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The reconstruction after the American civil war
The reconstruction after the American civil war
The reconstruction after the American civil war
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Presidential Reconstruction and Congressional Reconstruction have some differences and some similarities. Reconstruction was a huge thing at this time in America. Abraham Lincoln was a huge part of reconstruction and when he was assassinated, Andrew Johnson took over his role of President and of reconstructing the south. Abraham Lincoln wanted to fix the intersectional hatred that was caused from the civil war. On December 8, 1863 Lincoln set a general policy that by taking an oath southerners could reinstate themselves as US citizens. Abraham Lincoln was working hard to bring southern states back into the Union. One way he tried was with the Ten Percent Plan. In this Ten Percent Plan, 10% of people voting in a state had to take a loyalty oath. If this happened then that state could setup a new state government. Under this Ten Percent Plan, governments had to realize that they had to Republican and realize that slaves would be free and provide for black education. Radical Republicans in Congress disliked the Ten Percent Plan. In July 1864, they passed the Wade-Davis Bill, which was a bill stating that the majority of the voters in the south had to take a loyalty oath, not just 10% of the state. Lincoln disagreed and got rid of this bill with a pocket veto. In April of 1865 President Lincoln was assassinated. His running mate, Andrew Johnson took over presidency. Most people thought that he would punish the south, but soon everyone realized that was not true. He became more focused on punishing the southern elite and not the whole south. Radical Republicans hated him and they decided to take matters into their own hands. Even though slavery had been abolished, the southern states enact... ... middle of paper ... ... injunction to stop the strike action because of mail not being able to be delivered. On the 4th of July troops arrived and violence broke out, crowds fought with 14,000 Federal Troops, police and militiamen. It spread to several states and 34 lives were lost. The combined forces forced the strike to end on July 8. With all of these strikes taking place, many companies were disturbed. Americans wanted to be treated fairly. By forming unions and standing their ground against their employers, employees were able to go on strike and prove a point. Some strikes turned very bad with deaths and injuries. Having unions were good in some views and bad in others. Overall the unions were there to benefit employees all over America. Works Cited Carnes, Mark C., and John A. Garraty. American Destiny: Narrative of a Nation. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2008. Print.
This strike was a battle over several issues. One factor that escalated the strike intensity was the pensions battle. Billons of dollars in pensions were on the line. The Teamste...
During the time period of 1860 and 1877 many major changes occurred. From the beginning of the civil war to the fall of the reconstruction, the United States changed dramatically. Nearly one hundred years after the Declaration of Independence which declared all men equal, many social and constitutional alterations were necessary to protect the rights of all people, no matter their race. These social and constitutional developments that were made during 1860 to 1877 were so drastic it could be called a revolution.
They concentrated on higher wages, shorter hours, and personal issues of workers. The American Federation of Labor’s main weapon was walkouts and boycotts to get industries to succeed to better conditions and higher wages. By the early 1900’s, its membership was up to ½ million workers. Through the years since The Great Depression, labor unions were responsible for several benefits for employees. Workers have safer conditions, higher paying jobs to choose from, and better benefits negotiated for them by their collective bargaining unit.
Readmission to the union was a dividing factor between Republicans in politics. Lincoln advocated for the "Ten Percent Plan." This demanded that only ten percent of voters in a state take an oath to uphold the values presented in the constitution in order to rejoin the union. Lincoln would then pardon all Confederate government figures and rights of citizenship would be readmitted. Radical Republicans opposed the plan, claiming that it was too lenient.
Throughout the history of the United States of America the continuation of misfortunes for the workforce has aggravated people to their apex, eventually leading to the development of labor unions.
America has gone through many hardships and struggles since coming together as a nation involving war and changes in the political system. Many highly regarded leaders in America have come bestowing their own ideas and foundation to provide a better life for “Americans”, but no other war or political change is more infamous than the civil war and reconstruction. Reconstruction started in 1865 and ended in 1877 and still to date one of the most debated issues in American history on whether reconstruction was a failure or success as well as a contest over the memory, meaning, and ending of the war. According to, “Major Problems in American History” David W. Blight of Yale University and Steven Hahn of the University of Pennsylvania take different stances on the meaning of reconstruction, and what caused its demise. David W. Blight argues that reconstruction was a conflict between two solely significant, but incompatible objectives that “vied” for attention both reconciliation and emancipation. On the other hand Steven Hahn argues that former slaves and confederates were willing and prepared to fight for what they believed in “reflecting a long tradition of southern violence that had previously undergirded slavery” Hahn also believes that reconstruction ended when the North grew tired of the 16 year freedom conflict. Although many people are unsure, Hahn’s arguments presents a more favorable appeal from support from his argument oppose to Blight. The inevitable end of reconstruction was the North pulling federal troops from the south allowing white rule to reign again and proving time travel exist as freed Africans in the south again had their civil, political, and economical position oppressed.
1865 to a series of plots to abduct Lincoln and use his capture to nullify the Union’s war aims. Every
Rich Yeselson writes in his essay entitled “Fortress Unionism”, that the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 was the beginning of the end for private sector unions. He says that the Taft-Hartley act “stopped labor dead in its tracks at a point when unions were large, growing, and confident of their economic and political power.” He believes that without this law, that restricts the activities and power of labor unions, the U.S. would not have seen union density flatten and then make a dramatic decline, but rather would have seen Union membership continuing to thrive. “Taft-Hartley meant unions needed more and more lawyers to untangle the welter of laws, decisions and contract that now ensnared labor” (Yeselson, 2013). Another point the article makes was that the workers recent attempts to form new unions were not strong enough because it is harder to organize on a large...
As part of the Square Deal to control corporations, a series of new measures and policies were created and approved to ensure and protect laborer rights on a federal level. Prior to Roosevelt, the federal government barely supported labor— rather it used injunctions and military actions against labor union strikes, as demonstrated by the railroad strikes of 1877 and the Pullman Strike of 1894. However, during his presidency, Roosevelt wanted a compromise between workers and corporations, and was quick to eschew the use of federal troops, although not as quick to recognize unions. His solution to strikes, influenced partly by the Anthracite coal strike of 1902 and other labor unrests, was the establishment of the “Square Deal” that met the demands of ...
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 Homestead Lockout and Strike of 1892 had an enormous impact on the labor movement of the late 19th century. This event brought up a huge debate between what workers thought they deserved and their management’s opposing views. Carnegie, for example, wanted to pay his employees according to the inflation or deflation of the price of steel. More importantly, he also wanted to do away with unions, because they didn’t agree with his terms and he refused to negotiate. This resulted in the initial lockout, which was a precursor to the strike.
Chapter sixteen begins with the reconstruction period of the civil war. From previous history classes I have learned more in depth about the war and why the North was fighting against the South, but overall I think the most important part to look at from the civil war is the end of it and what was to come after it, which was the reconstruction era. Lincoln had just released his emancipation proclamation and freed the slaves. As happy as this may seem it was actually quite the opposite. Attitudes of white southerners towards black in the south hadn 't changed a bit after the Emancipation Proclamation. In 1865 Carl Schurz was sent by President Andrew Johnson to investigate the current conditions of the confederacy after they were defeated in the civil war. While there he shared in his “Report on the Condition of the South” that southerners have a belief “so deeply rooted… that the negro will not work without physical compulsion”. Overall this just shows how the attitudes of white southerners were no different. They truly believed that the blacks weren 't able to work or function without force. Many northerners and abolitionists, such as Wendell Phillips, at this time saw this and actually said that Lincoln didn 't do enough. They wanted him to do a complete overhaul of southern society. Personally I understand where these people were coming from. They were people who really wanted all the issues to be resolved. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was a step in the right direction, but he could have done more. Schurz even noted that “negroes who walked away from the plantations, or were found upon the roads, were shot or otherwise severely punished”. Former slaves weren ...
...ise in ways to easily break strikes, and the passage of anti-union legislation. While strikes have become much harder to begin and maintain successfully, citizens vying for change now have a better opportunity of reaching each other using vast media supplied by the internet, allowing for a chance of forming larger coalitions around the country .The methods used by social movements in the past still have great potential to show our current generations feasible ways of gaining social benefits, and while some actions may be considered radical, the drive and organization the labor movement displayed could still easily prove successful. A movement away from the endless and scattered interest groups and more towards organized and larger movements aiming for improving the greater social good could bring about political and economic improvement that many Americans desire.
Unions allow the workers to ask for their rights as employees. Unions can enforce job security standard in a relatively fast and inexpensive forum. Unions can contest disparate treat...
Even till now unions have been overall successful; they have been capable of the task to establish rights and equality to all workers. They gave workers better working conditions, minimum wage, maximum hours, and benefits, such as overtime and fringe benefits. This made being a labor worker an actually decent job to peruse and have as a career. It helped also make labor workers an actually important part of society and of construction that is key to beginning and finishing a project. Even though some people may have mix feelings towards union it has impacted labor rights in a fruitful way.