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.
Reconstruction gave potential hope and opportunity for the black population even though it failed to bring economic gains to blacks. it instead established social gains as more and blacks migrated to the south, the federal freedman bureau made education more widely available for blacks.
“Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” George Santayana stated what happens if we do not learn from our past. After the Civil War the United States wanted to build itself back up. The nation was in rubble because half of the country was fighting the other. That left it in a sad and fallen state. The issue of slavery was a long debated topic. They thought they could get over this and start anew. Reconstruction means the actions or process of rebuilding what has been damaged or destroyed. Did the North or the South kill Reconstruction? That issue is still up for debate. In my opinion, the South killed Reconstruction and stopped it dead in its tracks. The South did not respect the African American’s right to vote and would terrorize
Reconstruction government made many changes. It strengthened public education and made it available to black children. It strengthened public education and made it available to black children. It also helped the position of women by expanding legal rights for women.
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
Reconstruction(1865-1877) was the time period in which the US rebuilt after the Civil War. During this time, the question the rights of freed slaves in the United States were highly debated. Freedom, in my terms, is the privilege of doing as you please without restriction as long as it stays within the law. However, in this sense, black Americans during the Reconstruction period were not truly free despite Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. While legally free, black Americans were still viewed through the lens of racism and deeply-rooted social biases/stigmas that prevented them from exercising their legal rights as citizens of the United States. For example, black Americans were unable to wholly participate in the government as a
What role(s) did African Americans play in achieving the "rights" outlined in this document by the late 1870s?
The United States had a 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. It was 1865, black men were tasting freedom, the confederation was defeated, the south was defeated, but the unchained blacks had no real freedom. " A man maybe free and yet not independent," Mississippi planter Samuel Agnew observed in his diary (Foner 481).
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.
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.
Even with this government legislation, the newly dubbed 'freedmen' were still discriminated against by most people and, ironically, they were soon to be restricted and segregated once again under government rulings in important court cases of the era. Reconstruction was intended to give African-Americans the chance for a new and better life. Many of them stayed with their old masters after being freed, while others left in search of opportunity through education as well as land ownership. However, this was not exactly an easy task. There were many things standing in their way, chiefly white supremacists and the laws and restrictions they placed upon African-Americans.
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.
The American Civil War helped to save the nation by rejoining Union Confederate and as result of the Emancipation Proclamation, most African American slaves were declared freed men. However, during the American Reconstruction, the lack of political unity was still very apparent as the South saw Reconstruction as being defeated humiliatingly and thus sought vengeance through the slaves it had lose. Although many slaves did receive their freedom, Reconstruction caused an increase in the white supremacy groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and laws such black codes/ Jim Crow laws/ sharecropping, which limited the rights freed slaves had. This unfortunately caused many of the freed slaves to be only marginally better off than before the Civil War and to still be under white control even after the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment. Having a president that was formerly a slave owner and opposed the rights of freed men as well a weak central government that was in a state of disorder thus caused a failure to put an end to segregation and integrate freed African Americans into society; instead they were seen as second class citizens that had limited rights and were still discriminated even more harshly by bitter Southerners.
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.
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)