The Civil War and Reconstruction represent the revolution of American society and its democracy. The Civil War occurred due to conflicts between the North and South having different beliefs on subjects pertaining to the institution of slavery. Additionally, the Reconstruction era, focused on rebuilding the South and it was indeed challenging to many southerners who were slave owners and found it difficult to readjust to a society where blacks were now free, when they relied so heavily on slavery. Some people may argue that the Civil War and Reconstruction can be seen more as an evolution of American society and democracy instead of a revolution, but historical events prove otherwise. The Civil War and Reconstruction did not change American …show more content…
Many changes in American society and democracy were made when freed slaves were granted rights as free people in the constitution during the Reconstruction era post the civil war. The laws and amendments of the Constitution reflect how political changes were sudden because they wanted freed slaves to finally live their lives as free citizens. In Eric Foner’s book, Give Me Liberty, he states “What Republican leader Carl Schurz called the ‘great Constitutional revolution’ of Reconstruction transformed the federal system and with it, the language of freedom so central to American political culture” (Foner, 586). Foner also contended that the Reconstruction’s amendments transformed the Constitution from a document that was only concerned with federal-state relations and the rights of property, to one in which powerless minorities could claim freedom and seek protection against misconduct from all levels of government. The Civil Rights Bill of 1866 was one of the few drastic changes made in American politics because it declared that all people born in the United States as citizens and construed rights they were to enjoy regardless of their race or color. Moreover, the fourteenth amendment granted citizenship to the freed slaves and the fifteenth amendment prohibited the federal and state governments from denying any …show more content…
Now that the African Americans were free from slavery, they had the time and freedom to further their education in school and to create their own churches. Foner states that their “thirst for learning sprang from many sources—a desire to read the Bible, the need to prepare for the economic marketplace, and the opportunity to take part in politics” (Foner, 15). Due to the Reconstruction, the first black colleges were created in the nation, such as the Fisk University in Tennessee, the Hampton Institute in Virginia, and the Howard University in Washington. Blacks went from having no schools available to them, into having the freedom and choice to become educated and also to decide which school they would want to attend. Again, this all happened right after the Civil War, which reflects how sudden and drastic these changes were, if it were an evolutionary change it would have taken much longer for the schools and churches to be established. Furthermore, the church was also fundamental in the black community because the Reconstruction after the Civil War brought many important changes in the social conditions of the freed slaves. “The rise of the independent black church, with Methodists and Baptists commanding the largest following, redrew the religious map of the South” (Foner, 568). Religion in the South revolutionized American
7 May 2014 After the Civil War, the victorious Union enacted a policy of Reconstruction in the former Confederate states. Reconstruction was aimed at creating as smooth a transition as possible for the southern states to re-enter the Union as well as enacting economic and social changes. However, several factors brought about its failure, and as a result the consequences can be seen in the race problems we still have today. In 1862, President Lincoln appointed temporary military governors to re-establish functional governments in occupied southern states. In order for a state to be allowed to re-enter the Union, it had to meet the criteria, which was established to be that at least 10 percent of the voting population polled in 1860 must denounce the Confederacy and swear allegiance to the Union again.
The radical reconstruction tried to bring the south to submission while protecting blacks. This brought forward the 14th amendment which stated that all citizens born or naturalized in the U.S. are citizens of the United States. Then came along the 15th amendment was passed that stated that black m...
On April 12, 1861, Abraham Lincoln declared to the South that, the only reason that separate the country is the idea of slavery, if people could solve that problem then there will be no war. Was that the main reason that started the Civil war? or it was just a small goal that hides the real big reason to start the war behind it. Yet, until this day, people are still debating whether slavery is the main reason of the Civil war. However, there are a lot of facts that help to state the fact that slavery was the main reason of the war. These evidences can relate to many things in history, but they all connect to the idea of slavery.
Imagine that you are an escaped African slave. After years of being a slave you’ve finally done it, you escaped the terrors that is slavery. You are looking forward to the freedoms that you have heard are promised in the north. However, these “freedoms” are all what they were made out to be. Blacks in the north were to some extent free in the years before the Civil War. This can be shown by looking at four areas of society: political and judicial rights, social freedoms, education and job opportunities, and religious freedom.
Although many laws were passed that recognized African Americans as equals, the liberties they had been promised were not being upheld. Hoffman, Blum, and Gjerde state that “Union League members in a North Carolina county, upon learning of three or four black men who ‘didn’t mean to vote,’ threatened to ‘whip them’ and ‘made them go.’ In another country, ‘some few colored men who declined voting’ were, in the words of a white conservative, ‘bitterly persecute[ed]” (22). Black codes were also made to control African Americans. Norton et al. states that “the new black codes compelled former slaves to carry passes, observe a curfew, live in housing provided by a landowner, and give up hope of entering many desirable occupations” (476). The discrimination and violence towards African Americans during this era and the laws passed that were not being enforced were very disgraceful. However, Reconstruction was a huge stepping stone for the way our nation is shaped today. It wasn’t pretty but it was the step our nation needed to take. We now live in a country where no matter the race, everyone is considered equal. Reconstruction was a success. Without it, who knows where our nation would be today. African American may have never gained the freedoms they have today without the
The social history regarding reconstruction has been of great controversy for the last two decades in America. Several wars that occurred in America made reconstruction efforts to lag behind. Fundamental shortcomings of the reconstruction were based on racism, politics, capitalism and social relations. The philosophy was dominant by the people of South under the leadership of Lincoln. Lincoln plans were projected towards bringing the states from the South together as one nation. However, the efforts of the Activist were faded by the intrusion of the Republicans from the North. Northerners were capitalists and disapproved the ideas that Lincoln attempted to spread in the South (Foner Par 2).
Reconstruction is known as the period after the Civil war. The whole country was separated in two, people didn’t know what to do, the south was completely destroyed, and there were a lot of decisions to be made by the president. It lasted four years, and there was over half a million casualties between the union (North) and the confederate states (South). The north was declared the winner of the war after General Lee surrender in the Appomattox court house on April 9, 1865. The causes of the war was the secession of several southern states, they argued that it was up to them and it was in their rights to decide whether they should make slavery legal or illegal in their own boundaries. But the Union had other things in mind, the union wanted to decide whether or not the states were going to have slaves. This was just to make sure the country was equal on slavery and non-slavery on both sides, but states thought the union was abusing their power and being too strict on them, and that is when they decided to secede. The first state to secede was south Carolina, then they were followed by six other states, among those states were Florida, Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. These states got together and created the confederate states of America in February 4, 1861, and the president was Jefferson Davis, they also made a government similar to the one of the U.S. Constitution.
William Mason Grosvenor believes that Reconstruction should be harsh. Grosvenor has two main arguments to support this belief, manifest destiny and the potential for the reoccurrence of a similar event to the war if Reconstruction was carried out in a lenient manner. Grosvenor argues that the country, pre-Civil War, was never truly a single unified country, but rather a group of peoples with vastly different values held together by a constitution which they had outgrown, saying, “[n]o chemical union had ever taken place; for that the white-hot crucible of civil war was found necessary.” Furthermore, Grosvenor believes that the succession of the South demonstrated this divide while simultaneously violating the doctrine of manifest destiny through
The Civil war could very easily be known as one of the greatest tragedies in United States history. After the Civil War, the people of The United States had so much anger and hatred towards each other and the government that 11 Southern states seceded from the Nation and parted into two pieces. The Nation split into either the Northern abolitionist or the Southern planation farmers. The Reconstruction era was meant to be exactly how the name announces it to be. It was a time for the United States to fix the broken pieces the war had caused allowing the country to mend together and unite once again. The point of Reconstruction was to establish unity between the states and to also create and protect the civil rights of the former slaves. Although Reconstruction failed in many aspects such as the upraise in white supremacy and racism, the reconstruction era was a time the United States took a lead in the direction of race equality.
The Americans of African and European Ancestry did not have a very good relationship during the Civil war. They were a major cause of the Civil War. But, did they fix or rebuild that relationship after the war from the years 1865 to 1900? My opinion would be no. I do not believe that the Americans of African and European ancestry successfully rebuilt their relationship right after the Civil war. Even though slavery was finally slowly getting abolished, there was still much discrimination against the African Americans. The Jim Crow laws and the black codes discriminated against black people. The Ku Klux Klan in particular discriminated against black people. Even though the United States government tried to put laws into the Constitution to protect black people, the African Americans were discriminated in every aspect of life from housing, working, educating, and even going to public restrooms!
Who do you think was the one to end reconstruction. The south because they did not want blacks to have the same right as black people. Or the north for pushing for many rights for the African Americans? Who was the one to end reconstruction the south or the north, what do you think? In the history of the United States the term reconstruction has two meanings. The first one is the history of the country from 1865 to 1877 then the Civil War was the second one is the transformation of the Southern United States from 1863 to 1877 as directed by Congress with the reconstruction of state and society.Who Killed Reconstruction the north or the south? The south killed reconstruction because The south did not want anything to do with African Americans if they let them have rights reconstruction would not have ended.The south did not want African Americans to be free but the north wanted the blacks to be free.The south also did not want the african americans have the right to vote because the south thought that the African Americans were not important. The problem was that the north did not like how the south thought about African Americans.The south should have had let the African Americans have rights because eventually the African Americans would get their rights. Also if the south did that there would not be a civil war. Both southern resistance and northern neglect contributed to the death of reconstruction. However southern resistance was the greater problem.
The South was utterly devastated by the end of the Civil War. Hundreds of thousands of fathers, brothers, and sons were dead by 1865. The southern economy was absent due to the outlawing of slave labor; and there was little to no political structure to keep people in order and lead the communities. The South was completely unable to function as a normal society should be able to. In an attempt to make the south able to function, The North adopted a policy of reconstruction. It established a military occupation of the South and attempted to improve the economy and political system to make it a contributing and functioning region of the United States. As a result, between 1860 and 1877, the United States, most notably the South, went through a process of mixed revolution and continuation of old ideals. During the period, constitutional amendments led to a radical revolution in the rights afforded to blacks; however, racist organizations in the South perpetuated the discrimination of blacks in society and politics. Additionally, government aid was not very successful and did little to counteract social inequality.
The Civil War was an important war over the freedom of slaves in the U.S.. The Civil War is well known for being caused by the issue of slavery, but it is really a combination of different events and actions that caused tensions to rise throughout the country. The economic and political issues in the U.S., along with certain actions caused the Civil war, which is one of the United States’s worst wars. All in all, the Civil War was one of the most devastating wars for our country as a whole, and the process of rebuilding would take years and is no easy job.
It is common knowledge that the American Civil War provided freedom and certain civil rights, including to right to vote, to the African-American population of the nineteenth-century. What is not generally known, and only very rarely acknowledged, is that after freeing the slaves held in the Southeastern portion of the U.S., the federal government abandoned these same African-Americans at the end of the Reconstruction period.2
The American Civil War, also known as the War Between the States, or simply the Civil War in the United States, was a civil war fought from 1861 to 1865, after seven Southern slave states declared their secession and formed the Confederate States of America . The states that remained in the Union were known as the "Union" or the "North". The war had its origin in the fractious issue of slavery, especially the extension of slavery into the western territories. Foreign powers did not intervene. After four years of bloody combat that left over 600,000 soldiers dead and destroyed much of the South's infrastructure, the Confederacy collapsed, slavery was abolished, and the difficult Reconstruction process of restoring national unity and guaranteeing rights to the freed slaves began.