Transformations In 19th Century America

In the late 19th century America went through various transformations, with regional changes as well as rural and urban transformations, with political movements, urbanization, labor movements, and even Reconstruction and Westward Expansion; these are only a few examples of transformation that America underwent. The Unions victory in the Civil War in 1865 over the Emancipation Proclamation meant that nearly four million slaves gained their freedom, leaving the Confederates and southern states upset at the abolition of slavery. During Andrew Johnsons Presidency, the southern states began to pass laws or restriction on former slaves and African Americans trying to gain back some form of control over their behaviors, actions, and labor. For example,
the southern states passed a law stating that any freed slaves or African Americans must sign yearly labor contracts to ensure that they received pay, doing otherwise put them at risk of being arrested and forced back into unpaid work. Laws and restrictions such as that placed on the freed slaves outraged those in the north, causing them to focus more on the radical wing of the Republic Party and show less support for the Presidential Reconstruction approach. Radical reconstruction began in 1867, with the newly ratified 15th amendment giving blacks the right to vote and giving them a voice in government, and for the first time in history we see blacks being elected into politics. In 1866, the National Labor Union, a movement to improve working conditions for all laborers formed. The National Labor Union united workers in all areas of the work force, both skilled and unskilled workers, even farmers, joined together in hopes that they would be able to pressure congress into passing a law that limited the amount of time a laborer could work each day into eight hours.