The government made many accomplishments in the rights and liberty for the African-Americans. They freed them, give them citizenship and allowed men to vote. Overall, the Reconstruction was a failure; everything that was accomplished was basically taken away. It was a period of corruption in politically, economically and socially. The only thing that was really a successful accomplishment was the freedom of…
In this article, Foner states in his thesis that “since the early 1960s, a profound alteration of the place of blacks within American society, newly uncovered evidence, and changing definitions of history itself, have combined to transform our understanding of race relations, politics, and economic change during Reconstruction.” The article essentially encompasses the meaning of three different views of reconstruction: traditional, revisionist, and post-revisionist. After Foner defines these and explains his thesis, the article becomes somewhat of an advertisement for his own articles on the topic.…
At the beginning of the 1870s Blacks had caught a glimpse at the end of the tunnel for the development of Civil Rights. With the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862 followed by the 13th and 14th Amendment freed slaves could now travel freely, own property and become educated, some of the most fundamental of civil rights. However after the release of three and a half million slaves into American society it would be some time before this declaration would become reality. In the south slaves continued to work for white landowners under new share cropping scheme, education and political activism remained low resulting in not a single senate holding a black majority. Blacks remained, in the eyes of many southerners ‘a perfectly stupid race’ that ‘can never rise to a very high plane’ President Thedore Roosevelt. However over the following centaury Civil Rights changed dramatically with the Spanish – America War, First World War, Second World War, Cold War and the War in Vietnam. Further change was also due to the rising support for Negro rights groups and the pushing by congress for an increase in Civil Rights.…
In Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction, author Eric Foner analyzes the traditional understandings of the Reconstruction period immediately following the American Civil War. Foner begins by explaining that such traditional understandings came from white Southerners who blamed their misfortunes on greedy Northerners and inept African Americans. Rather than agreeing with such traditional understandings, Foner attempts to overthrow such beliefs by arguing in favor of African Americans. Particularly through their development of beneficial institutions, their creation of new economies, and their contributions to both local and national governments.…
One school of thought presented in the article was the classical view on Reconstruction, which was prevalent from the end of the 1800s all the way through the 1960s. The historians who created and defended this viewpoint believed that Reconstruction was an abject failure for America. It was rife with corruption in all levels of the government and pushed an agenda of black supremacy that threatened white culture. The ‘Redeemers’ (southern Democrats) who eventually overthrew the abolitionists’ corrupt movement, were heroes who saved the southern way of life and white culture. Foner articulated this viewpoint as such, “vindictive Radical Republicans fastened black supremacy upon the defeated South, unleashing an orgy of corruption presided over by unscrupulous carpetbaggers, traitorous scalawags, and ignorant freedmen.”2…
Key topics: competing political plans for reconstructing the South; African American transition from slavery to freedom; political and social legacy of Reconstruction; post-Civil War economic and political transformations of the North.…
The Reports on the Condition of the Defeated South sent to Andrew Johnson in the summer of 1865 written by Carl Schurz shed an uneasy light on the South’s current situation. Schurz found a deep-rooted prejuce from the south not only for the “Negros” but for the Union as well. Southerners felt betrayed by their government but under the circumstances felt that they no option but to comply with Union demands. The challenges of reconstruction in the south were enormous; economic, social, racial and political just to name a few.…
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 beginning of the Scalawags and Carpetbaggers was a big thing back when it happened and took away the idea of having the freed blacks vote for themself. The Scalawags were the southerners who took the opportunity to vote for who they wanted to vote for. The southerners did this by making the freed blacks vote who they wanted to vote for because the freed black weren’t smart enough to understand what was going on. The Carpetbaggers were the northerners who came down to the South to do the same as the…
To conclude: even with all the amendments and new laws, America has immensely abortive in obtaining successful political, economic, and social equality. As long as there is the opposition of freedmen, Freedmen’s Bureau, Carpetbaggers, K.K.K. members, and other groups, the nation would continue remaining dysfunctional. To others, learning the extent of the Reconstruction Era unsuccessfully achieving political, economic, and social equality, may help historians and others by teaching them their nation’s…
Through what was later referred to as Radical Reconstruction, the Republican party made many achievements in the promotion of civil and political equality by means of civil rights legislation, measure to protect free labor, and strived for an equal distribution of public services and resources that blacks were previously denied. While it seemed that for a time the Reconstruction was accomplishing everything it set out to do with the Fourteenth Amendment, the Reconstruction Act, Fifteenth Amendment, and an increase in blacks holding office at the local, state, and federal levels, the Reconstruction was effective overthrown by the its Southern with opposition who blamed the corruption in the Grant administration, incompetence, high taxes and black supremacy as a reason for overthrowing the system. In reality their motives were not so pure, they hated the idea of racial equality and wanted to control labor in an effort to regain their antebellum status as society’s elite. Soon they began launching their reign of terror against any Republican that was a threat to white supremacy, not discriminating by…
Thomas A. Bailey’s, The Ordeal of Reconstruction (1966), presents a view that would claim the that the actions of the Northern ‘carpetbaggers’ and ‘scalawags’ were both “selfish and idealistic” in regards to the Republican government in the Southern states. Meanwhile, Bailey paints a sad picture of the once enslaved and uneducated Negroes of the Republican government, a role that he attributed as “pathetic and tragic.”…
Reconstruction was said to be "a time of great pain and endless questions." Many people wondered how the Confederacy would integrate into the union, and what would become of the freed slaves. Would black men begin to live like white men? Reconstruction was an extremely challenging time in history because Southerners still wanted to sustain their current way of life, and Northerners firmly believed that they should be punished for this.…
Reconstruction age did little to help newly freed slaves, while President Lincoln wanted the freed slaves to receive new opportunities, like purchase land, education, voting rights, etc. All of that was cut short because the assassination of President Lincoln in 1865, Lincoln’s deep empathy would be missed as the battle to reconstruct the nation now took place between defiant congressional republicans and the insecure man who had stumbled into the presidency Andrew Johnson. (Shultz, 2012) If President Lincoln had not been assassinated it would have had been different when it came to freed slaves and their rights, when Lincoln was going so was his view on what needed to change. Without the reconstruction age we wouldn’t have had these significant achievements, including two new constitutional amendments, the first civil rights law, and the abolition of slavery. (Shultz, 2012)…