The Congressional Reconstruction Period

With the end of the civil war, brought the beginning of the Congressional Reconstruction period. Due to the end of the war, slavery came to an end and law changes in the federal and local governments. The reconstruction period was created after the war in an attempt to rebuild the south and its government. The Union victory may have given slaves freedom, nut during the reconstruction period the south overturned their rights. They begin taking away laws given to the slaves to gain control over them once again. They began creating new laws that prevented African-Americans from practicing their lawful rights as a citizen. With Lincoln assassination and the new presidential election, federal government during is often argued questionable. It is

often argued if the reconstruction period solved any of the problems within the south and a failure. It is also argued, that the Reconstruction period was a success because it helped revive the South and gave them power. The Reconstruction period failed for African-American’s but a success for the confederates. This period was a failure because it gave the south power and took away the rights of African American’s that would not change until over 70 years later with the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The first amendment proposed in the reconstruction period was the thirteenth amendment.

The thirteenth amendment was added in 1865, proposing that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except for punishment of a crime, shall be convicted within the United States”. This amendment protected African-Americans from being convicted of crimes, just because of the color of their skin and being a slave. African American were convicted many times before and during the war because they were slaves. Section 2 of the thirteenth amendment was proposed as well, which stated: “Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.” This section gave Congress the power over the amendment instead of the local state governments. African American’s after the war wanted a few issues resolved that would give them rights as citizens. One of the main issues, African-Americans wanted to resolve was their marriages being declared by the state officials. Before and during the war, many slaves hold their own marriage ceremonies but was not seen legal by the state. Another issue they wanted to resolve was the right of education for their children. Slaves were originally not allowed to learn how to read and write or be educated in any way. They did not want slaves to have an education because it would make them equal to them. A freed Mississippi slave stated, “I shall give my children a chance to go to school, For I consider education, the next best ting to Liberty”. Many slaves believed that education was the only way they would be seen as citizen’s Slaves also wanted more housing and opportunities across the South. Also, before the war slaves were not allowed in any place other than their slave owner plantations. After the war, local governments gave slaves forty acres and a mule, which helped freedmen get their own housing. When it comes to jobs after the war, slaves wanted more labor opportunities in the south. The industry of sharecropping rose after the

war due to slaves not have many skills outside farm work. Jobs for sharecropping became available throughout the southern states for African-Americans. Cotton production began to steadily pick up as jobs in the south became available.

The United States Bureau of Refugees, Freedman, and Abandoned Lands are known as the Freedman ‘s Bureau, was created in 1865 by congress to help provide for poor black and white people. The bureau provided food, housing, health care and schools for them. The bureau eventually broke off due to lack of funds and an understaffed team of only 800 agents. White southerners opposed of the Bureau because it helped African-Americans become equal to them. The southerners had a major influence on the final decision of Congress letting go of the bureau. The federal government wanted to keep peace within the nation, ceasing the bureau would keep the south and nation together. Following the end of the bureau, the Fourteenth amendment was added into the constitution in 1868. The fourteenth amendment declared “All persons born in the United States, are citizens of the United States.” The amendment proposes that no state is allowed to enforce any law that cut privileges in the United States.” This amendment declared that no slaves could not be prevented by the laws of the state. It also stated they could not take their “life, liberty or property without any association with the law.” The next amendment proposed shortly after was the fifteenth amendment in 1870. The amendment stated, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote cannot be denied in the United States by any state due to race, color, or previous servitude." This gave African-Americans the right to vote in any state without local government officials interfering in because of their race and earlier servitude.

On March 4, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln deliver a speech at his Second Inauguration that stated “Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war and not let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish.” Lincoln statement showed how the Union wanted to protect the nation, while the Confederate just wanted to create war and let the nation die. The Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction a plan constructed by the president, excused those engaged in the rebellion and plans that address the needs for slaves. The radical republican party issued the Wade-Davis bill in 1864, that set new policies in the congress. The two new policies were proposed in the plan to have an order in the beginning of the reconstruction period. The policies stated that fifty percent must take part in an oath of loyalty and that the states must enfranchise African-Americans.

White southerners began reconstructing the south themselves by creating new laws that would gain them political power back. Southerners could not accept African-Americans who were once their slaves would be equivalent to them in their own territory. They began referring northerners who moved to the south as carpetbaggers to intimidate and push them out of the South. A carpetbagger was a northerner who moved South and was often middle class, seeking employment and they also supported African-Americans. They also began intimidating lower class farmers who stayed loyal to the union as scalawags. The South created and begin enforcing black codes throughout the Confederate states. The Mississippi Black Code stated that “all freedmen in this state, over the age of eighteen, found without lawful employment anytime or anybody associated with freedmen would be convicted or fine.” These codes restricted African Americans from any activity besides labor work since slavery was officially abolished. Historian William Dunning stated that “the black codes were an honest attempt to restore aid in the South.” While Civil rights Activist W.E.B Dubois argued that “black codes were the south’s way of avoiding any consequence.” He also argued that “the codes denied every basic right belonging to the freedmen, making it impossible for black people to rise above poverty.” The Southerners created a racist group called Klu Klux Klan, that became the largest, intimidating hate group in the South. The Klu Klux Klan began intimidating and attacking free blacks throughout the south. The Klan acts also resulted in many killings and beatings in the South due to lynching and attacks. The Colfax massacre in Colfax, Louisiana was next racial stance by southerners against blacks. The massacre ended with one hundred and fifty black men and three white men due to racial tension. The South, however, declared this massacre as a riot, trying to accuse blacks as the main attackers.

The South towards the end of the Reconstruction period entered a Lost Cause. The Lost Cause of the confederacy was a time where confederates began to overturn their defeat and gain control. Politician Alexander Stephens stated, “the new government founded upon opposite idea of racial equality, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man, it subordinates to the superior race.” The South began taking steps that would leave the Confederacy in history forever. They began producing and hanging Confederate flags all around the South and in their own museums. They also began placing statues of Confederate generals around the city of Richmond and in Charlottesville, Virginia. They also teamed up with Washington College to honored Confederate General Robert E. Lee with a statue on their campus. The college became the burial site of Lee after he died, the school eventually renamed the college after Lee’s death at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. They also began using racial advertisements provoking African-Americans vocabulary language and the color of their skin. They used the character of mammy from the movie “Gone with the Wind” as the face of Aunt Jemima pancake brand. They also used it with Golddust Twins cleaning advertising portraying the twins as dirty because of the color of their skin.

The Reconstruction period was unsuccessful with providing African-Americans with their lawful rights as citizens of the states. The only right that black freedmen acquire where was their freedom from slavery. However, with southerners beginning to create laws that prevented them from practicing their rights, took away their freedom. The reconstruction period only benefited the White southerners because they gain back their power back of torturing African-Americans. They also made sure that their presence in the civil war as Confederates and their beliefs would stay known in history forever.