This survey paper will explore the early events of Reconstruction during and immediately after the Civil War. The topics that will be addressed in this survey paper will be the Thirteenth Amendment, the Freedmen's Bureau, the Black Code, the Fourteenth Amendment and finally some political and social achievements of Reconstruction. Reconstruction to African Americans began as a feeling of joy and triumph for their freedom which was taken away quicker than it took to receive but it just wasn't called slavery anymore. Emancipation Proclamation/The Thirteenth Amendment The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 issued by President Lincoln was set up to free blacks from slavery. Soon after Congress enacted and the states ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery throughout the nation (Library of Congress). After the Civil War, I feel the biggest problem in the South was labor. To the new African American's freedom meant freedom from white control, autonomy as individuals and as a community. For the most part black people wanted to work for themselves and not for their former masters. But, most black chose to leave the South altogether. Freedmen's Bureau On March 4, 1865, the U.S. government created a temporary federal agency - the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands- to assist 4 million freed slaves in making the transition from slavery to freedom. The agency distributed trainloads of food and clothing provided by the federal government to freed slaves and Southern white refugees (Freedmen's Bureau). The Freedmen's bureau helped to establish a system of wage labor. An advantage of this system was that it gave blacks the power to break contracts and move if they wanted to. The Bureau built hosp... ... middle of paper ... ...oned in this paper this new life was unfortunately not a life of equality but it was a change from being a slave. This of course was the most important success of the Reconstruction. This unfortunately was overlooked and southern whites began for example using segregation, lynching, and codes in place of the former slave days to keep blacks "under control". Works Cited Hine, Darlene C., Hine, William C., Harrold, Stanley: The African-American Odyssey Volume Two: Since 1865. Second Edition. Prentice Hall. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. 2003. Mississipi Black Code http://occawlonline.pearsoned.com/ /medialib/timeline/docs/sources/theme_primarysources_Civil_Rights_1.html Freedmen Bureau http://www.freedmensbureau.com/ Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.: http://www.loc.gov http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ms/county/attala/Freedmen'sAct1863.htm
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Show MoreThe first part of this book looks into African American political activity during the pre-Civil War and Civil War periods. He uses this part of the book to show that blacks, even while in slavery, used their position to gain rights from their slaveholders. These rights included the right to farm their own plots, sale of their produce, and to visit neighboring plantations. This was also the period
As an unabridged version of his other book, Eric Foner sets out to accomplish four main goals in A Short History of Reconstruction. These points enable the author to provide a smaller, but not neglectful, account of the United States during Reconstruction. By exploring the essence of the black experience, examining the ways in which Southern society evolved, the development of racial attitudes and race relations, and the complexities of race and class in the postwar South, as well as the emergence during the Civil War and Reconstruction of a national state possessing vastly expanded authority and a new set of purposes, Foner creates a narrative that encompasses some of the major issues during Reconstruction. Additionally, the author provides
The thesis “The New View of Reconstruction”, Eric Foner reviews the constantly changing view on the subject of the Reconstruction. The postwar Reconstruction period has been viewed in many different lights throughout history but one fact remains true, that it was one of the most “violent, dramatic and controversial” times in US’s history (224). In the beginning of his thesis, Eric Foner talks about the way the Reconstruction was though as before the 1960 as a period of intense, corruption and manipulation of the freedman. After mentioning the old way of thinking before the 1960’s, Eric Foner reveals the reason for this train of thought, the ignored testimonials of the black freedman.
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.
Bracey, Meier, and Elliot Rudwick. Free Blacks in America, 1800-1860. California: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1971.
Marable, Manning. Race, reform, and rebellion: the second reconstruction and beyond in Black America, 1945-2006. 3rd ed. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007. Print
The Emancipation Proclamation was a major turning point in our country’s modern history, but reconstruction caused major conflicts that to many years to resolve. One of the major issues was that southern states had to give blacks the same rights as whites and that did not sit well in the South. This was such an issue that in major cities, riots broke out and harmed many blacks. The black who were additionally emancipated were not financially stable because of the fact that they were never paid before. These issues caused major issues for the blacks in the Reconstruction Era because they were transitioning to a new life where they had to become independent and had equal right as everyone else. This was a major turning point and place of growth in the United States, but was additionally accompanied with major growing conflicts.
On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation; as the country headed toward the third year of the civil war. This proclamation stated: “that all persons held as slaves are, and hence forward shall be free,” however this only applied to the states that were no longer part of the union, leaving slavery untouched in other states. However the Emancipation Proclamation was needed to benefit African Americans.
After the ending of the Civil War in 1865, slavery was, at last, formally abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment. Due to the freedom of these African Americans and the South’s ever-growing hatred towards this group, African Americans were left to suffer harsh discrimination and horrible conditions. Africans Americans were left without homes, education, jobs, or money. Reconstruction was the Radical Republicans’ attempt to try and bring the Confederate states back to normal and unite both the South and the North into a whole country once again. Reconstruction was also set to protect and help the newly freed African Americans assimilate to the new society and the foreign economy they were placed in. Conditions of the African Americans in the South before, during, and after the reconstruction period were no doubt harsh. African Americans, before the Reconstruction Era, struggled to assimilate with the hateful society they were thrown in, if not still slaves. Although their condition improved slightly, African Americans during the reconstruction period experienced extreme terrorism, discrimination, pressure, and hatred from the south, along with the struggle of keeping alive. After the military was taken out of the South, African Americans’ condition after the Reconstruction Era relapsed back as if Reconstruction never happened.
...ary and federal government to working toward freeing slaves in rebel states. This excluded the border states and confederate states controlled by the Union. They were exempt because they were not in rebellion against the U.S. The Border States were states that didn’t declare secession from the Union. These states also kept slavery even after the emancipation act was issued. The Border States consisted of Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, and Maryland. The proclamation allowed blacks and slaves to serve in the United States Military. During the next 2 and a half years 180,000 of them fought in the Union army and 10,000 in the navy. They made a huge contribution to Union victory as well as their own freedom. The Emancipation Proclamation increased the intensity of the war greatly. From now on the war would be considered a new birth of freedom(Emancipation Proclamation).
Froner’s account of the efforts of slaves to get north to freedom emphasizes that, although there were many heroic whites who helped, even their efforts would hardly have been possible “without the courage and resourcefulness, in a hostile environment, of blacks,” ranging from those northern free blacks who served on abolition committees to “the ordinary men and women”
During this period of literature of the Reconstruction to the New Negro Renaissance, 1865-1919, African Americans were becoming more educated and more aware of the rights that they were entitled to. The start of this Reconstruction Era began after 1863’s emancipation of slaves in the Confederate states and the Civil War’s end in 1865. Although the three Civil Rights amendments, thirteenth(1865), fourteenth (1868), and fifteenth (1870), ends slavery in slaves states, ensures equal protection and due process for all citizens, and gives voting rights to all men(Black and White), institutionalized segregation was still an issue(UShistory.org). Nevertheless, more voices began to emerge as social and political changes were made approaching the Renaissance. These brave men and woman of color tried these issues and expressed themselves using the art of literature. The major reasons Blacks displayed these expressions was to: (1) articulate intellectual achievements, (2) teach themselves, (3) correct the historical record of the black experience, and (4) document and shape social and political aspirations and conditions(Gates). After the distinguished abolitionist and writer Fredrick Douglass died on February 20, 1895 at Cedar Hill’s woman’s rights meeting one intellectual leader in particular, Booker T. Washington, become a key spokes person and writer of the Black Community(bibliography.com). Dr. Washington’s “Atlanta Compromise” is noted as one of the most influential and significant speeches delivered in America(Gaston). It’s time to explicate Dr. Washington’s address as it relates to the one of the four major aims for writing literature during this era and his life story.
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.
The end of the Civil War in 1865 exited a period of strife and conflict and rapidly ushered in another. At the dawn of the period of Reconstruction, the relatively new nation of America was availed of an opportunity to redefine itself based on the principles of true freedom for all of its citizens. Unfortunately, the ingrained biases, preferences, and selfishness of the human condition consigned the possibility to the gloom of unrecognized potential. Due to legislative outcomes, the attitudes of the public sphere, and the condition of the freed slaves at the end of 1877, Reconstruction should be considered a failure.
Reconstruction began throughout the nation, but mostly in the South following the civil war in 1863. It had many widely positive and negative consequences within the period. These consequences were felt both short term and long term, for the North and the South. This in return would ultimately lead to the end of the Reconstruction period with many questioning its success. In this essay I will compare and contrast the many sides of the Reconstruction period felt for both the North and the South. The steady Presidential changes as they changed throughout the Reconstruction period. To the corruption of government that also had a long term effect on the Reconstruction period. The freedoms of blacks as they fought to retain them in a new and unsettling