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African Americans in reconstruction
The impact of presidential reconstruction on african americans
The impact of presidential reconstruction on african americans
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In 1867 a 2/3 Republican Congress passes the Reconstruction Acts, which abolishes all governments, and in the elections, Republicans have the advantage thanks to black voters. In Tennessee, a radical Republican by the name of William G. Brownlow takes over, and he is a rather savage man. He is very radical and believes that those who fought for the Confederacy are traders, and he shows no mercy on returning rebel soldiers. His paper publishes the names of the soldiers, targeting them for revenge. He ratifies the 14th amendment, and while giving rights to freed slaves to vote, it also stripped former rebel soldiers of voting rights. These drastic changes of course anger many southern trying to hold on to the old ways, and in particular, it angers …show more content…
They decide to create a group, at first it is like a fraternity, but soon this group becomes a paramilitary terror tool. The Ku Klux Klan is used as a political tool, they target any enemy of the South, and intimidate them or even kill them. Grand Wizard Nath Bedford Forrest, a Confederate war hero, attempts to unite all the dens of the Klan to one mission, to disrupt the elections of 1868. Their intimidation works very well as the black voters are driven from the polls and the Republicans numerical advantage is taken away, as many Democrats win state and local elections. It seems as if the Ku Klux Klan and Brownlow’s militia will meet on a battlefield, but Forrest cannot organize his undisciplined Klan army. All types of rebellions happen in the South during this time, the KKK continued to terrorize the South, especially in Arkansas where Daniel Upham fights them tooth and nail. In the Northeast of Texas, Bob Lee leads his own rebellion. He was a war criminal, who killed several prisoners during his time in the army. When he returns home he acts as if he is a war hero who led charges in many important Confederate
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 to restore a sense of the “Old South”, essentially trying to force blacks down as low in the class system as they legally could in light of the 13th and 14th Amendments-second class citizens. In 1866 the Radical Republicans stood up to President Johnson, and a battle for control of Reconstruction ensued.... ... middle of paper ...
There was a new Military Reconstruction Act that was passed to make sure African Americans new rights were protected. The carpetbaggers provided aid for emancipated African Americans. In the article “ North or South: Who Killed Reconstruction?” it shows how the carpetbaggers supported emancipated African Americans by the founding of Black Churches, Public schools, and Universities were built for black children. In this case, the northern states tried to help the southern states to keep reconstruction but the KKK took hands in their own
Following the Civil War, the U.S. was in a period of reconstruction. From 1865-1900 many promises were made on the social and political changes that would impact the lives of African-Americans, such as new amendments and the Freedmen's Bureau, however, though there were many successes, practices like black codes, poll taxes, and the ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson all ultimately showed that the reconstruction era was a failure. This caused African-Americans to be stuck in a limbo of searching for fair and equal treatment that they would not receive for decades to come.
One of the first things that happened was that groups organized to intimidate people into going against Reconstruction. One such group was the Ku Klux Klan who went around anonymously to commit acts of atrocity to those who supported Reconstruction and equal rights for African Americas. Document 2 proves that they were totally against it; it says their purpose was to “establish a nucleus around which “the adherents of the late rebellion might safely rally”.” This just shows that they were not going to accept the reformation of the South and they wanted to find as many supporters as they could. As it is known, they threatened people at polls into voting for the groups that supported their views and that caused the elections to be swayed. Document 4 is another proof of the fact that some people refused to accept Reconstruction. “Let there be White Leagues formed in every town….time to meet brute-force with brute-force….it is time for us to organize.” These groups terrorized the people and made them afraid to show their...
In July 1864, the Radical Republican proposed the Wade-Davis Bill in response to Lincoln’s lenient plan (Keene 412). The Radical Republicans Reconstruction Plan had called for the punishment of the South (SparkNotes). The Wade-Davis bill asserted congressional control over the rehabilitation of the defeated Confederacy and it also prohibited Confederate officials and veterans from voting (Keene 413). Lincoln, however, vetoed the bill because it was a harsher means to unite the country. This refusal had angered the Republicans and showed the contrasting opinions that the legislative and executive branch obtain about Reconstruction (Keene 413). With the ratification of the Amendments, tension built around the southern districts. To enforce the security of the African Americans elections, martial law (1867-1870) was implemented throughout the southern districts that included the Carolinas and Texas (Dockswell). The ex-Confederates were directly affected by the martial law and the upcoming Johnson plan because it had ultimately kept the southerners in surveillance and in strict provisions. Upon the assassination of Lincoln in 1865, the preceding President (Andrew Johnson) took a whole different approach to Lincolns Plan
Following Lincoln’s tragic assassination, President Andrew Johnson took on the accountability of making Reconstruction a reality. Andrew Johnson wanted to use Lincoln’s ideas of reconstruction but in a modified form. Since Congress would be in recess for eight more months Johnson decided to go ahead with his plan. Johnson's goal in reconstruction was to grant amnesty to all former Confederates (except high officials), the ordinances of secession were to be revoked, Confederate debts would repudiate, and the states had to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment. Once the states swore to a loyalty oath to abide by the conditions they would be allowed to return to the Union. After swearing to the oath Confederate States would be allowed to govern themselves. With this power the states implemented the creation of a system of black codes that restricted the actions of freed slaves in much the same way, if not exactly the same way, that slaves were restricted under the old law. The end result of his plan was a hopeless conflict with the Radical Republicans who dominated Congress, passed measures over Johnson's vetoes, and attempted to limit the power of the executive concerning appointments and removals.
... The cause was forfeited not by Republicans, who welcomed the African-American votes, but to the elite North who had concluded that the formal end of slavery was all the freed man needed and their unpreparedness for the ex-slaves to participate in the Southern commonwealth was evident. Racism, severe economic depression, an exhausted North and troubled South, and a campaign of organized violence toward the freed man, overturned Reconstruction. The North withdrew the last of the federal troops with the passing of The Compromise of 1877. The freed slaves continued to practice few voting rights until 1890, but they were soon stripped of all political, social and economic powers. Not until the civil rights movement in the 1950’s and 1960’s were the freedoms that were fought for by our Republican forefathers nearly 100 years before, finally seen through to fruition.
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...
In the fall of 1867, local black leaders, ministers and Republicans mobilized large numbers of voters in the South. Southerners in Alabama united to “claim exactly the same rights, privileges and immunities as are enjoyed by white men”. 265 African Americans were elected as delegates to state conventions. However, democrats controlled the North and racial prejudice was a major concern. Blacks tried to pursue their dreams of equality, but whites wanted to keep as many features of slavery as they could. The end result of the Reconstruction was violence, brutality and election fraud.
As a result of the failure of Johnson's Reconstruction, Congress proposed its own plan. The 14th amendment was one of the many things implemented under this plan. Among other things, this amendment forbade ex-Confederate leaders from holding political office, and gave freedmen their citizenship. The Southern rejection of this amendment, largely as a result of the actions of their former Confederate leaders then in state office, paved the way for the Reconstruction Act of 1867. This dismantled all Southern governments and established military control over the South. It guaranteed freedmen the right to vote under new state constitutions, and required the Southern states to ratify the 14th amendment. With the inclusion of African-American votes in southern elections, and with the help of Northerners known as "Carpet Baggers" and other white Southerners known as "Scalawags," the Republican Party gained almost complete control over the American South.
Since our time serving together, the state of the Union has changed immensely with the “reconstruction” period starting in the U.S. As an esteemed member of the House of Representatives, you most certainly know about the vetoing of the Wade-Davis Bill. I am not sure which way you were swayed to vote, but I’m torn on the issue. As you know, Mr. Lincoln’s promise in his “Emancipation Proclamation” was my main inspiration to join the war effort. Although I agreed with most of his decisions during the war, his lenient terms of surrender for the Confederate army slightly altered my point of view of the president. Lincoln’s desire to quickly and smoothly reconstruct the Union was understandable, but Lincoln’s ten percent plan for
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
The Reconstruction era was the period from 1863 which was the legal end of slavery in the United States or 1865 which was the end of the Confederacy to 1877. In the background of the history of the United States, the term has two applications: the first applies to the complete history of the entire country from 1865 to 1877 following the Civil War (1861 to 1865); the second, to the attempted transformation of the Southern United States from 1863 to 1877, as ordered by Congress. Reconstruction ended the pieces of Confederate nationalism and of slavery, making the Freedmen citizens with civil rights apparently guaranteed by three new Constitutional amendments. Three visions of Civil War memory appeared during Reconstruction: the reconciliationist
The North’s neglect and greediness caused the reconstruction to be a failure.The corrupt government, terrorist organizations, unfocused president, and ignorance were also part of the ending of the reconstruction. President Lincoln didn’t want the civil war he wanted to keep the nation together. When Lincoln went into office he wasn't planning on getting rid of slavery nor starting a civil war. Before the reconstruction era was the civil war. Many good things and bad things came from the civil war. The civil war was a war between the North and the South. The war for the north was to end slavery, but for the south it was about rights and liberty. It wasn’t until afterwards that Americans started to notice the good and the bad. Not as many people
After Andrew Johnson’s veto, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act, which temporarily divided the South into five military districts and outlined how governments based on universal (male) suffrage were to be organized” (Reconstruction History.com) These laws required all southern states to ratify the 14th Amendment. The 14th amendment stated, ”All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside” (Chrisman, Jerry, and Stanbery Foster III). This granted “Equal Protection” to former slaves before they could rejoin the Union. Radical Republicans thought blacks should be entitled to the same rights and opportunities as whites. Reconstruction achieved many ideal things that people did not think would happen. “Among the other achievements of Reconstruction were the South’s first state-funded public school systems, more equitable taxation legislation, laws against racial discrimination in public transport and accommodations and ambitious economic development programs (including aid to railroads and other enterprises)” (“Reconstruction” History.com). By these achievements of Reconstruction, it created a better life for many people in the