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The reconstruction era success and failures
Reconstruction era informative essay
Reconstruction era informative essay
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Reconstruction is defined as “the reorganization and reestablishment of the seceded states in the Union after the American Civil War” (Merriam-Webster). After the Civil War, the North was faced with the task of fixing the devastating destruction in the Confederate states. Although the Union’s victory freed about four million slaves, the win started a new set of challenges. Now, it was time to reunite the states. As an attempt to fix the South, various Reconstruction plans and propositions were proposed. Before the war ended, Abraham Lincoln issued the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction of 1863. It was considered a “compassionate policy for dealing with the South” (“Reconstruction”). The proclamation stated that Southerners could become …show more content…
The Radical Republicans also thought Confederate leaders deserved to be punished for their position in the Civil War. A few leaders, like Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner and Pennsylvania representative Thaddeus Stevens strongly opposed Johnson’s policies. Although some Americans thought the federal government played too big of a role in state affairs, Radicals said that extraordinary times call for direct intervention (“Radical Reconstruction”). In Congressional reconstruction, the view was that blacks should have an opportunity in a free-labor economy. A federal agency, the Freedmen's Bureau, was created to help slaves transition. However, many of its attempts were destroyed, causing the majority of slaves to depend on plantation work. The Radicals in Congress proposed the Civil Rights Bill. Andrew Johnson did not agree with the bills and vetoed both of them. Moderate Republicans were disgusted by Johnson’s racism. The Moderates joined the Radicals to overturn Johnson’s veto, marking the first time a major piece of legislation was overturned. Therefore, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act as a way to limit the President's powers and prevent him from removing Radical Republicans from …show more content…
The Democrats agreed to accept Hayes’ win, as long as federal troops were withdrawn from the region. Congress passed the Compromise of 1877, allowing Louisiana, Florida and South Carolina to be Democratic again, ending Reconstruction. The federal government that had supported harsh penalties Southern leaders now accepted new and humiliating discrimination against blacks. Historians judge Reconstruction as a period of political corruption and conflict. Although the slaves were freed, the North failed to address their needs or provide protection from violence. Even though Reconstruction-era governments made progress in rebuilding the South, the South sought to bring down radical regimes. The failure of Reconstruction pushed the equality and freedom of blacks out of focus, until the 20th century when it would become a national issue (“The End
After the Civil War, the victorious Union enacted a policy of Reconstruction in the former Confederate states. Reconstruction was aimed at creating as smooth a transition as possible for the southern states to re-enter the Union as well as enacting economic and social changes. However, several factors brought about its failure, and as a result the consequences can be seen in the race problems we still have today. In 1862, President Lincoln had appointed temporary military governors to re-establish functional governments in occupied southern states. In order for a state to be allowed to re-enter the Union, it had to meet the criteria, which was established to be that at least 10 percent of the voting population polled in 1860 must denounce the Confederacy and swear allegiance to the Union again. However this was not good enough for Congress, which at the time was dominated by Radical Republicans who fervently called for social and economic change in the south, specifically the rights of blacks. They were especially concerned with guaranteeing black civil and voting rights, and criticized Lincoln for excluding this in the original plan for Reconstruction.
Reconstruction began in 1865 and ended in 1877. Reconstruction is known as the rebuilding of the U.S. following the Civil War where they would allow southern's back into the union.The military then organized for new elections, which were three groups and they were; freedmen, carpetbaggers, and
The Reconstruction was the process of trying to rebuild the South after the devastating effect of the Civil War. Some interesting facts during the Civil War were first, in 1869 the first college football game took place, second, African American universities became a reality, and last, in 1870, Hiram Revels was elected the first black Senator. In the end, Reconstruction died, but we’ve all been asking the same thing; North or South: Who killed the Reconstruction? Answering this question, I believe the North killed the Reconstruction by a lack of focus on it, the racism on African Americans, and being sick of assisting the South.
It was a goal of President Abraham Lincoln’s for Reconstruction to be a very smooth and successful period of time. “With malice toward none, with charity to all,” Lincoln said in his second inauguration speech. He was referring to not only the conflict between black men and white men, but also the hard feelings between the north and south. The southern states had entered the Civil War with such confidence and dreams of independence that many were now humiliated at the idea of having to receive aid from the federal government. President Lincoln’s assassination also put in the country in further turmoil.
When slavery was abolished in the Thirteenth Amendment, Southerners used black codes to retain control over blacks. These state laws varied in strictness and detail from state to state; they abased the status of the freedmen by regulating their activities and treating them as social and civil inferiors. Generally black codes were not beneficial, because the supposedly freedmen were treated little more than slaves.
Although Lincoln and Johnson both passed Reconstruction plans that helped reunite the north and the south, ultimately Congress was not satisfied and passed its own plan. Lincoln passed a rather forgiving Reconstruction plan because in his opinion, the Confederate states had never seceded from the Union. The Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction included a ten percent plan, which “ would recognize them as people of the states within which they acted, and aid them to gain in all respects full acknowledgement and enjoyment of statehood, even though the persons who thus acted were but a tenth part of the original voters of their states” (W...
President Johnson tried to enforce Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan. That as soon as ten percent of the population of any southern state took an oath of loyalty to the union and adopted a constitution that abolished slavery they would be readmitted to the union. The radical republicans in congress totally disagreed with Johnson. Many of the southern states in 1865 under presidential reconstruction adopted what was known as black codes. These codes restricted blacks from any participation in the rights of citizenship. Blacks were confined to an inferior position, they were not legally slaves anymore, but they had no rights of citizenship.
Reconstruction is the period of rebuilding the south that succeeded the Civil War (1861-1865). This period of time is set by the question now what? The Union won the war and most of the south was destroyed. Devastation, buildings turned into crumbles and lost crops. The South was drowning in poverty. To worsen the situation there were thousands of ex-slaves that were set free by the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13 Amendment. "All these ex-slaves", Dr. Susan Walens commented, "and no place to put them," The ex-slaves weren't just homeless but they had no rights, unlike white man. The government and congress had to solve the issues present in the south and the whole nation in order to re-establish the South. These issues were economical, social and political. The United States had 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.
During the time of reconstruction, the 13th amendment abolished slavery. As the Nation was attempting to pick up their broken pieces and mend the brokenness of the states, former slaves were getting the opportunity to start their new, free lives. This however, created tension between the Northerners and the Southerners once again. The Southerners hated the fact that their slaves were being freed and did not belong to them anymore. The plantations were suffering without the slaves laboring and the owners were running out of solutions. This created tension between the Southern planation owners and the now freed African Americans. There were many laws throughout the North and the South that were made purposely to discriminate the African Americans.
Beginning with the 'black codes' established by President Johnson's reconstruction plan, blacks were required to have a curfew as well as carry identification. Labor contracts established under Johnson's Reconstruction even bound the freedmen to their respective plantations. A few years later, another set of laws known as the Jim Crow laws directly undermined the status of blacks by placing unfair restrictions on everything from voting rights all the way to the segregation of water fountains. Besides these restrictions, the blacks had to deal with the Democratic Party, whose northern wing even denounced racial equality. As a result of democratic hostility and the Republican Party's support of Black suffrage, freedmen greatly supported the Republican Party.
The Civil War is arguably the darkest point in American history, as it is the only point in which thousands of Americans are being killed by their fellow countrymen. However, the period following was just as dark from a more political, social, and economic point of view. This period of time taking place from 1865-1877 is usually known as Reconstruction because the south is "reconstructing" from the damages of the war. However, many historians argue that this period of time is improperly named and should be called restoration. As this argument goes on, I would say that both terms are correct, and in fact both reconstruction and restoration are needed to describe the time period following the Civil War.
The Reconstruction era began after the Civil War was won by the Union in 1865 with the main goal being to bring the two pieces of what used to be America, back together again without slavery. Problems quickly aroused after it became clear that how they were planning on reuniting the two sides were divided. Abraham Lincoln, president at the time, proposed a plan to pardon all Confederates if they swore allegiance to the North, except the former high-ranked officials and war criminals. If the state reached a goal of 10% newly sworn in persons they were allowed to form a government and have representatives unfortunately he was killed before his plan was able to take swing. Former vice president, Andrew Johnson, who then took Lincoln’s place, had
With the end of the Civil war in 1865, the new nation of the United States now faced challenges on restoring peace within the Union. The North, having won the civil war, now faced the task to implement reconstruction of the South. They came in contact with the questions of: What should happen to the freed slaves, should the freed slaves have rights, what should be done to the Confederate leaders, and how should the South be reconstructed? There were many different ideas and views on how Reconstruction should be handled, but only one succeeded more successfully than the other. Although they bear some superficial similarities, the difference between presidential and congressional reconstruction are clear. The president believed that Confederate
Since, Lincoln didn't really believe the South legally left the Union, his reconstruction plan was solely based on forgiveness and not punishment. After, the war many people wanted to punish the south for the war. Others wanted to let the nation heal. Again, the nation was spit over what to do with the South. Although the military actions had been put to an end. In many ways, reconstruction was still considered a war. Northerners felt this was an important struggle by whose that wanted to punish southerners who were desperately wanted to preserve their rights to their way of life in the
Black codes were state laws passed in the south during reconstruction. The law deliberate to restrict the civil right of African Americans. The approval of the code provoke the U.S. Congress to pass a law to the Civil Rights Acts to protect African American citizen in the south.”President Andrew Johnson opposed the 1866 measure enacted during his administration. However, the radical Republican-led Congress was able to overturn presidential vetoes to determine Reconstruction policy”(“Black Codes” 1). This quote shows how the republican were able to overturn the president’s veto towards the black codes because they felt the need to establish the black codes cause they feel unsafe without