From 1865 to 1877, Americans felt it was time for politics, the economy and society to change, which produced an era of reconstruction. In some areas Reconstruction is seen as a success and in other areas it's seen as a failure. The areas of success in this period were with the Radical Republicans and South Reconstruction. The "Union victory created a golden opportunity [for Radicals] to institutionalize the principle of equal rights for all, refardless of race" (Foner 570). The start of the Radical Reconstruction began with Congress giving black men the right to vote, which was a great success towards giving every citizen equal rights. Then the adoption of the fourteenth and fifteenth ammendment were also a huge step towards equal rights proposed …show more content…
During this period, African Americans were free but to them "land was essential to the meaning of freedom" (Foner 562). When President Andrew Johnson suceeded Lincoln he "ordered nearly all land in federal hands return to its former owners" (Foner 562). This caused "rural freed-people [to remain] poor and without property during Reconstruction" (Foner 563). Then President Andrew Johnson offered a pardon (which restored political and property rights, except for slaves) to nearly all white southerners who took an oath of allegiance" (Foner 569). The exemption turned most of the Republican North against the president and returned most white voters to Confederates (Foner 569). As the Reconstruction had success towards giving equal rights to all, it did not give equal rights to women. "Women tried to use the rewritten legal code and Constitution to claim equal rights [but] they found the courts unreceptitive" (Foner 578). Which "left the gender boundary largely intact" (Foner 578). The north was opposite of the souths support for Reconstruction. The northern states retreated from Reconstruction based on their racism towards the equal rights given to African American and the economic depression (Foner 587). Although the Reconstruction period had its share of failures, it also had its share of success. Without the good results of the Reconstruction,
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Show MoreThe reconstruction period which is the period of rebuilding the United States after the civil war is said to be a time of great pain, and endless questions to the United States (Gienapp, 2012). The Civil War led to the end of slavery, and three constitutional amendments which altered the nature of the African-American rights. The Thirteenth Amendment facilitated the abolishment of slavery in all territories, and states. What is more, the Fourteenth Amendment proscribed the US from depriving male citizens’ equal rights, and protection under the law, in spite of their race or color. Likewise, the Fifteenth Amendment granted all African-American males, the right to vote. All these changes and their ratification was a vital requirement for the Southerners to be re-admitted to the Union. As much as these changes were positive steps towards racial segregation, their enforcement proved difficult as the Southerners were against them, terming them as revenge, from the Northerners. The Southerners could not hold onto the idea that, black men could enjoy the same status as white men by being allowed to vote, and hold office (Reconstruction: American’s Unfinished Revolution, 2010).
Reconstruction was a major changing point in people’s views of freedom, because it presented the very idea of freedom for more than just white males and laid the foundation for other movements to follow. It occurred after the Civil War from 1865 to its official end in 1877. It originated primarily out of necessity. The government needed a plan to deal with all the now freed African Americans and the once confederate states rejoining the union. The Republican Party backed it though they themselves could not agree on an official plan. Several plans emerged, but in the end, it was a hodgepodge of each plan put together. Several historians would probably argue that reconstruction fail...
The Reconstruction promised liberty, yet was fraught with issues and obstacles for the newly freedman. Living up to the ideal was not easy as the Freedmen were now free to travel and seek prospects, but with laws that varied by state, true freedom for many proved elusive. While the former slaves had been proclaimed free by the United States government, many of the Planters and Southern Democrats refused to acknowledge their new found rights and actively worked to undermine opportunities for prosperity, even resorting to
Reconstruction did however have several accomplishments, including liberalized state constitutions, public schools systems in the South, and internal improvements. “Whatever laws protects the white man shall afford ‘equal’ protection to the black,” according to Thaddeus Stevens. But this was for the most part not true, and the failures of Reconstruction greatly outnumbered the accomplishments. Politically, the South remained the same as it had before, Democratic. The blacks did gain freedom but were far from equality. And the great amount of corruption during this time period marks Reconstruction as a failure. (American History: A Survey, Alan Brinkley)
After the Civil War the Reconstruction Era occurred in the southern United States. The Reconstruction Era deeply impacted the south in a negative way for minority. African American were unjustly treated by the white Americans, their rights were limited and or taken away. As a result, they fought hard to obtain equal treatment as citizens. Blacks tried to fight segregation in many ways like at the ballot boxes, in the courtrooms, and through organizations like the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People. Beginning in 1873, a series of Supreme Court decisions limited the scope of Reconstruction-era laws and federal support for the Reconstruction Amendments, particularly the 14th and 15th, which gave African Americans the status
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.
Americans were struggling to come to terms with these changes. This is where the Reconstruction period begins. During the period between 1865-1877, political, social, and economic reforms were sculpting the nation. The North and South weren’t on speaking terms where the South resented the North. Slaves had been freed, but were not truly accepted into society and economically the farming growth and sharecropping rose. The abolition of slavery was the focal point of the Reconstruction period. Much progress was made to accomplish abolishment. However, it would take approximately another hundred years for African Americans to enjoy the benefits of the Civil War amendments created during the Reconstruction
“The slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery” (Dubois 505). In other words, slavery was abolished but racism was still around. Interestingly, the Declaration of Independence’s one-hundredths anniversary was celebrating freedom, but yet black Americans were being treated unfairly and didn’t have certain rights. The election of 1876 almost caused another Civil War in the South. More rights were given to the black Americans and the dream of Reconstruction seemed to be working until the election of 1876, where the new president actually made it so that it almost guaranteed all-white governments would reclaim power in the South (Roden 505). The South was at fault for the end of Reconstruction due to
America has gone through many different struggles and positive changes. There have been so many different revolutionary moments in America. One of these revolutionary moments was Reconstruction after the civil war. Reconstruction had different periods such as Emancipation and Reconstruction, Presidential Reconstruction, Radical Reconstruction, and the Compromise of 1877. The period of Reconstruction had many goals and accomplishments. Reconstruction did come to an end and just like most revolutionary moments in history Reconstruction was labeled both a success and a failure. Though human equality was the main goal of the Reconstruction period in the South after the Civil War, it proved to be an attempted
Reconstruction had lasted around fourteen years through the years of 1863 to 1877. The purpose of Reconstruction was to get rid of the Confederate forces from the governments and to arrange that the civil rights set the African Americans were respected. It was seen as a failure because the north was not successful when they wanted to repair the south and bring it to the Union. When Reconstruction was going on the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments were established. The thirteenth amendment was approved in 1865 to revoke slavery; the fourteenth amendment was approved in 1868 to process and protect the judgements that were appropriate for all of the people; and the fifteenth amendment was approved in 1870 to forbid discrimination in voting rights on the basis of people’s race and color. There were a lot of different opinions whether Reconstruction had any positive or negative as its results.
As a country, America has gone though many political changes throughout her lifetime. Leaders have come and gone, all of them having different objectives and plans for the future. As history takes its course, though, most all of these “revolutionary movements” come to an end. One such movement was Reconstruction. Reconstruction was a time period in America consisting of many leaders, goals and accomplishments. Though, like all things in life, it did come to an end, the resulting outcome has been labeled both a success and a failure.
However, Ulysses Grant won the next presidential election and the Fifteenth Amendment was adopted, which granted black suffrage, but there were many loopholes that allowed the states to discriminate against blacks due to illiteracy or their inability to pay an expensive tax. It should be noted, though, that women were still not granted the right to vote and this led to feminists searching for their own freedom. The Reconstruction Act resulted in a great interest in politics and African-Americans began holding political offices. As a result, southern life was greatly improved; however, there were opponents of Reconstruction – like government corruption and terror groups like the Ku Klux Klan who could not accept the idea of equality for all – that made Reconstruction in the South very hard. This, along with an economic depression, contributed to the North’s wavering dedication to Reconstruction and the Democrats regained control. This resulted in even more violence against black individuals and Republicans who supported Reconstruction. Consequently, the era of Reconstruction ended and blacks lost much of their previous power when Republicans were in
The Reconstruction tried to help restore and unify the United States. The South had drafted new constitutions, they also acknowledged the Thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth Amendments. That action showed that the south was loyal to the US government. Even with that small progress there continued to be much tension between whites and blacks during the 1870s. Freed people of the south were resented by whites for wanting an education and for wanting a better life for themselves, this period of time was very hard and trying for African Americans. This was a volatile time in America’s history.
The governments established under Congressional Reconstruction made notable and lasting achievements. One positive outcome that resulted was the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which extended citizenship to African Americans and listed certain rights of all citizens such as the right to own property, bring lawsuits, and testify in court. Another major outcome was the Fifteenth Amendment, which prohibited the states from denying the right to vote because of a person’s race or because a person had been a slave. This finally granted African Americans the right to vote and marked an important change in the history of our country. A negative outcome resulted politically from congressional Reconstruction. Many of the federal laws concerning reconstruction led to the strengthening of the federal government at the expense of the states. These new laws often placed significant restrictions on state actions on the ground that the rights of national citizenship took precedence over the powers of state governments leading to an increase in sectional bitterness, an intensification of the racial issue, and the development of one-party politics in the South. Stemming from this “infringement” of states’ rights and intensified by the election of 1868 was another negative outcome. Fierce activities were stirred up by groups such as the KKK- violence became prominent, and terrorists and mobs attacked many people- mostly Republicans and blacks.
This new fear of the voting freedman angered many southern democrats. A war of intimidation began in the south in which the Ku Klux Klan was established that focused on murdering freedmen. There were even openly operating paramilitaries such as the White League who concentrated their attacks upon Republicans. In some towns the entire southern adult male population was engaged in a war against Reconstruction at one point. Reconstruction had done little to redistribute the wealth and land throughout the south. Likewise it did very little to alter the power structure of the region because the Southerners knew that when restrictions were to loosen things would return back to the ordinary conditions. All of the promises from the federal government such as “Forty acres and a mule” by General Sherman were lost and hardly anything was done to guarantee land rights to the