Following the end of the Civil War, the United States of America set its sights on restructuring the South. Idealistically, the North was to serve as a model and guide the redevelopment of southern society - purging it of slavery, introducing manufacturing, and creating new markets. Realistically, however, this was not the case. The Civil War was fought on the grounds of abolishing slavery, providing rights for blacks, and redeveloping the South’s economy, yet the years following its end saw very little change. Due to a lack of enforcement from the North and the federal government, the Reconstruction proved to be a dramatic failure. Although officially and legally abolished in 1865 via the 13th Amendment, slavery continued to manifest in the …show more content…
Unfortunately for the North, Lincoln and the Republican’s plans were largely unsuccessful. Later, when the Civil Rights Bill was passed in 1866, which ensured full citizenship for any free men, Johnson moved to veto it, but was met with the ratification of the 15th Amendment, which stated that the right to vote cannot be denied or abridged based on race. Initially, racists were met with many more obstacles than in the past: all men legally had citizenship rights. However, such laws failed to be enforced, due to a fear of more conflict arising and the debt that had amassed from the war. States in the South started monopolizing slaughterhouses to reduce the presence of blacks in the market, resulting in sharecropping and further dependence on white men, and setting a precedent that the federal government could not control the rights of citizens. Moreover, an immeasurable number of black codes and Jim Crow laws were enacted, ranging from literacy tests and voting requirements to fines for teaching a black student. These were not the last of the restrictions
The Civil War was one of the most violent fights that occurred in North America, this then preceded into the Reconstruction. The Reconstruction is defined to be the rebuilding of the south. Historians describe this era as “splendid failure” because there were pros and cons in the progress of reconstructing. Even though they had plenty of years to achieve their objective; they would always go two steps forward, but one step backward. However, it wasn’t easy, they had to go through the complexity of political, economic, and social issues which transpired after the civil war.
And so in 1865 after the 13th amendment was ratified to abolish slavery in the United States forever.
Reconstruction was socially unsuccessful because of the Ku Klux Klan, Jim Crow Laws, and Segregation. The Ku Klux Klan would threaten, beat, and murder blacks and republicans. They would burn crosses on their raids, and would throw little wooden caskets in the home of the Republican or African American who was being raided. Jim Crow Laws separated the population because, it make it so white people would always have the better out of black people such as, seats on a train, or there American rights would be discriminated on. Jim Crow Laws also made it so blacks would have to go to different schools, different public transportation areas, different schools, and different restaurants.
The 14th Amendment and the 15th Amendment were soon to follow, which protected former slaves under the law and granted African Americans the right to vote. With the Freedmen’s Bureau and the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the government was also able to support freed African Americans in finding new jobs, pursuing educations, and more in order to help them succeed.
Within the history of the United States, the term “Reconstruction Era” has two different meanings: the first meaning is the entire coverage of the history of the Reconstruction era from 1865 to 1877; the second meaning focuses on the the transformation of the Southern states that goes from 1863 to 1877. In between 1863 and 1865, President Abraham Lincoln and Vice President Andrew Johnson took fairly moderate positions that were mainly designed to bring the Southern states back to normal as quickly as possible. For the Radical Republicans, they used Congress to block the President and Vice Presidents moderate stance, impose harsher punishments and provide better rights for the freedmen. Johnson’s interpretations of the policies Lincoln created
Congress responded to this by creating the first Civil Rights Act. The act made African Americans full-fledged citizens and allowed the government to uphold these rights in the southern states forcibly. These events led to the 15th amendment which granted voting rights to African American men. Freedmen then began to participate and hold offices in Reconstruction policies. During the Grant Admiration in 1869-1877 however, reconstruction was abandoned, and southern whites took over the congress majority.
Essay Questions for Section I 1) The key point of the Reconstruction was to reconstruct the South, in order to, bring it back into the United States. However, there were many issues that the federal government had to deal with during this time period. In my opinion, I would say the primary issue that the federal government was faced with, would be figuring out how to bring the South back into the United States. The other main issue that the federal government was faced with, would be to figure out was what to do with the freed slaves.
Blacks also faced additional obstacles such as The Voting Rights Act and later the Jim Crow Segregation Laws, certain forms of these laws still exist today. (Woodward,
After the war ended in 1865, the US government faced the major problem of re-combining confederate states into one union (Foner, 2016). Reconstruction programs between 1865 and 1877 were meant to rebuild the southern economy that had collapsed and integrate the African Americans and freed slaves into full USA citizens (Boyer, 2005). The success of the reconstruction period is however questionable because of corruption claims, a president who was incompetent and the backlash witnessed in the southern culture. Perceiving the reconstruction period in terms of culture indicates that progress was made to bring normalcy in the US. In this paper, it will be argued that the reconstruction after the civil war was a failure since little was changed.
What were the goals of Reconstruction? Why weren 't all of these goals achieved? Was Reconstruction a failure? Support your answers with details and examples. Reconstruction - the federal government plan to solve the issues formed from the end of the Civil War – can be divided into 2 parts: physically rebuilding the South and reconstructing the Southern Society.
After four agonizing years, America was back to square one and tried to rebuild itself from the broken pieces that were brought about by the Civil War. Somewhere, somehow America has to start and reestablish itself as a nation in accordance to their newfound freedom. In 1865 the government started the Reconstruction of the nation, the merging of the South territories back into the Union and the acknowledgement of the newly freed blacks into the American society. As it turned out, both the government and the people had a hard time accomplishing this feat. Both experienced a lot of resistance along the way.
The Confederate States of America lost the Civil War, but they won the peace that came afterwards. In terms of race relations, whites defeated the goals of the Radical Republicans and historians agree that Reconstruction was a failure. After Reconstruction, the inferiority of blacks was codified in Jim Crow laws. However, this peace came at a high price for whites and blacks in that the South sank into an economic doldrum that lasted for decades. In terms of industry and economic development, the South remained backwards when compared to the North and West.
Reconstruction is the time period after the Civil War, where the country attempted to improve the Union. There were many successes, but what also comes along with success is failure. During the reconstruction many failures were present; such as the lack of racial equality and blatant racism towards blacks, a failing economy in the South, and tense relations between the North and the South. This created a very intense and challenging period of time for the Union.
When thinking about the civil war, one of the first things that comes to mind is how did everything end up afterwards. Did things go back to normal? How long did it take to rebuild? Was the reconstruction of the south success or failure? 2 years before the Confederacy formally surrendered the Union began reconstruction.
(Downer 3) By 1860, Southern plantations owned around 4 million slaves and had produced around 4 million bales of cotton. (Downer 3) On January 31, 1865 slavery was abolished in the United States by the passing of the 13th amendment which states, ““neither slavery nor involuntary servitude… shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” (Slavery Abolished in America 1) Although by 1808 in the United States, Congress had banned the importation of slaves, slavery was still very popular in the Southern States.