Directly following the civil war came a period of reconstruction era where Abraham Lincoln attempted to reunite the northern and southern states. During this time, goals were set for civil equality for blacks by the government. However, the hopes of the freed people were not met. Despite the government attempt to build equality and independence for the newly freed they were overturned by other citizens reluctant to follow the laws and lack of enforcement of the laws. The radical reconstruction involved radical republicans believing that blacks are in entitled to the same political rights and opportunities as whites.…
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…
These actions underscored the ideological strength of the Radical Republicans in control of Congress, who continued Lincoln’s belief that American prosperity depended on a strong national government safeguarding equality. However, as early as 1865, some within the party began suggesting that using coercion wasn’t necessary to get the South to recognize the rights of Free Blacks (Ahern). Yet, the emergence of the first Black Codes, limiting personal and political rights, in states like South Carolina and Mississippi, showed the necessity of intervention to prevent people of color from returning to subjugation. On the other hand, the Radical Republican Party’s tight grip on power in some of the Southern States left them vulnerable to attack as being too tough on whites. In Missouri, a border state that was home to numerous Ex-confederates, Radicals removed political and voting rights from all the Ex-Confederates in an attempt to protect their state’s constitution from racism…
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.…
During the Civil War, there were two sides, the Confederate Army and the Union Army. While the Confederates fought for slavery, the Union fought for their freedom. While the Confederates fought for the continuance of state’s rights, the Union fought, the Union fought for what its name stood for, preserving the Union.While one side seemed to be more religious, the other seemed to remain rather independent .…
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.…
In the timespan of 1860, the beginning of the Civil War, to 1877, the end of Reconstruction, many social and constitutional developments took place. Such developments included secession of the south, disputes over civil liberties such as voting, the ending of slavery, and the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. These expansions were very revolutionary to an extent but due to the intrusion of white supremacist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, couldn’t fully prosper.…
After the Civil War, there was huge amount of attempts to alter the society in the Southern states. The main ideas in the North were to merge blacks into society as quickly as possible.But of course the South was not as eager. In fact, the South wanted to expire all chances for the Reconstruction effort because they knew what it was leading to. Due to their social lack of interest in equal rights, their political violence towards blacks and their opponents The South killed Reconstruction because of their lack of interest in equal rights, their violence towards the North and blacks, and the North’s growing absence of sympathy towards blacks.…
The Ku Klux Klan consisted of white, southern, democrats resisting reconstruction. This group burned down homes, churches, and school associated with African Americans. The Ku Klux Klan Act was set into place to state that all actions done by this clan were illegal. With nearly three thousand members, only six hundred were brought to trial, and most of them served little, to no time in prison. This proved to the South that without the military control it was up to the individual states to enforce the 13th and 14th amendments, and that was not a top priority for the…
The Civil War began in 1861 due to many political issues between the Northern states, the Union, and the Southern states, the Confederates. Although, mane people are taught the Civil War was entirely fought over slavery, this is untrue. The North sought to regain control of the South and to keep the Union together, while the South had no interest in the Union and wanted to keep their way of life the same as it had been for generations. The status of African American’s during the war gradually became the major issue between the Northern states and Southern states, these conflicts shaped the goals for the outcome of the war in 1865 and the years of Reconstruction to follow.…
During the time period of 1860 and 1877 many major changes occurred. From the beginning of the civil war to the fall of the reconstruction, the United States changed dramatically. Nearly one hundred years after the Declaration of Independence which declared all men equal, many social and constitutional alterations were necessary to protect the rights of all people, no matter their race. These social and constitutional developments that were made during 1860 to 1877 were so drastic it could be called a revolution.…
Reconstruction had a large impact on African Americans. It was a gateway period for African Americans into American society as equals. Many changes were made that helped them gain rights and acceptance, but it wasn’t an easy change. In the early years of reconstruction, black codes restricted African Americans greatly (Document D), but as reconstruction went on, various acts were passed to help African Americans gain passage into every day society (Document A).…
They just brought terrorism to the people who supported integrating with the freedmen together as one society. In document B, The KKK tried to silence a former slave who became a Georgia state legislature to drain the support of Reconstruction policies and to attack the empowerment of the African-American community he represented. The KKK were just causing terror to the North and were pulling the people down, preventing them from reconstructing. “They said to me, Do you think you will ever vote another damned Radical ticket.” This shows how the KKK threatened a former slave and tried to impose terror. The KKK was doing everything they could to stop reconstruction…
The Reconstruction was a success in the terms of the abolishment of slavery; however, beyond 1877, the events that took place during the reconstruction did little to put the racial animosity at rest and did little for mending the hypocrisy of the nation.…
The period of the Civil War and Reconstruction, lasting from 1860-1877, the nation underwent a multitude of powerful changes, physically and emotionally. A school of thought today exists that, “The North won the war, bur the South won reconstruction.” What does this mean exactly? When the Union defeated the Confederacy, Northerners, freemen, and existing slaves imagined a political and social revolution in which their dreams of abolition and government power would manifest itself. However, the civil rights movement within the constitution, specifically the additions of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, brought to life the desires of the Union, but in the South such hostility and racism still existed that there was…