1860 To 1877 Dbq Essay

In the time period of 1860 to 1877, the social and constitutional developments caused a revolutionary change to the social structure of the South, but more so to the constitution. The fight for constitutional amendments became very important to the federal government after the civil war and during the reconstruction era. This caused major backlash from many people in the South, and state governments passed laws such as the Black Codes, which restricted black people’s freedom. As the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were passed, terrorist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) were created to scare african americans away from voting, among other activities. The federal government responded to these retaliations by placing armed forces in the

Even after the civil war, the balance of power between the federal government and state governments was greatly debated. South Carolina, for example, stated in their declaration of secession “...certain duties were imposed upon the several states… which necessarily imperiled their continued existence as sovereign states.” (doc. 1) This was written to the federal government to explain why South Carolina was seceding from the Union. As Senator John Sherman said in a speech on a new banking and currency system, the lack of nationality for our country was one of the causes for the civil war. (doc. 3) This was an issue in the debate over state and federal power because some people believed one was more powerful than the other, and vice versa. As Gideon Welles, Lincoln’s Secretary of Navy, wrote in a diary entry, “The Federal government has no right…on the matter of suffrage to any state… We shall get rid of slavery by constitutional means. But conferring on the black civil rights is another matter.” (doc. 5) Welles’s point of view on the matter was that the federal government should not decide how each state treated people, because it was not specifically written in the constitution, until amendments were made. This viewpoint was shared with many, and it caused unprecedented tension throughout the United States, even after the 13th, 14th, and 15th, amendments were passed. As the Nation, a conservative publication,

When the Emancipation Proclamation and 13th Amendment were passed, the labor system that the South had depended on for such large scale cotton production was gone, or at least more expensive than it had been. Still, the Southern economy was mostly unchanged after the civil war. There was still a great demand for cotton, and even though the newly free men and women would cost more money than slaves had, southern landowners still created ways to gain money from poor african americans. The sharecropper system, for example, created an opportunity for poor people to gain their own land and earn money. However, it really created an endless cycle of debt for the poor people because they would constantly owe the landowners who had rented out the