The Reconstruction was the period during which the United States began to rebuild after the Civil War, lasting from 1865 to 1877. It was to repair the North and the South politically, economically and socially. After the Civil War, the South’s economy was completely ruined and needed help from the Union government; which they were trying to stay way from. The Reconstruction can be evaluated both as a success and a failure. Its successes were the restoration of the eleven confederate states back to the union, giving African-Americans (ex-slaves) their freedom and rights and providing aid to the freed slaves and poor whites. Its failures were the Anti-African Americans groups such as the KKK, the Black Codes, not protecting the rights of the freedmen and the southern corruption. Although African-Americans were freed and gained their rights because of 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, and the ex-eleven confederate states came back to the union, the Reconstruction was more of a failure than a success.…
Immediately after the war ended, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that the majority of the nation’s slave population should be set free. Two years after signing the Emancipation Proclamation, President Lincoln announced the Ten-Percent Plan, which required 10 percent of a Confederate state’s voters to pledge an oath of allegiance to the Union. However, on July 2, 1864, Radical Republicans from the House and Senate considered Lincoln’s Ten-Percent plan to be too lenient on the South, passing down the Wade-Davis Bill that required 50 percent of white males in rebel states to swear a loyalty oath to the constitution. Instead, Lincoln pocket-vetoed the bill, and as a result the Wade-Davis Bill was never…
After the Civil War, the southern soldiers were going back to devastated cities, destroyed railroads, and many cities were burned to the ground as a result of Sherman’s march from sea to sea. After the Civil War occurred, the slaves were given freedom from their owners, and slavery was banned. That attempt at reconstruction was not a complete fail, but it took a little bit of time for America to give social and economic equality to slaves. There were many attempts made by several different presidents, but not all seemed to work due to the South’s stubbornness. The failure of reconstruction later did not bring social and economic equality to former slaves in the south because of things like the Jim Crow laws and the South’s strong disproval of the outcome of the war.…
“Reconstruction is the process by which the states that had seceded were reorganized as part of the Union after the Civil War” . This period lasted from 1865-1877 and was mostly evident in the southern states. This was an important time in the history of the United States because it started a discrimination that turned fellow citizens against each other based on their appearances. This went directly against the Constitution which stated, “All Men are Created Equal” which is ironic because the Civil War was started because each side believed they were more constitutional, and the end result was the opposite of constitutional. In the long run, Reconstruction helped black people move closer to accomplishing to the American Dream. But short term,…
Assignment 5: U.S. History to ReconstructionIn 1861 most Southerners thought that the Confederacy was favorite to win the war. The Confederacy’s sheer size – 750,000 square miles – was a major asset, making if difficult to blockade, occupy and conquer. Confederate forces did not have to invade the North: they simply needed to defend. The fire-power of the rifle-musket meant that battlefield tactics now favored the defender. The Union, having no option but to attack, was bound to suffer heavy casualties. Southerners hoped that Northern opinion might come to question high losses. If Northern will collapsed, the Confederacy would win by default. Geography gave the Confederacy an important strategic advantage. In the crucial theatre of the war – North Virginia – a series of rivers provided a barrier to Union armies intent on capturing Richmond, the Confederate capital. Slavery, which might seem to be a Confederate weakness, enabled the South to enlist more of its white manpower than the North.…
Other people might believe that Reconstruction did not successfully solve the problems of slavery and civil war because the first amendment was violated for African Americans and they were also not allowed to intermarry. In section 2 of Black Codes it states,” Any freeman, free negro...seditious speeches (speaking against government)...may be imprisoned.” This shows that African Americans were not allowed the freedom of speech stated in the first amendment. This proves that the reconstruction did not solve the problems of slavery and civil war because they are still not treated fairly. Blacks were still controlled by the whites.…
David Blight is a professor at Yale University, in the artical he has written "The Civil War Isn't Over" he claims we fail to do one of the two things in Reconstruction. The Civil war was a devastating battle within the United States in which 1 out of 5 men died, and as many as 750,000 sailors and soilders lost their lives. After the North's victory, it seemed as though torture and injustice was over. In fact, the unfair treatment of African Americans pushed foward well into the next century. While reconstruction's main focus was healing and justice, the North primarily focused on the healing aspect. If anything the former slaves were treated worse, when they lost their jobs they were left on the street, then fined a ridiculus price that could only be paid off by working. Though the former slaves had the right to own land, the white southerns were able to take a…
Immediately following the civil war, there was great controversy over what to do with the states that attempted secession from the United States. It was clearly not as simply as reinstating their statehood, as this would send the message that not cooperating with the federal government is acceptable. In order to facilitate the reentry of the states into the union, an era of reconstruction ushered in. This would be a time of many ambitious efforts by congress to expand the civil rights of African-Americans. It proved to be a failed effort, overall, because little permanent change occurred. Although reconstruction did manage to raise great controversy and spark some change, it was ultimately a failure, for African-Americans, despite having laws put in place to grant them civil rights, failed to achieve long-term racial integration. It also proved to be short-lived, and its collapse in the mid-1870s, would have immense impact on the future of the south well into the 20th century.…
These failures can be attributed to: the lose of Republican control in government, the organization of people attacking blacks civilly and physically, and finally, the overall racism of the era. Reconstruction could have become much more effective on a multitude of levels that would have progressed our society decades ahead of its time. However, the past is over and done with and we must work to make sure none of these injustices to minorities are reflected in modern day society. Equality of opportunity has almost become the motto of modern day United States. Keeping and enforcing this equality will not appease everyone but it is for the sake of fairness and improvement in our…
The word “Reconstruction” is recognized in an American historical context as the reorganization and reestablishment of the seceded states after the civil war. However, this extend of time suffered a fluctuation of freedoms for African Americans in the southern region of the country. While slavery did not exist anymore, reconstruction ended up being fruitful just temporarily, and was basically nullified by the regressive pattern that took after the finish of Reconstruction in 1877. On this piece of writing I will highlight and explain the key components and sources that will prove and validate the failure and abridged success of the efforts aiming to stablish a solid civil rights platform for African Americans. A few points of interest include…
Once the Civil War ended people suffered from many problems. The war caused many problems in which they needed Reconstruction. Reconstruction was used to fix all the problems that were caused by the Civil War. During Reconstruction, which occurred from 1865 to 1877 many people’s lives were impacted during this era, especially African Americans because everyone was having to deal with the issues such as political, economic, and social. The political viewpoint was that the African Americans should be given rights, the social viewpoint was to let African Americans to have a normal life while the economic viewpoint was that African Americans shouldn’t be allowed to connect with the government.…
Throughout the history of the world, there have been many failures. The existence of slavery pushed "United States" into a dreadful collision between the Northern abolitionists and the Southern proslavery southerners. With the Civil war being the most horrific war in American history with the most casualties, the country was bound to reconstruct. The South was devastated due to abolition of slavery causing the economy to become insubstantial. After the nation faced economic downfall, the reconstruction age began when Lincoln wanted to help the South recover.…
I think that Reconstruction was a success because of its effects later in history. Although it had many bad things come out of it at the beginning, in the long run, it greatly helped get African-Americans rights. It also opened the South’s economy up to more industrial businesses, to gain more finances. First of all, African-American rights were non-existent before Reconstruction. Negroes, a nicer term for African-Americans, were seen as lesser beings that didn’t deserve rights equal to Whites.…
Reconstruction after the civil war even though worked years later, at the time was a complete failure at the attempt to fix the country. During this time the North while trying to help bring the economy back up in the south tried to fight for the rights of the African Americans in the South as well as to bring rights to the colored. People will argue and try to justify that it was successful because it passed the 3 main amendments of the time (which will be discussed later). Today yes those amendments today have a gigantic effect on the lives of our colored youth. During this time though these amendments meant nothing to the South, their only source of income came from the backs of the slaves. When the North took that income away the South…
The Reconstruction Era lasted from 1865 until 1877 and during this time southern America was in shambles and trying to come to terms with the fact that they had lost the Civil War. To make matters even worse for the south, slavery was now abolished due to the thirteenth amendment that was ratified by December 1865 and made the south bankrupt. The thirteenth amendment along with many new laws such as the Civil Rights Act of 1866 was all a part of the North’s new goals. Northern America wanted to bring the union together and give African Americans equal rights in order for America to achieve the overall goal of becoming an interracial-democracy. This new idea of a democracy infuriated white southerners and they decided to subvert these new goals throughout the next one hundred years leading into the Civil…