Reconstruction was a time after the Civil War focused on rebuilding the country, mainly in the South as that is where most of the battle was fought. This 12-year period of reconstruction lasted from 1865 to 1877 where it not only focused on building cities and towns but restoring equality and unity between all the people. Many groups, such as the high-ranking Confederates who wanted to stay separated, tried to lead reconstruction. But for the Radical Republicans, civil equality for the freedmen was the main goal for them. Furthermore, equality for previously enslaved people was a major part of reconstruction, ensuring that they had equal political, economic, and social equality. Even though the major efforts of reconstruction they ultimately failed …show more content…
Ultimately, their attempts to achieve economic equality, they shut down due to a lack of funding and racism. Showing that even a valiant effort could not persist through the major racism and attempts to stop it in the South. In the end, African Americans were not able to achieve economic equality. The 14th Amendment was passed to give African Americans equal rights and protection against the government. This amendment was added to the Constitution in 1866 as an attempt to grant Freedmen equal rights. In Document B we can see that the 14th Amendment states, “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws”. Showing that equal rights were at one point in time allowed, with no consequences. This was great at the time until white supremacy groups started to pop up, these racist groups were created to try and prevent African Americans from getting these rights granted by the 14th
1868 marked a proud year for African Americans with the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment to Constitution. It proclaimed that “no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”1 This essentially color blinded government, and granted all citizens (a category which finally included African Americans) what is described in the document as indisputable equality.
From the beginning of the Civil War all the way up to the end of Reconstruction, the United States endured a similar type of revolution than it had dealt with in the previous years. In this time, many social and constitutional advancements brought about great change and discord in the country. However, some of these constitutional developments ended up causing conflict such as the civil rights bills and Emancipation Proclamation, in addition to the social developments such as the Black Codes, Ku Klux Klan, and the Freedman’s Bureau. All together, these important events helped put the country into a revolution.
Reconstruction was the rebuilding after the war. The Reconstruction period lasted from 1865-1877. Reconstruction was not only the physical rebuilding but also the “political, economic, and social changes” (Berkin, Cherny, Gormly, Miller, 2013, 417). The stages of Reconstruction were the Presidential Reconstruction, Freedom and the Legacy of Slavery, Congressional Reconstruction and Black Reconstruction. Reconstruction started off as a success. It united the United States. States that succeeded from the union had made new constitutions and accepted the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments.
The Reconstruction has been killed! Who’s to blame, the North or South? The Northern neglect stopped Reconstruction because of neglect and racism. At the time the Reconstruction ended, the Declaration of Independence became one hundred years old in 1876 (Background Essay, Paragraph 1). Another important event that occurred was the election of 1876 for the new president. It was Rutherford B. Hayes against Samuel J. Tilden. The election caused talk of a new Civil War but then the Compromise of 1877 gave Hayes presidency. Rutherford B. Hayes became the new president at the time the Reconstruction was coming to an end (Background Essay, Paragraph 4). The presidential election did not help the Reconstruction at all. It destroyed American dream for the black people who were in the South (Background Essay, Paragraph 1).
Right after the civil war, one of the most controversial elections in american history took place. In the election of 1872 tilden had 184 electoral votes, and hayes had 165 electoral votes out of the 185 electoral votes needed, but hayes had the popular vote and 20 votes were still undisputed. Since no one could decide who should be the president they came up with the compromise of 1877 which said that the democrats would let hayes be the president if the government agreed to remove the troops from the south. They accepted the compromise.
After the defeat of the Confederate States of America by the Union in the Civil War of 1865 the United States of America entered the Reconstruction period. America entered the Reconstruction period in hopes to help rebuild the South after the Civil War. As Republicans entered the reconstruction period they began to write terms on which the South could join the Union once again. They also began to describe the rights of the freed slaves. The Reconstruction period established many challenges that the freed slaves had to endure but it also helped to give millions of slaves their freedom and freed slaves began to get more rights. Many Southerners did not agree with this and it led to some conflicts. There were many changes in the Southern lifestyle due to Reconstruction.
From 1865 to 1877, reconstruction occurred. Reconstruction was the period following the Civil War in which Congress passed laws meant to rebuild the country and bring southern states back into the Union. For Radical Republicans, this period was an opportunity to finally grant civil rights to the freedmen. Therefore, the major goal of this time period was to ensure African Americans were given political, social, and economic rights that were originally taken away and to have these rights protected. In the end, Reconstruction was not successful because it did not grant African Americans political, social, and economic equality.
Reconstruction had lasted around fourteen years through the years of 1863 to 1877. The purpose of Reconstruction was to get rid of the Confederate forces from the governments and to arrange that the civil rights set the African Americans were respected. It was seen as a failure because the north was not successful when they wanted to repair the south and bring it to the Union. When Reconstruction was going on the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments were established. The thirteenth amendment was approved in 1865 to revoke slavery; the fourteenth amendment was approved in 1868 to process and protect the judgements that were appropriate for all of the people; and the fifteenth amendment was approved in 1870 to forbid discrimination in voting rights on the basis of people’s race and color. There were a lot of different opinions whether Reconstruction had any positive or negative as its results.
In 1860, blacks were enslaved in the south. By 1877, blacks were legally allowed to vote and have all the rights afforded to any white man. The first major change to blacks’ rights was made by the thirteenth amendment. It abolished slavery in the United States; however it left blacks in a limbo between slaves and citizens. Some government officials, such as Gideon Welles, disagreed with the federal government dealing with civil rights. Contrary to their wishes, the next change came from the fourteenth amendment, which established blacks as full citizens. This was much to the delight of blacks who fought for the Un...
The Civil War was a very brutal time yet what came after was even more tragic. It was called Reconstruction. . Reconstruction means to re-build. After the Civil War, which occurred between the years 1861-1865, most of America wanted to re-build and preserve the Union. The Reconstruction era did not last though. Both the North and the South played roles in destroying the Reconstruction though the South played a bigger role in killing it. The South had a bigger impact on killing the Reconstruction because of things the Ku Klux Klan did and how the southern states were formed their government.
Reconstruction was a major changing point in people’s views of freedom, because it presented the very idea of freedom for more than just white males and laid the foundation for other movements to follow. It occurred after the Civil War from 1865 to its official end in 1877. It originated primarily out of necessity. The government needed a plan to deal with all the now freed African Americans and the once confederate states rejoining the union. The Republican Party backed it though they themselves could not agree on an official plan. Several plans emerged, but in the end, it was a hodgepodge of each plan put together. Several historians would probably argue that reconstruction fail...
The Reconstruction Era started at the end of the Civil War, from 1865 to 1877. Its main goal was to make the southern states a part of the Union again, which would ensure slaves would get rights and opinions towards them would change. Reconstruction is a long and hard process. The Reconstruction Era had many accomplishments that were made possible by various leaders. Congress established the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery for good.
It is generally assumed that the Reconstruction period of the United States failed. This era, which lasted from the end of the Civil War to the election of Rutherford B. Hayes, saw three amendments to the Constitution, two Civil Rights Acts, and the “enfranchisement of the black man”. (Frederick Douglass, 1865) Reconstruction was necessary to rebuild the South’s economy, and welcome states back into the Union. While it succeeded in legally uniting all the states, civil matters were not so easily influenced. Slavery, for example, was abolished during the Civil War due to Abraham Lincoln’s war powers. Over the next decade, three amendments were passed through Congress to protect the rights of these freedmen. Congress, at this time, was held
Prior to the Civil War, African Americans were treated as second-class citizens, lacking the freedom and equality they sought for and believing the Civil War to be a war of abolition. However, contradictory to what African Americans perceived, reconstruction following the civil war was not successful in changing the lives of their former social statues. Still facing difficulties and having fewer rights than white people, the passing of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, focused on giving African Americans equal protection under law. Although the newly freedmen gained various rights and liberties, their naïve delusion of complete equality and freedom crumbled due to the tremendous resistance of white America.
Reconstruction took place after the end of the civil war. The reason for reconstruction was to put the union back together and free the slaves once and for all. Reconstruction took three eras to be completed. The first was Lincoln, the second Andrew Johnson, and the third was the Congressional “hard plan.”