Reconstruction era was a failure

The reconstruction era was during the years 1865 through 1677. It was directly after the civil war and was focused on reinstating southern states into the Union. While many southerners wanted to rejoin the Union, many were opposed to the changes that came with it which included equality for blacks. Although, some social policies that were passed did help to advance through the reconstruction era successfully, there were many downfalls that came along with it, including social and economic failures.

There were many social policies that failed during the reconstruction era that were mainly focused around African American equality. For example, they need to have passes to see each other. The South implemented Black Codes to force the former slaves to retain their previous social status. The Black Codes restricted African American equality and tried to make many blacks to become sharecroppers. In addition, the KKK (a group of racist white southerners) intimidated the former slaves so they would not vote. Clearly social reform was ineffective in giving black citizens any equal rights.

After the civil war, the economy of the South was bitter and outraged because Britain stopped trading cotton with them. Also, sharecropping became an extremely common way of employment. As the southerners rehired former slaves into their farms, fed them but keep their wage low so they would still be poor and become indebted to them.

However, the era of Reconstruction wasn’t a complete failure. To bring back the equality of opportunity to the former slaves, the Freedman’s Bureau Act was passed to help unskilled, uneducated, and poverty stricken former slaves. Around 1866, several of former slaves were be able to get back on their original