Andrew Jackson´s Dangerous Reconstruction

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After the last round was fired and the last body was buried the post civil war United States south was in shambles and the newly appointed president (via murder) was put into office, and it was his job to rebuild the south in a way that reflected its tragic past. An important part of his job was what he would do with the newly free slave population, slaves that had once worked on cotton plantation were now free to do what they pleased and it was Johnson’s job to reconstruct the south around this fact. Andrew Johnson’s presidential reconstruction was an important part of post civil war, but his actions, beliefs and circumstances directly and purposefully repressed the development of civil rights for newly freed African American’s! Andrew Johnson desire to have an easy fast restoration to union to his southern counterparts further hurt the chances of civil rights for African Americans to be established. It was 1865 and these African Americans had just been freed and the thought of saying that they were equal to whites horrified and discussed many white people. And Johnson unwillingness to slow down the reconstruction process was a complete determinate to the African Americans who wanted and deserved civil rights. In the Pbs video “American experience-reconstruction” historian blight refers to this by saying “There was good evidence in 1865 that a lot of white Southerners, the leadership even of the Confederacy, would have accepted relatively harsh policies at that moment. But very soon it became clear that Andrew Johnson wanted a rapid, lenient restoration of the Union with as little alteration of the Constitution and the creation of black civil and political rights as possible”. This shows us that black civil rights was on the b... ... middle of paper ... ...cally sums up Johnson and his presidency given the circumstances in which he could have been a hero to millions of African American’s and a pioneer to whites everywhere he chose a path in which looking back on shows all these characteristics that Johnson showed during the many different circumstances that arose during his presidency. Andrew Johnson through his beliefs, actions and circumstances stubbornly held back the development of African American civil rights in the United States. His fight against the civil rights or any tights for freemen were extensive and continued onward for his whole presidency and I see him as one of the biggest reasons why civil rights did not take place a lot earlier in the united states. Thousands of people murdered and thousands of homes destroyed the post civil war south got the angel they prayed for Andrew Johnson became president!

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