Was Reconstruction A Success Or Failure Essay

Throughout the history of the world, there have been many failures. The existence of slavery pushed "United States" into a dreadful collision between the Northern abolitionists and the Southern proslavery southerners. With the Civil war being the most horrific war in American history with the most casualties, the country was bound to reconstruct. The South was devastated due to abolition of slavery causing the economy to become insubstantial. After the nation faced economic downfall, the reconstruction age began when Lincoln wanted to help the South recover. Lincoln stated, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” In order to reconstruct the Southern states had to be readmitted into the Union, integrate freed slaved into the American society, and rebuild Southern industry and foundation. While African Americans faced a new onslaught of obstacles and injustices during reconstruction, which lasted from 1865 to 1877, the days of slavery were not much different after the Civil War. Reconstruction was a failure since more hatred existed towards blacks after the war, the Southern economy took a
spiraling downfall, and equality was never truly established.
Being slaves before the Civil War, there was extreme racism towards blacks that existed already.
White southerners believed that they were not born equal, they did not have intelligence to be in the political parties, and could never be seen eye to eye. After the war had begun, it was evident that Lincoln also wanted to free the slaves and this irritated the plantation owners and other southerners. Losing the war made the hate they held towards Blacks to burst and respond with violence, terrorism, crime, and further segregation than before. For instance: the rise of the Klu Klux Klan and the Black Codes intimidated the newly freed slaves and broke the promise of their civil liberties. African American were technically “free”, but in the real world they were never seen as equal to the Whites and were always discouraged to change that through emotional and physical
matters.
Through cheap labor, slavery, the Southern economy flourished by producing immense amounts of wheat, rice, tobacco, and other crops that allowed income to be substantial. After the war abolished slavery and farms were destroyed, the economy took a spiraling downfall.
The failure to fully integrate free slaves into the society was another factor that lead the reconstruction to not be effective. The hatred towards blacks augmented incredibly, and there were numerous ways that the Southerners tried to prevent blacks from entering the “equal” society and politics. The most notorious segregation method were the “Black Codes”, which constrained African Americans from freedom, and forced them to work for long hours with low wages; reverting them to the days of slavery. Numerous states required blacks to sign yearly labor contracts or else the white Southerners would go to measure of arresting or forcing them into unpaid labor.
Shelby Foote noted “Before the war it was said 'the United States are.' Grammatically it was spoken that way and thought of as a collection of independent states. And after the war it was always 'the United States is.” It made “us” an “is”.