Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
essay on reconstruction era
essay about rosa parks and the montgomery bus boycott
the battle of gettysburg dbq
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: essay on reconstruction era
History's Eras
Throughout the many changes in history and fluctuations in economy during times of war and times of rebuilding, there are several key people and events that have greatly affected America's path forever within the multiple Eras. Each abrupt turn in history is the result of someone's decision or some event that placed the power in someone else's hands. These sometimes critical and morally questioned times make up the guide not only to our history, but our future as well. They teach us which way not to go again, and what is, and what use to be extremely important in preserving the American culture that was founded not so long ago. By viewing these movements, wars and moral evolutions, we can see how far America has come so far and where it should go.
Reconstruction took several different turns within the twelve year period of 1865-1877. Although President Lincoln revealed the rough road that lay ahead by presenting his Ten Percent Plan and the 13th Amendment, he would have little to do with what was to come due to his untimely assassination by John Wilkes Booth. Booth changed the course of history at that moment by handing the presidency to Vice President Andrew Johnson.
Johnson rolled back several gains that Lincoln had in store. He had little to no sympathy for the enslaved blacks and blamed wealthy property owners and high ranking Confederate Officials for the South's poverty. With the now Union functioning governments of the former Confederate states, Republicans were "Sympathetic" to Johnson's decision to put the power of the freed men's civil and political rights into the hands of the individual states. This brought on the laws or "Black Codes" which gave them no choice but to live the slave life ...
... middle of paper ...
...hip and programs, but overall the public saw him as a hero. He changed the connection between government and Americans forever.
After reviewing the countless trials and successes America has gone through, it is clear that she has been mis-guided and set back on track several times. With our system of democracy that has been molded and shaped over several periods, it is clear that America is a powerful nation that is continuing to grow. Each president, advisor and citizen has shown their love for this country and its people in so many ways, and by this they have changed the path of history forever. One individual can change history forever, Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth, Rosa Parks and even Margaret Sanger are all people that dramatically influenced the way America is today and the way it might have been had they not had dreams and morals that fueled them.
After the tragedy of Lincoln's death, Vice President Andrew Johnson stepped up into the presidential position and started his own plans for reconstruction; his too, would turn out to be a failure. He supported hardcore Democratic principles and restoring Southern power. He brought in the remaining states back into the constitution. He
America’s pavement of growth throughout history to today’s present day has changed immensely, and we the people are responsible for its shape and development. We all are America’s history; we are the endless cycle of the ruins and rebirths, and the sum of the good and the bad that have occurred. We are the narrators of the vast and small achievements that have molded our civilization. Our sums or products help guide our actions for the present. History simply repeats itself; if we do not learn from our mistakes, then we are bound to create them again. Throughout America’s growth, there were two different men almost two hundred years apart in which history had obeyed, and they still serve as an inspiration for today’s nation, Thomas Paine and Martin Luther King Jr. They both were an important voice for America during their time periods, and helped guide everyone to achieve their own version of America’s dream. Despite the time periods and slight differences about their goals and dreams,
The plan was a mix of Johnson’s own ideas for reconstruction and some of the ideas that Lincoln had in his Ten Percent Plan. Even though his plan was very lenient toward former confederate officials, republicans and other northerners were in agreement with his plan for the most part. Obviously there will be people who do not agree with his entire plan such as the Radical Republican group. There was not much of another option to go by so Johnson’s Plan had to be put into use. Lincoln was assassinated so there was no real support behind his ten percent plan. Even though Lincoln’s plan was not used, some of the ideas from his plan were still included in Johnson’s such as taking an oath of loyalty by the former confederate officials to rejoin the union and create a state government. The republicans were too radical for Johnson in their views of how former slaves should be treated. They also wanted harsher punishment for southern officials which would have taken more time where Johnson just wanted reconstruction to be over as soon as possible. The radicals did have convincing plans to restore America but Johnson rejected a lot of the ideas that the radicals
After the Civil War ended in 1865, it was followed by an era known as Reconstruction that lasted until 1877, with the goal to rebuild the nation. Lincoln was the president at the beginning of this era, until his assassination caused his vice president, Andrew Johnson to take his place in 1865. Johnson was faced with numerous issues such as the reunification of the union and the unknown status of the ex-slaves, while compromising between the principles of the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. After the Election of 1868, Ulysses S. Grant, a former war hero with no political experience, became the nation’s new president, but was involved in numerous acts of corruption. Reconstruction successfully reintegrated the southern states into the Union through Lincoln and Johnson’s Reconstruction Plans, but was mostly a failure due to the continued discriminatory policies against African Americans, such as the Black Codes, Jim Crow laws, and sharecropping, as well as the widespread corruption of the elite in the North and the Panic of 1873,
The reconstruction of the Union began under President Lincoln before the end of the war, and carried on by President Johnson after the assassination of President Lincoln. After Lincoln’s death, the leadership of the nation bestowed upon Andrew Johnson of Tennessee. According to A. Brinkley (pg. 375), Johnson revealed his plan for reconstruction or “Restoration”, as he preferred to call it, soon after he took office and implemented it during the summer of 1865 when Congress was in recess. Like Lincoln, he offered some form of amnesty to Southerners who would take a pledge of loyalty to the Union. In most other respect, however, his plan resembled the Wade-Davis Bill. The next phase of reconstruction, known as the Congressional Plan or "Radical" modernization had begun, which undid everything started by Presidents Lincoln and Johnson. These radicals, mostly republicans, motivated by three main factors revenge, concern for the freedmen, and political concerns. The Radicals in Congress pushed through a number of measures designed to assist the freedmen, but also demonstrate the supremacy of Congress over the president. These events included the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the 14th Amendment, the Tenure of Office Act, and the Army Appropriations Act. The Radical Republicans prepared an effort in Congress to impeach the president Johnson as a payback for resisting their platforms. The vote in the Senate was 35-19 for conviction, one vote short of the necessary two-thirds. This was in turn to a few Republicans that had crossed over and voted with the Democrats, thus refuting the ultimate retaliation to the Radicals. If the removal of President Johnson had gone thru, it might have permanently weakened the executive branch. Congr...
As President, Johnson decided to follow Lincolns plans by granting amnesty to almost all former confederates; establishing a Provisional government; and ratifying the thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery. However, Johnson was not the same man as Lincoln for he was quite unpopular, especially with Congress. As the south was in a transitional period, its politics were changing as well. First, the Reconstruction Act allowed blacks to v...
A “war” Democrat opposed to secession, in 1864 Johnson was tapped by Republican President Abraham Lincoln as his running mate to balance the Union ticket. He became president following Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865, just days after the Civil War ended. As president, Johnson’s desire to scale back Lincoln’s Reconstruction legislation following the Civil War angered the Radical Republican majority that sought to punish the former rebels of the Confederacy.
As modern America has progressed, it has had many advancements. Those advancements in turn have only compounded the problems they were meant to solve by adding copious amounts of obstacles. Progressive movements in people’s rights have been met with opposition, the country has become scared due to terrorist threats and local attacks such as: bombings and shootings, and now America is worried about the future. America’s zeitgeist is easily offended, frightened, and concerned.
Despite the unpopular opinions of his foreign policies, his domestic policies greatly benefited the American people. His actions towards change for the Civil Rights Movement, War on Poverty and the environment has had great impact on the Unites States then and till this day.
After Lincoln’s death in 1865, Andrew Johnson turned Reconstruction on its head. He made several changes to the Reconstruction policy, nearly cutting Congress off completely from the process. Johnson began putting white supremacists in power of the Reconstruction governments. This began a chain of events that led to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and the end of the biracial democracy in the south. Johnson put pro-Union Southern political leaders into power, even though many had aided the Confederacy during the war. These men, with Johnson's support, attempted ...
Shortly after the Civil War, there were multiple plans offered for reconstruction in the nation. This probably would have been different if Lincoln had not been assassinated. Once Lincoln was assassinated, it left Andrew Johnson as president. Johnson was a former slave owner as well as a southerner. He also had no college education and was in a vulnerable state. Many wondered how Johnson was going to live up to Lincoln’s plans and aspirations. After the Civil War, congress was taken over by an organization known as the Radical republicans. The Radicals listened to Lincoln because he had proposed a reconstruction plan that looked to treat the South badly. These radicals looked at reconstruction as an opportunity to discipline the South. Lincoln, if he had survived, would have been able to command the Radical Republicans with his traditional wisdom. However, due to his death, there was no one to take the place of a leader. Seeing as Johnson was a southerner created an enormous irony. The radical Republicans despised President Johnson even before he was president. Johnson attempted to create a plan similar to Lincolns but congress was not impressed. Johnson was not a man who held strong positive relationships. He was hated and unfit to be president. Because of Lincoln’s untimely death, Johnson created bad relationships and effected many of Lincoln’s ideals and
Many people had different views and ideas about Reconstruction. There was much debate about how the Confederate states, which included Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia, should be readmitted into the Union. Some people believed that the states should be treated as territories, and others believed that the southern leaders should be punished instead of the states. Still, others believed that the South still belonged to the Union because secession was illegal. During the Civil War, on December 1863, President Lincoln announced his 10 % Plan for Reconstruction. Many Northerners considered it to be too mild, but the blacks condemned it for ignoring saying nothing about civil rights fir the freedmen and ignoring black suffrage. Lincoln’s plan was never carried out because he was assassinated less than one week after the Civil War. However, while Lincoln was president, a national debate developed over whether Congress or the President should establish the Reconstruction policy.
...ights for African Americans as well as a political rights for the people, his goal was to abolish slavery and felt that “all men created equally” should uphold for everybody, everybody that was man at least. Johnson the president, in the beginning proved to be loyal to his radicals by chastising the confederacy making sure there would be repercussions for their actions. Also his amnesty plan to reinstate the south states was far harsher than that of Lincoln's. Johnson’s sanctions deprived confederacy officers, people in high power, and anyone who owned valuable assets could be subject to confiscation. The purpose was to shift political power in south and reward it to freed blacks and white southerners who stayed neutral during the war. Hahn states in his article that, “During reconstruction, black men held political offices in every state of the former confederacy”
The period after the Civil War, 1865 - 1877, was called the Reconstruction period. Abraham Lincoln started planning for the reconstruction of the South during the Civil War as Union soldiers occupied huge areas of the South. He wanted to bring the Nation back together as quickly as possible and in December 1863 he offered his plan for Reconstruction which required that the States new constitutions prohibit slavery.
Many people see history as a set of facts, or as a collection of stories. The reality, however, is that history is a fluid timeline. Each act of an individual or a group has an effect on others. Each moment in history is a building block that, good or bad, contributes to the stability of the next. This can be seen clearly in American history, as there have been several developments since the 1800’s that have played major roles on the growth of the nation.