Preview

Successes And Failures Of Reconstruction Essay

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2371 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Successes And Failures Of Reconstruction Essay
Discuss the successes and failures of Reconstruction. What Black gains made during Reconstruction were retained despite Democratic redemption of the Southern states? How did economic conditions in the nation, both North and South influence the end of Reconstruction? Characteristics and Impacts of American Reconstruction
Uploaded by tyson_626 (4560) on Feb 10, 2005 {draw:rect} A revolution drowned in blood Reconstruction and African American political power The period of U.S. history known as Reconstruction, following the Civil War, lasted from 1865 to 1877. During this period, former slaves in the South made some of the most far-reaching gains that African Americans have seen in U.S. history. Those gains, ultimately drenched in blood, were not to be seen again until the civil rights struggles nearly 100 years later.
The Civil War,
…show more content…
In late 1865, several of these Johnson-installed state legislatures passed laws known as “Black Codes.” These laws set up the terms for the newly freed Black population to participate in Reconstruction. They were in many ways precursors to the Jim Crow laws, creating a separate and unequal system for African Americans.

The Black Codes varied from state to state, but they had common features. They provided for labor contracts for Black laborers—often with terms not much different than slavery. They prohibited Blacks from migrating from one state to another unless they possessed papers specifying that he or she was bonded by contract to labor for an employer. They limited African Americans’ participation in politics with educational or property restrictions. Former slaves were generally described by the laws as “servants,” while the description used for employers was “master.”

Economically, the main thrust of the Black Codes was to reinstitute the plantation

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Apush Chapter 15 Summary

    • 944 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Black Codes- Laws passed by Southern state legislatures during Reconstruction, while Congress was out of session. These laws limited the rights of former slaves and led Congress to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment…

    • 944 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Us History Midterm Review

    • 777 Words
    • 4 Pages

    2. What were Black Codes and in what ways did they discriminate against freed slaves?…

    • 777 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 1865 after the Civil War, during the reconstruction period several of the legislatures enacted the Black Codes. These codes were the same rules that held the…

    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I think that black codes were an attempt at reestablishing slavery. They forced African-Americans to work. If they didn’t work or if they ran away from their job they would either be forced to return or go to jail. Since they had to go back to work they usually ended up back on plantations. States were allowed to decide on “separate but equal” laws, keeping blacks apart from whites. The Jim Crow laws end up enforcing segregation. Also African-Americans had to have a place to live and they usually couldn’t vote unless they had a grandfather that voted before the civil war. Southern whites wanted their slaves back. And this is the way they tried to do it.…

    • 118 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    They were deemed inferior to Whites and forced into slave labor in order to support the southern economy. Attempts to escape or revolt prompted Whites to pass "slave codes" which embraced criminal law and regulated almost every aspect of slave life. The unequal distribution of criminal penalties perpetuated the ideology of White supremacy and Black inferiority. These ideas of White superiority created many laws that protected and benefited White people during this era. "Black Codes", penalized African Americans for offenses such as vagrancy and prevented them from testifying against White Americans, serving on juries, and voting. These disparate laws were then enforced by criminal justice practitioners such as the police. Violators were often tried in court by all-White juries, found guilty, and then…

    • 589 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    History 2057 Paper 1

    • 1619 Words
    • 7 Pages

    In response to the 13th Amendment, southern states still tried to maintain power over African-Americans by using certain techniques such as Black Codes. The Black Codes restricted African-Americans’ freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and legal rights; and outlawed unemployment, loitering, vagrancy, and interracial marriages.…

    • 1619 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ch 23 Apush

    • 728 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Black Codes - South laws passed by Johnson that kept tight restraints on the freedmen. Included no interracial marriages and no service on juries.…

    • 728 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 1865, Mississippi set forth a batch of laws to extend rights yet limit African-Americans from becoming the equal counterparts of their white peers. These laws were known as the “Black Code.” The laws had been outlined in sections, which were further divided into categories. Vagrancy Law, Civil Rights of Freedom, and Penal Code were the three categories.…

    • 771 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Black Codes were laws passed by new southern governments, after the Presidential Reconstruction, which sought to control or manage the newly emancipated slaves. These laws were ultimately designed to make life much harder for the former slaves and limit their freedom. The Black Codes granted certain rights, but denied them others, such as the right to vote, serve on juries or in militias, and prosecute whites in court. The codes aimed to accomplish these objectives by restricting black interaction in the white world. When planters were demanding that emancipated slaves should be required to work on plantations, the Black Codes granted their wish.…

    • 160 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Black Codes were a set of laws passed by the Southern States in the United States in 1865 and 1866 after slavery was abolished. Southern state legislatures adopted Black Codes that restricted the right and movements of the former slaves; this caused Republicans to become further disillusioned with President Johnson. Black Codes prohibited blacks from renting or borrowing money to buy land and also prohibited them from testifying against whites in court. They also denied blacks basic rights, and enforced state by state. The Black Codes also included the segregation of public spaces, prohibited blacks from learning how to read or write, marry whites, and kept them from being able create public gatherings. These codes were enacted because of economic…

    • 221 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Black/Codes Research Paper

    • 1504 Words
    • 7 Pages

    ‘Black~Codes’ were legal statutes and constitutional amendments enacted by the ex~Confederate states following the Civil War that sought to restrict the liberties of newly freed…

    • 1504 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    01.06

    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages

    From 1865 to 1900 freedoms for African Americans were limited through laws such as the Jim crows' and the black codes. These codes and laws were used to keep African Americans social , political and ecomonomic lives limited and their civil rights restricted.…

    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Research

    • 358 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Black Codes were laws passed on the state and local level in the United States to limit the basic human rights and civil liberties of blacks. Even though the U.S. constitution originally discriminated against blacks (as "other persons") and both Northern and Southern states had passed discriminatory legislation from the early 19th century, the term Black Codes is used most often to refer to legislation passed by Southern states at the end of the Civil War to control the labor, migration and other activities of newly-freed slaves.In Texas, the Eleventh Legislature produced these codes in 1866. The intent of the legislation was to reaffirm the inferior position that slaves and free blacks had held in antebellum Texas and to regulate black labor. The codes reflected the unwillingness of white Texans to accept blacks as equals and also their fears that freedmen would not work unless coerced. Thus the codes continued legal discrimination between whites and blacks. The legislature, when it amended the 1856 penal code, emphasized the continuing line between whites and blacks by defining all individuals with one-eighth or more African blood as persons of color, subject to special provisions in the law.…

    • 358 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Life for Southern blacks did improve somewhat as a result of the Civil War and Reconstruction, but it was not perfect. There were still many inequalities between the two races, white and black. This essay will discuss life of blacks prior to the Civil War (1861-1865), how the blacks were involved in the war and Reconstruction (1865-1877), and how the war and Reconstruction changed the blacks' way of life.…

    • 595 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays