Reconstruction Dbq Essay

The Civil War was a hard time period for many Americans living in the United States, especially Black Americans. Before and after the Civil War they were treated with racism and faced discrimination. But after the Civil War, there was a national goal of Reconstruction. Reconstruction was a goal to rebuild the economy, and relationships between the North and South, and to grant Black Americans their civil rights. The main area of the Nation that needed to be rebuilt was the Southern states, this is where Black Americans faced the most discrimination. This shows that the major goal of the reconstruction period was to give Black Americans their social, political, and economic rights. However, Reconstruction ultimately failed in giving Black Americans

Document H states that “ No public meetings of negroes or freedmen shall be allowed within the town.” This is one of the Black codes in Louisiana. Black codes were restricted laws passed by the southern states after the Civil War to control Black populations and restrict their freedoms. This shows how Black Americans failed to be given rights and they were not treated equally. Another document that shows the failure of granting Black Americans social rights is Document I. Document I is all about the KKK Klan, KKK Klan is a white supremacist terrorist group that emerged during Reconstruction, southerners who disagreed with the Reconstruction goal for equality of Black Americans would join the klan. The main goals of the Klan were to decrease support for the republican party, reverse reconstruction goals for the equality of Black Americans, and restore white supremacy. In order to achieve their goals they would use extreme violence like hanging them and burning down their schools. Some Black Americans even said that this time period after the civil war was worse than slavery because of how badly they were treated. This shows that Black Americans were still not treated with respect and faced discrimination and racism and were not given their social

Economic rights can be seen in Document D. Document D explains Freedmen’s Bureau. Freedmen’s Bureau provided food, housing, medical aid, established schools, and legal assistance to freed Black Americans. The goals of the Freedmen's Bureau were to help freed people achieve economic stability and secure political freedoms. To achieve these goals they started to open schools and hospitals, and they even offered legal assistance in labor contracts. The labor contracts made agreements between the planters and the freedmen, that if they made a certain amount of money each month then they would get food, housing, and clothing. These labor contracts also helped the freedmen not get taken advantage of again. The Freedmen's Bureau had to work very hard to get equality and full economic rights, they had a lack of funding and faced persistent racism in the South. Although they had some hard times they still pushed through to achieve their goal of economic stability and got Black Americans their full economic