Reconstruction (1865 to 1877) was the time period that followed the American revolution in which did Northern states attempted to accommodate for the sudden changes in the United States government and integrate Southern states back into the north seamlessly. One of the major goals of reconstruction was to integrate the newly freed African Americans into society without relapsing and returning back to a state of slavery again. President Abraham Lincoln introduced the Ten Percent Plan in 1863 which would require 10 percent of the voters in the state to agree to be integrated back into the Union, which would create a slow and easy process for the Confederacy to join the Union once again. Post the war in 1865, Lincoln also passed the Freedmen’s …show more content…
A major aspect of this is because after the Freedmen’s Bureau lost its funding and was no longer as strong and powerful as it was earlier, and white supremacist groups such as the KKK and segregation laws gained power. Another system that emerged was the sharecropping system, which had clauses in which, “[The freed slave] agrees to work faithfully and dilligently with-out any unnecessary loss of time, to do all manner of work on Said farm as may be directed by [landowner], And to be respectful in manners and deportment to [landowner].” The sharecropping system was essentially slavery without the term, the African Americans would work on the farms and the landowners would provide them shelter and food. Post Reconstruction, the lack of political, economic, and social prowess for the former slaves (because of a lack of proper integration of these slaves into society) caused for them to fall back into the same kind of oppression that they had faced during the time of
1.10% Plan: the ten percent plan also known as Lincoln’s ten percent plan and the Proclamation of amnesty and reconstruction, was a plan that stated that the southern states that participated in secession can again become part of the Union if 10% of the people in that state (voter rolls for the election of 1860) swear an oath of allegiance to the Union. With this vow came Lincoln pardoning those southern states for their wrongs. Their wrongs were secession and slavery, and they could then be admitted into the Union. When a Confederate state got ten percent of its people to swear according the the oath, that state would get a new government, and the Union would not consider it separate, but recognize it. The states that were readmitted were
American will always go through great political changes as a country. In the history of the United states reconstruction refers to a period of time in 1865, when efforts were made after the civil war, to restore the relations between North and the South. Also to improve status of the blacks and, to restore "normalcy" in the country. The streets were fulled with the bodies of Confederate soldiers and the buildings smoldered right down to their foundations. President Lincoln’s 10% Plan was an approach towards reconstruction.
The Civil War in 1865 and Reconstruction in 1865-1877 is the reason for peace and good relations with other states. In other words, it typically brought America together, and that is key for a good nation. The effects the Civil War had on the U.S becoming a nation was significantly dramatic. This includes when the two regions that were having slavery at the time, causing a bad perspective on the U.S., the Civil War had put an end to that slavery. Over 3 million of slaves have finally gotten their freedom.
The federal government was trying to achieve many diverse goals with Reconstruction; which can mostly be summed up by they were trying to make the nation whole. The main goals of reconstruction included the following: abolishing slavery for good, to establish blacks into society and help them build their lives as US citizens with full rights, extending suffrage, to define citizenship, protecting those citizens, as well as destroying the Confederacy, and having seceded states rejoin the Union. After the abolition of slavery, even more problems throughout the nation arose and previous problems remained. The federal government initiated the Reconstruction Era to help solve those problems.
Reconstruction of the south encompassed three major political initiatives: restoration of the Union, transformation of southern society, and enactment of progressive legislation favoring the rights of freed slaves. President Abraham Lincoln’s Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction—issued in 1863, two years before the war even ended—mapped out the first of these initiatives, his Ten-Percent Plan. Under the plan, each southern state would be readmitted to the Union after 10 percent of its voting population had pledged future loyalty to the United States, and all Confederates except high-ranking government and military officials would be pardoned. After Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, President Andrew Johnson adopted the Ten-Percent Plan and pardoned thousands of Confederate officials. Radical Republicans in Congress, however, called for harsher measures, demanding a
Black southerners were no longer considered slaves, but they were not yet free. Peonage was also known as debt slavery or debt servitude. The employer, or master, would compel the worker to pay off their debt by strict labor. In countless cases, employers would say African Americans had debt just to get them to work even though they may not have had any. They were so desperate for work, they lied and found any route to get more black labourers.
After the Civil War, the federal government began a program known as reconstruction. Reconstruction refers to the period following the Civil War of rebuilding the United States. During and after this period, blacks made substantial gains in their political power and many were able to move from abject poverty to land ownership. Although African American were freed by the end of the Civil War, they were not directly given legal and political rights under President Andrew Johnson. Throughout the first years of reconstruction, blacks formed equal rights Leagues in the South to demand equality under the law, including the right to vote, and to fight oppressive black codes laws that restricted the lives of newly freed African Americans in numerous
However, this would not become a reality due to the lack of land redistribution. Furthermore, in 1872, the Freedmen’s Bureau were forced to evict thousands of African American families that had settled and created homes on the land that was confiscated from the Confederates. Many former slaves went back to working on farms with a system called sharecropping. Unfortunately, this system was
The American civil war occurred in 1861. This war marked a critical turning point in the United States history. The war pitted the northern against the southern states. The states in these two regions had different social, political and economic attributes. For instance, the North had a booming industrial sector whereas the South relied heavily on the agricultural sector.
Reconstruction was a period of time dedicated to rebuilding the nation after the Civil War. The war ended with the South being defeated and their economy being devastated. Many Southerners struggled after the war with rebuilding their land and lives. The President and Congress had to decide the terms for which the former Confederate states would be permitted to join the Union. President Lincoln’s plan for reuniting the country was found in the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction.
The American civil war led to the reunion of the South and the North. But, its consequences led the Republicans to take the lead of reconstructing what the war had destroyed especially in the South because it contained larger numbers of newly freed slaves. Just after the civil war, America entered into what was called as the reconstruction era. Reconstruction refers to when “the federal government established the terms on which rebellious Southern states would be integrated back into the Union” (Watts 246). As a further matter, it also meant “the process of helping the 4 million freed slaves after the civil war [to] make the transition to freedom” (DeFord and Schwarz 96).
After the Union won the major battles that is when Lincoln had put the ten percent plan on the table, this plan was when ten percent of the state’s eligible voters pledge oath to US then they could join the Union. To begin with, there are a few reasons why one would say that reconstruction in the south was a failure. One of these reasons being that, even after the civil war in the South’s government passed laws to limit the rights of the free African Americans. In document C we can see this is evident where it states “No negro or freedmen shall be allowed to come within the limits of the town of Opelousas without special permission of his employers. Whoever breaks this law will go to jail and work for two days on the public streets, or pay a fine of five dollars.”
The Reconstruction period lasted from 1865 to 1877. The thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendment were created during the twelve years of rebuilding the country. All of the amendments were made to protect former slaves and their rights but on paper they did not have any rights. The reconstruction period had its successes and failures.
Abraham Lincoln’s vs Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan Lincoln shared the uncommon belief that the confederate states could still be part of the union and that the cause of the rebellion was only a few within the states which lead him to begin the reconstruction in December of 1863. This resulted in plans with lenient guidelines and although they were challenged by Wade-Davis Bill, Lincoln still rejected his ideas and kept his policies in place. Lincoln also allowed land to be given the newly freed slave or homeless white by distributing the land that had been confiscated from former land owners however this fell through once Johnson took office. After Lincoln’s death when Johnson was elected many things started to turn away from giving blacks equal rights and resulted in many things such a black codes which kept newly freed slaves from having the same rights as whites. When Lincoln first acted after the civil war, he offered policies that would allow the confederate slaves to become part of the union again and would allow a pardon for those states.
Reconstruction a Failure or Success? Throughout the years, America has gone through many different political changes. Many presidents selected with different plans for our future. Sadly, many of those objectives have failed or came to an end.