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Reconstruction was an effort to bring unity amongst the divided parts of the United States. During the time of reconstruction, the lives of various groups were influenced in either a positive or negative way. These groups included southerners, blacks, whites, the rich, and the poor people. The lives of southerners changed the greatest amount. The way of life in the South was centered around agricultural and farming. Due to past events, the South and their economy had been ruined. The southern way of life was not creating much wealth as it did before the Civil War. The blockage of ports and loss of slave labor is predominantly what caused this issue for the southerners. The African Americans or freedpeople thought that their lives had been …show more content…
changed forever. While in reality, most of them ended up in the same way of life that they started in. After the abolishment of slavery, there were requirements and rules set by new governments that limited the freedpeople. The Black codes were examples of how the lives of blacks were pretty much controlled. The freedpeople were required to get some type of a paying job and most could not find one.
Then, the idea of sharecropping starts to arise. Many freedpeople would end up doing this type of labor on land that was not even owned by them. The freed individuals would work and share fifty percent more of their earnings with the owner of the land. The freedpeople were still participating in a form of legal slavery. However, this was progress compared to how their lives were before the reconstruction era. Some whites were in the same predicament and had to work as a sharecropper. Most whites continued with life, depending on their social rank and what kind of job they had. Some of the whites in the South went other places to find jobs. Also, some whites (carpetbaggers) in the North came to the South to manipulate others. Some rich farmers were losing wealth because of prevents event, but were now profiting off of sharecropping. The wealthy individuals could now be claimed to be living in the North. This is because, the North’s economy was still feuling off of the Industrial Revolution. Unlike the South, northerners were focused on jobs that centered around steelworks and railroad production. The South was pro-agriculture while the North was
pro-factory. Many poor people would remain poor and would turn to sharecropping just like the freedpeople. Although, a poor white man still had more rights than a freed slave. The changes for southerners were negative because of the economy and loss of labor. The changes for blacks were somewhat positive, but still put most of then in the same slave-type environment. The changes for whites were the same depending on where they lived and their job. The changes for the rich people were positive for the North and Negative for the South. The poor people were still kind of in the same situation, because of sharecropping putting them further into debt.
Levine noted, “The richest 5 percent of northern adults held more than half the regions total property.” In the South “the chasm separating the average slaveholder and the average farm-operating nonslaverholder in the cotton kingdom was huge.” The southern economy was based heavily on slavery and slave labor, but even with production increasing, the percentage of southerners who owner slaves had been declining. Levine indicated, “a shrinking portion if the southern whites owned slaves: 36 percent in 1830…and only 26 percent by 1860.” The class divisions in each economy were very similar. The northern economic system produced a struggle between worker and capitalist, while it was between rich whites and poor whites in the South. In fact, prior to the war, poor northerners were often attracted to the platform of Democrats from the South. However, the split during the Civil War did reflect these economic imbalances, as one might expect. The poor did not unite against the rich; instead they joined both the Union and Confederate armies voluntarily in great numbers. Holt pointed out, “[T]he rank and file of each army was overwhelmingly composed of farmers, skilled workers, and urban and rural laborers.” The poor non-slaveholding whites were increasingly receiving a disproportionate piece of the southern slave economy and had “to compete with slaves as well as poorly
With the civil war coming to an end, the congressman of Illinois presented a fresh, new concept. This modern idea stated that the United States of America was a new nation and “for the first time, it had been wholly free.” Many of the white men from this time period were against the change and pursued their old way of life, which prevented the newly made amendments from going into full effect. Freedom in the south during the reconstruction era of America was very controversial. There were many different conceptions of what freedom was. It was thought to be land, others thought it had to do with money, and some even though it was not having a master/not being a slave. The definition of freedom swayed back and forth depending on whose point of
After years of a cruel war that pitted brother against brother, the United States of America entered into a period of time called Reconstruction. Reconstruction was an act implemented by Congress to help rebuild the majorly devastated southern states. Another of its goals was help newly freed slaves successfully merge into life as a free people among many hostile whites.
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.
After the Civil War ended in 1865, it was followed by an era known as Reconstruction that lasted until 1877, with the goal to rebuild the nation. Lincoln was the president at the beginning of this era, until his assassination caused his vice president, Andrew Johnson to take his place in 1865. Johnson was faced with numerous issues such as the reunification of the union and the unknown status of the ex-slaves, while compromising between the principles of the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. After the Election of 1868, Ulysses S. Grant, a former war hero with no political experience, became the nation’s new president, but was involved in numerous acts of corruption. Reconstruction successfully reintegrated the southern states into the Union through Lincoln and Johnson’s Reconstruction Plans, but was mostly a failure due to the continued discriminatory policies against African Americans, such as the Black Codes, Jim Crow laws, and sharecropping, as well as the widespread corruption of the elite in the North and the Panic of 1873,
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.
The political, social, and economic conditions after the Civil War defined the goals of the First Reconstruction. At this time the Congress was divided politically on issues that grew out of the Civil War: Black equality, rebuilding the South, readmitting Southern. states to the Union, and deciding who would control government.1 Socially, the South was in chaos. Newly emancipated slaves wandered the South after having left their former masters, and the White population was spiritually devastated, uneasy about what lay ahead. Economically, the South was also devastated: plantations lay ruined, railroads torn up, the system of slave labor in shambles, and cities burnt down.
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 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.
Despite all of Reconstruction’s promises and successes, the era included many failures, too. One such failure was the formation of the Ku Klux Klan and other racially prejudiced groups in the South that promoted violence towards African Americans. Another failure involved the corruption seen during Reconstruction by both the North and South. The carpetbaggers who were Northerners helped spread corruption in the Reconstruction Era by moving from their home state in the North securing a political office or position in the South to carry out the plans of the Radical Republicans. In the South, many local governments disenfranchised or created poll taxes for African American voters enabling them to vote.
The Reconstruction implemented by Congress, which lasted from 1866 to 1877, was aimed at reorganizing the Southern states after the Civil War, providing the means for readmitting them into the Union, and defining the means by which whites and blacks could live together in a nonslave society. The South, however, saw Reconstruction as a humiliating, even vengeful imposition and did not welcome it.
Even with this government legislation, the newly dubbed 'freedmen' were still discriminated against by most people and, ironically, they were soon to be restricted and segregated once again under government rulings in important court cases of the era. 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.
Prior to the Civil War, African Americans were treated as second class individuals. They lacked the freedom and equality they sought for. To the African Americans, the Civil War was a war of liberation. Contrary to what African Americans perceived, Southerners viewed the war as an episode of their journey to salvation. Southern lands may have been destroyed and depleted, but the South was persistent that their racial order would not be disrupted. To most, the goals of the Reconstruction era were to fully restore the Union, and to some, grant emancipation and liberty to former slaves. Although the newly freedmen gained various rights and liberties, their naïve dreams of complete equality and liberation collapsed due to the immense resistance of the South.
In the south, it was booming for blacks. The blacks now could eat on the trains, and even in restaurants with whites. The improving of black lives were great in the schools, and public relief projects. Blacks were finally making political office and even becoming sheriffs and judges. Economically, blacks had lots of disadvantages. All they knew was to work on the plantations. Sharecropping was at an all time high. Whites and Black were both working for food basically. They would work on the plantations in exchange for food or maybe even shelter. The sharecroppers had bad debt along with working for food. They had to borrow money they couldn’t pay back, or the debt exceed the profit of harvest. The taxes and corruption were high in the United States. The “Carpetbaggers” from the North would make matters worse by political powers. Reconstruction gave slaves the freedom of a white man, but set a blockade on the path to equal