After a war that claimed the lives of more men than that of all other wars combined, much of the country was left in ruins, literally and figuratively. Dozens of towns in the South had been burned to the ground. Meanwhile, the relations between the North and South had crumbled to pieces. Something needed to be done so that the country could once again be the United States of America, not the Divided States of America. The years from 1865 to 1877 were a time of rebuilding – the broken communities and the broken relations. This time period was known as Reconstruction. Reconstruction was a failure on the basis that the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments that were passed should have given protection and freedom to the African American people, instead, it actually hurt them because the laws were not enforced, and eventually lead to the organization of white supremacy terrorist groups. The 13th amendment to the Constitution legally ended slavery, however, one could argue that socially and economically it did not. Once African Americans were free, they had nothing and were given very little. Due to the racist attitudes that were rampant in the South, it was nearly impossible to find anything but low paying, unskilled jobs. Because blacks needed work and plantation owners had vacant land they came to a compromise – sharecropping. Sharecropping was an agreement that in exchange for land, a cabin, and tools, at a very high interest rate, the landowner would receive a portion of the harvest. Although this may sound like a good deal, the high interest rates made the debt nearly impossible to repay, thus once again the African Americans were under control of the white race. The contracts also included clauses that were sim... ... middle of paper ... ...onstruction, the majority of black people continued to be oppressed on every front. Not only were they oppressed, but they were also continually terrorized. Perhaps if the government had interceded and done their job the outcome would have been different. Reconstruction reunited the states of the country, but at the same time it turned the people of the country against each other. Works Cited Clark-Pujara, Christy. "Reconstruction Part I." 11 Nov. 2013. Lecture. Clark-Pujara, Christy. "Reconstruction Part II." 18 Nov. 2013. Lecture. Clark-Pujara, Christy. "The Rise of Jim Crow." 20 Nov. 2013. Lecture. Franklin, John Hope, and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans. 9th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. Print. "Lynching Victims Senate Apology Resolution." GovTrack.us. U.S. Senate, 13 June 2005. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
Even when the Amendment abolished slavery in 1865, and the black people embraced education, built their own churches, reunited with their broken families and worked very hard in the sharecropping system, nothing was enough for the Reconstruction to succeed. Whites never gave total freedom to African Americans. Blacks were forced to endure curfews, passes, and living on rented land, which put them in a similar situation as slaves. In
Though the issue of slavery was solved, racism continues and Southerners that stayed after the war passed Black Codes which subverted the ideas of freedom including the actions of state legislatures (Hakim 19). Black Codes were a set of laws that discriminated blacks and limited their freedom (Jordan 388). Such restrictions included: “No negro shall be permitted to rent or keep a house within said parish...No public meetings or congregations of negroes shall be allowed within said parish after sunset…” (Louisiana Black Codes 1865). A solution to this was the 14th Amendment. It meant now all people born in America were citizens and it “Prohibited states from revoking one’s life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” This meant all states had to...
What role(s) did African Americans play in achieving the "rights" outlined in this document by the late 1870s?
Reconstruction is the period of rebuilding the south that succeeded the Civil War (1861-1865). This period of time is set by the question now what? The Union won the war and most of the south was destroyed. Devastation, buildings turned into crumbles and lost crops. The South was drowning in poverty. To worsen the situation there were thousands of ex-slaves that were set free by the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13 Amendment. "All these ex-slaves", Dr. Susan Walens commented, "and no place to put them," The ex-slaves weren't just homeless but they had no rights, unlike white man. The government and congress had to solve the issues present in the south and the whole nation in order to re-establish the South. These issues were economical, social and political. The United States had presidential and congressional reconstruction. Reconstruction was a failure, a great attempt to unify the nation. It was a failure due to the events that took place during this period.
The Reconstruction was undoubtedly a failure . The political and social aim of Reconstruction was to form national unity as well as create civil rights and equality for African Americans. Even though Reconstruction laid the foundation for equal rights in the United States, it did not achieve its primary goals. In the time of Reconstruction, many African Americans still felt the effects of oppression and many were still trapped in an undesirable social and economic class. The Reconstruction was an overall fail despite the fact that it was the shaky groundwork for a fight for equality in the years to come.
... and slavery left millions of newly freed African Americans in the South without an education, a home, or a job. Before reconstruction was put in place, African Americans in the South were left roaming helplessly and hopelessly. During the reconstruction period, the African Americans’ situation did not get much better. Although helped by the government, African Americans were faced with a new problem. African Americans in the South were now being terrorized and violently discriminated by nativist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. Such groups formed in backlash to Reconstruction and canceled out all the positive factors of Reconstruction. At last, after the Compromise of 1877, the military was taken out of the South and all of the Reconstruction’s efforts were basically for nothing. African Americans in the South were back to the conditions they started with.
It was a time in American history that one could describe as “one step forward, two steps back”. We won a huge political battle; the abolition of slavery. At the same time, we were faced with the growing labor issues in the North, as industrialization changed the face of labor. The Union won the war on a physical and practical level but failed to change its root cause. It failed to change the attitudes of common southern society. Reconstruction was done while ignoring extremely pervasive southern values and ideals, and that is why I believe that reconstruction was, as I said, an era of “one step forward, two steps back.” The era of Reconstruction was a time in American history where the idea of a government by and for the people was ignored in favor of what the government thought was best for the people, while ignoring what the people were asking for.
When Reconstruction began in 1865, a broken America had just finished fighting the Civil War. In all respects, Reconstruction was mainly just that. It was a time period of “putting back the pieces”, as people say. It was the point where America attempted to become a full running country once more. This, though, was not an easy task. The memory of massive death was still in the front of everyone’s mind, hardening into resentment and sometimes even hatred. The south was virtually non-existent politically or economically, and searching desperately for a way back in. Along with these things, now living amongst the population were almost
Reconstruction was needed and the period following the civil war, the reconstruction period, fostered many significant results and achievements especially for Constitutional amendments. While mending a broken country, the reconstruction period still left many fresh wounds. There was great successes and championships for former slaves and the blacks rights, but their was still lingering thoughts and acts of discrimination towards these groups. Reconstruction produced three amendments defending the people 's rights, yet discrimination towards blacks was peeking to new heights. Laws were not enough to change the hearts and minds of the people, which was at the core of the issue. With the unfortunate loss of the nation’s leader, it would be almost a hundred years later until America had leaders strong enough, in the nineteen sixties, that could change the ideas of racism and
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.
Reconstruction has been brutally murdered! For a little over a decade after the Civil War, the victorious North launched a campaign of social, economic, and political recovery in South. Martial law was also implemented in the South. Eventually, the North hoped to admit the territory in the former Confederacy back into the United States as states. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments freed the African Americans, made them citizens, and gave them the right to vote. Despite this, Reconstruction was unfortunately cut short in 1877. The North killed Recosntruction because of racism, negligence, and distractions.
Reconstruction, the policy that attempted to reconstruct the South after the Civil War, officially ended in 1877. This policy was developed to bring back the 11 states that left the Union and give “freedmen”- African Americans who were freed from slavery - civil rights. The failure of Reconstruction was ironical since it happened during the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. It also happened during a time when everything appeared to be going smoothly for the country, with railroads being built at a rapid rate, hopes and dreams as dreamed by Thomas Jefferson were being pursued, and African Americans were gaining more freedom and equal rights (Roden). The South was responsible for its death
Reconstruction occurred after the Civil war in the years 1865-1877. The Radical Republicans, 15th Amendment and the Ku Klux Klan were the reason why Reconstruction failed to secure the permanent rights of African Americans. These were only a few of the reasons why Reconstruction failed, but they are the ones that seems to widely affect it. The Radical Republicans were against giving rights to blacks, the 15th amendment led to the Ku Klux Klan act, and the Ku Klux Klan was a group that was against African Americans, the Reconstruction was there to put rights for blacks in place but it failed and never gave them permanent rights.
Reconstruction was one of the biggest steps towards a better environment and a place for everyone in the United States. As a country we came together to fix what was wrong in our home we call, America. As the rebuilding process of America, it promised to refine and enhance the faults in our lovely country. From the Freedman’s Bureau, passing the Civil Rights Act of 1866, ending with the Compromise of 1877, reconstruction accomplished refining the country in ways that benefited us greatly. With the problems reconstruction created and solved, came the succession of making the country just that much better.
A. The Reconstruction period took place after the Civil war from 1865-1877 by Abraham Lincoln to rebuild the South that occupied Union soldiers. There were many changes that affected African-Americans, such as amendments 13-15, which gave them certain rights. This period was very important for Blacks in America, it was the time when they were completely free from slavery and the citizenship changed how they lived their lives. They were given civil rights, which gave them the right to sue or sit on juries, voting, and owning property. This time frame also gave us the creation of the first public school systems in the South. There were changes in the labor force and working conditions, which came about with sharecropping. (Norton, 2015)