The Reconstruction Act was an immediate response after the Civil War to try and rebuild the United States. Although the military conflicts were over the Reconstruction was in many ways still considered a war. The important struggle was how the radical northerners wanted to punish the south and the southerners who desperately just wanted to preserve their way of life. The federal government outlawed slavery with the 13th amendment, defined citizenship and protected the americans with the 14th amendment, and extended suffrage to all men by adding the 15th amendment. These amendments required southern states to accept them in order to be readmitted into the Union. Although these were great steps towards racial equality, the enforcement of these rights was very difficult. The Reconstruction Act was a success due to it’s ability to restore the United States as a unified nation. The Confederacy was …show more content…
destroyed for good, and all the states that had seceded were readmitted into the the Union. By 1877 all of the confederate states drafted new constitutions and liked the ideas of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments and also pledged their loyalty to the US government. Many businessmen opened up new industries like steel, cotton, and lumber mills to improve the economy and open up jobs for African Americans. Many African Americans also worked for their local economies to work for equal rights to create schools, hospitals, and railroads. The Reconstruction Act also put an end to all the disputes between the states rights and the federalism debate, which had been an issue since the 1790’s. Although the Reconstruction Era was very successful.
It brought many problems with it causing it to fail, mainly because of the white’s resistance against the blacks. The southern whites or the “confederates” were very uncooperative with new laws passed by the blacks or the yankees. Many groups were formed to revolt against these people. The biggest group that many of us know today, the Ku Klux Klan, who emerged to maintain white dominance and intimidate black voters or any white people that supported them. As soon as the former confederates earned their right to vote again they began to undo most of the social and economic reforms through a systematic process in an effort to undo the Reconstruction and restore it to the Old South. They passed laws stating that the 14th and 15th amendments only applied for African Americans at the federal level. Although the Radical Republicans worked for years to try and restore and secure the equal rights, that changed in 1874. Under the Democratic leadership, many of the Reconstruction programs were hurt or eliminated
completely. Even after the Reconstruction amendments were added to the constitution, African Americans still had to fight for their rights as American citizens. There were laws that the whites came up with against the African American people. Black Codes, which prohibited them from voting or participating in any sort of jury duty. It also limited their rights to testify against white southerners and prevented them from working in most job workforces. They also created the Jim Crow Laws which made it legal to separate the whites from the colored in every public place. The African American people hated these laws and other felt as if they weren’t even considered to be legal American citizens.
One of the first things that happened was that groups organized to intimidate people into going against Reconstruction. One such group was the Ku Klux Klan who went around anonymously to commit acts of atrocity to those who supported Reconstruction and equal rights for African Americas. Document 2 proves that they were totally against it; it says their purpose was to “establish a nucleus around which “the adherents of the late rebellion might safely rally”.” This just shows that they were not going to accept the reformation of the South and they wanted to find as many supporters as they could. As it is known, they threatened people at polls into voting for the groups that supported their views and that caused the elections to be swayed. Document 4 is another proof of the fact that some people refused to accept Reconstruction. “Let there be White Leagues formed in every town….time to meet brute-force with brute-force….it is time for us to organize.” These groups terrorized the people and made them afraid to show their...
In order to unite the nation, intense dispute had aroused. Through various laws both African Americans and ex-Confederates were affected by the reconstruction period. Although the Reconstruction Era had gained a negative legacy, the ratification of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were a breakthrough in the life of African Americans. The continuous development of polices was to reach the intended goal that the Reconstruction Era was sought for, to unify the United States of
In conclusion, Reconstruction failed for the freedmen for a variety of reasons. I believe the main reason for this failure was the inability for the two political parties to agree on what they wanted to achieve. Did they want total freedom for the freed slaves, only partial freedom, or just the rebuilding that issue coupled with unpopularity, the freedman’s culture being rooted in the south, and the freed slaves’ inability to find work outside of the south resulted in a process that took over a century to work successfully. I feel that it is very unfortunate that President Lincoln was killed so shortly after the end of the Civil War. I believe that since Reconstruction was Lincoln’s idea he would have carried it out more successfully than his successors did.
After the Civil War, America was in a lot of turmoil, especially in the southern states. A goal of the U.S was to bring the southern states back into the union and fix up all the physical damage that tore apart the south. Reconstruction had a couple main goals to bring America back together and that was to fix the southern states of all the damage that was done, explain how the southern states could be readmitted into the union, and also implement how whites and blacks could live together without slavery. Also during reconstruction, black and white teachers would help teach former slaves who were illiterate how to read and write. Thought the main goal of reconstruction was to rebuild America, there were three different plans on how America
There were many successes and failures of reconstruction in the south after the Civil War. Here are some of the positive and negative things that came out of reconstruction: Positive: the reunification of the union, Expansion of the South & North’s economy, More laws, Freedmen’s Bureau, Education, The compromise of 1877, and the Enforcement Act of 1870. Negative: Ku Klux Klan, Poverty, Sharecropping, and black codes.
The United States had a 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. It was 1865, black men were tasting freedom, the confederation was defeated, the south was defeated, but the unchained blacks had no real freedom. " A man maybe free and yet not independent," Mississippi planter Samuel Agnew observed in his diary (Foner 481).
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 has been brutally murdered! For a little over a decade after the Civil War, the victorious North launched a campaign of social, economic, and political recovery in South. Martial law was also implemented in the South. Eventually, the North hoped to admit the territory in the former Confederacy back into the United States as states. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments freed the African Americans, made them citizens, and gave them the right to vote. Despite this, Reconstruction was unfortunately cut short in 1877. The North killed Recosntruction because of racism, negligence, and distractions.
Because it was restrained by various social, economic, and political factors, Reconstruction was not successful in achieving its goals. It caused social strife to rival that under slavery, it failed to alleviate the economic burdens of the South, and it caused a political tension that would remain intact for nearly ninety years.
It was a time in American history that one could describe as “one step forward, two steps back”. We won a huge political battle; the abolition of slavery. At the same time, we were faced with the growing labor issues in the North, as industrialization changed the face of labor. The Union won the war on a physical and practical level but failed to change its root cause. It failed to change the attitudes of common southern society. Reconstruction was done while ignoring extremely pervasive southern values and ideals, and that is why I believe that reconstruction was, as I said, an era of “one step forward, two steps back.” The era of Reconstruction was a time in American history where the idea of a government by and for the people was ignored in favor of what the government thought was best for the people, while ignoring what the people were asking for.
The period of Reconstruction after the Civil War was successful because it brought the Confederate states back into the Union, which is what one definition of the term Reconstruction refers to, and it helped African Americans to experience aspects of life that they had never before been allowed to. Due to the ratification of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments, former slaves were able to start new lives for themselves with legal rights to defend their actions.
The Civil war could very easily be known as one of the greatest tragedies in United States history. After the Civil War, the people of The United States had so much anger and hatred towards each other and the government that 11 Southern states seceded from the Nation and parted into two pieces. The Nation split into either the Northern abolitionist or the Southern planation farmers. The Reconstruction era was meant to be exactly how the name announces it to be. It was a time for the United States to fix the broken pieces the war had caused allowing the country to mend together and unite once again. The point of Reconstruction was to establish unity between the states and to also create and protect the civil rights of the former slaves. Although Reconstruction failed in many aspects such as the upraise in white supremacy and racism, the reconstruction era was a time the United States took a lead in the direction of race equality.
On one hand the slaves were free, and on the other hand they were not given equal rights, and they were discriminated for the color of their skin tone. In other words, Reconstruction was a mixed success, which combined both positive and negative impacts. By the end of the era, the North and South were once again reunited, and all southern state legislatures had abolished slavery in their constitutions. However, it some sense, Reconstruction was a failure because blacks were not provided equal rights and opportunities. Racism and segregation did not end at all. On the other hand, there was a huge change to the country as the US was completely in a chaos stage during the civil war. Despite some obstructions, it can be concluded that the Reconstruction was somewhat beneficial for African American. As time passes, many schools and colleges were founded for blacks, and many other doors were opened to uplift their life. Overall, all these outcomes can be considered as a huge
With the end of the Civil war in 1865, the new nation of the United States now faced challenges on restoring peace within the Union. The North, having won the civil war, now faced the task to implement reconstruction of the South. They came in contact with the questions of: What should happen to the freed slaves, should the freed slaves have rights, what should be done to the Confederate leaders, and how should the South be reconstructed? There were many different ideas and views on how Reconstruction should be handled, but only one succeeded more successfully than the other. Although they bear some superficial similarities, the difference between presidential and congressional reconstruction are clear. The president believed that Confederate
The Reconstruction Act sparked great political activity among former slaves in the South, who held mass meetings, went on strike, and tried to desegregate public transportation.