.
After the Civil War there was a problem on how freed people would survive. The ex-slaves after the Civil War didn’t have a place to settle or money. They had no skills other than farming to procure jobs so they couldn’t earn money. Freedmen’s Bureau provided shelter, resources, an education, and taught necessary skills to get jobs (Jordan 386).
President Andrew Johnson did not support it, but his veto was overridden. After the bill passed he refused to enforce the law in the South, causing little effect. On top of President Johnson’s lack of approval, it was undermined by anti-black organizations, and it helped women and Native Americans even less than it did for African Americans. Native Americans were excluded from being considered citizens even if they were born in the United States. Women gained the right to make and enforce contracts, purchase land, and more, but they were not given the right to vote for another fifty years. In theory this act should have resulted in better treatment of African American because it was making them separate but equal to white people, but in reality when it was put in action it did not follow through with its original intentions. Much like the in 1866, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was followed by incidents of resistance and violence, but despite the proceedings this act declared that all citizens despite race, sex, religion, or national origin were not to be discriminated against. Within the first few weeks, segregated establishments were open to black patrons, and Jim Crow laws were starting to end. The laws giving minorities their civil rights were being enforced. This bill not only encompassed African Americans, but it gave women more opportunities. By 1924 Native Americans
Reconstruction is the period of rebuilding the south that succeeded the Civil War (1861-1865). This period of time is set by the question now what? The Union won the war and most of the south was destroyed. Devastation, buildings turned into crumbles and lost crops. The South was drowning in poverty. To worsen the situation there were thousands of ex-slaves that were set free by the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13 Amendment. "All these ex-slaves", Dr. Susan Walens commented, "and no place to put them," The ex-slaves weren't just homeless but they had no rights, unlike white man. The government and congress had to solve the issues present in the south and the whole nation in order to re-establish the South. These issues were economical, social and political. The United States had presidential and congressional reconstruction. Reconstruction was a failure, a great attempt to unify the nation. It was a failure due to the events that took place during this period.
Reconstruction is known as the period after the Civil war. The whole country was separated in two, people didn’t know what to do, the south was completely destroyed, and there were a lot of decisions to be made by the president. It lasted four years, and there was over half a million casualties between the union (North) and the confederate states (South). The north was declared the winner of the war after General Lee surrender in the Appomattox court house on April 9, 1865. The causes of the war was the secession of several southern states, they argued that it was up to them and it was in their rights to decide whether they should make slavery legal or illegal in their own boundaries. But the Union had other things in mind, the union wanted to decide whether or not the states were going to have slaves. This was just to make sure the country was equal on slavery and non-slavery on both sides, but states thought the union was abusing their power and being too strict on them, and that is when they decided to secede. The first state to secede was south Carolina, then they were followed by six other states, among those states were Florida, Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. These states got together and created the confederate states of America in February 4, 1861, and the president was Jefferson Davis, they also made a government similar to the one of the U.S. Constitution.
Reconstruction was the time period following the Civil War, which lasted from 1865 to 1877, in which the United States began to rebuild. The term can also refer to the process the federal government used to readmit the defeated Confederate states to the Union. While all aspects of Reconstruction were not successful, the main goal of the time period was carried out, making Reconstruction over all successful. During this time, the Confederate states were readmitted to the Union, the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments were ratified, and African Americans were freed from slavery and able to start new lives.
The 14th Amendment greatly expanded the protection of civil rights to all Americans and is cited in more litigation than any other Amendment.” The Amendment changed for a lot of US citizens, some people disagreed with it and some agreed. The Amendment was originally intended to protect the legal rights of the freed slaves. The House of Representatives passed the Amendment by a vote of one hundred forty four to forty four on February 25, 1869.
After the conclusion of the Civil War that ended in 1865, slavery was abolished and of course with the victory from the Union, America was now a nation again. Although America was together as one, still, the north and the south had different views of approaching the way of life regarding to “ex-slaves”. During the post war, it lead America to a time called the Reconstruction era(1863-1877) where mainly the southern states of America learned to refigure out their new lifestyles without owning slaves. As you can imagine after losing a war, the former Confederates faced many problems during the aftermath of the battles. Families were lost and destroyed, the southern lands were a state of chaos due to the massive destruction of the fighting, emancipation of slaves occurred, money was lost due to their property being destroyed, and of course,
Even though they were proclaimed as free, their place is society remained unaffected. Although Congress did not succeed in guaranteeing black suffrage, which was one of its original intentions during Reconstruction, it did begin the process of rebuilding the South. Reconstruction modernized Southern law codes, created more equal Congressional districts, a fairer tax system, and a public school system. What it failed to do was give freedmen social or legal equality, and protect them from white violence and oppression. By refusing to deal with land reform, the plan helped the rise of the share cropping system, and by failing to guarantee state rights, it paved the way for segregation. It was challenging for an African American farmer to be able to own and farm his own land, and eventually the land was given back to former confederates who swore allegiance to the United States, while the unclaimed land was auctioned to the