The Reconstruction Era

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After the Civil War the South had to be rebuilt. This was known as the Reconstruction Era. During the Recontruction Era a lot of time was devoted to the south by the nation.In fact there was a reconstruction plan made by President Abraham Lincoln.The point of his plan was to make the rebuilding of the South quicker. However the South did face some hardships, benefits, and disappointments during that time. For example, the South suffered a major decline in their econmy after the Civil War. After the Civil War there were some hardships faced by the South.One hardship was that the South's wealth decreased by 48% according to document eight. In document one in 1860 the south had a good amount of wealthy states. But, in 1880 which is after the Civil War all of the Southern states be the least wealthy states.The reason for the major decrease was because after the Civil War there were no slaves.Therefore, making the money drop because most of the money in the South was made by slave labor and by selling slaves. Another hardship in the south was that there was a decrease in agriculture. According to document eight there was a 50 percent decrease in cotton, a 44 percent decrease in corn, and a 64 percent decrease in hay.This was a hardship because agriculture was one of the main source of employment in the south. Also this is a hardship because cotton the south's main source of money was decreasing. In addition, during the civil war there was 260,000 lives lost making the labor force in the south decrease by a third. Finally a hardship in the South was that all of the towns, cities, roads, bridges, mill, and factories were destroyed according to document two. This was a hardship because that meant that the south did not h... ... middle of paper ... ...rding to document 3 there were 16 African Americans in the congress.This was a benefit because the African Americans were finally getting their rights. Finally, a benefit for the African Americans was when the 14th and 15th amendment was passed.The 14th amendment protected their rights and the 15th amendment allowed they to vote.This was a benefit for the African Americans because they were finally viewed as citizens and they were finally allowed to vote. All in all, even though during the Reconstruction Era the south had many problems like the loss in money, the rebuilding of all the towns and cities, and the disappointments for the African Americans. They still figured out ways to fix all of the problems. For example the south taxed northerns to pay for their rebuilding and the 14th and 15 amendment was passed so that the blacks could gain their rights.

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