I believe that the results of Reconstruction have been mixed and i believe that the economy is a problem that needs to be fixed. By not dictating who can have what job based on their race Reconstruction can meet its goal of creating equality for all. During Reconstruction, Americans had very different opinions about the government. In the northern states, most people believed that since the South had seceded before they had to keep an eye on them. To do this, they sent troops into the South, which they were not very pleased with. During Reconstruction, freed slaves still did not have the same opportunities that white people did. The Civil rights laws were made to protect former slaves and make sure everyone is equal, but still, the South cannot agree and continues to make life nearly just as bad as it had been before the war. In the document written by a former slave, he expresses how poorly they have been treated. When Lincoln was president, Reconstruction ran alot smoother. He wanted equality for all and under no circumstances was there any other choice, which made the North happy. But after Lincoln was assassinated and Johnson became president, he offered much more leeway for the South which set Reconstruction back a large amount. Black and white southerners viewed the future of African Americans very differently.The majority of white southerners …show more content…
They are, for the most part, allowed to be educated but it was very difficult for them to get there safely and avoid racism. In document 2, it says,”the children come rain or shine, plunging through mud...one used to let his dogs loose after supper to but the night-scholars…” Even though the Freedmen 's Bureau tried to make the facilities and opportunities equal, the South continues to treat them very poorly. At the school, the furniture was defaced, it was broken into, bricks were hurled through windows, and even more issues
He disliked how the south was creating new slave states, and how it was slowly making slavery permanent in America, this led him to become the head of the Republicans to fight for what he believed in. Another boulder was how stubborn the South was to end slavery. It is true that they needed it because of all the farm land and labor that was needed to be done, it would just be easier to do the chores by utilizing slaves, but Lincoln believed that, that was unethical to use people to their advantage. To overcome this, Lincoln made the Emancipation and the Gettysburg Address (consisting of 4 major parts; to help the government, “all men created equal” (Oates 138), outlaw old leaders in rebel Dixie, and lastly obeying the Emancipation Proclamation) these were a mandatory part of Reconstruction. There is also the dispute between Douglas and Lincoln that Lincoln “desired intermarriage and racial mongrelization” (Oates 71), stated by Douglas.
The goal of reconstruction was to rebuild the south and integrate the newly freed slaves into society. Reconstruction was a great concept but execution of it failed. Many schools were built and many newly freed slaves were registered to vote, but the southern ways took over again once the union soldiers stopped occupying the south. Southerners used sharecropping to basically bring back slavery, lynching of blacks started widespread in the south, blacks were threatened if they tried to vote, and many of the schools were given teachers who limited what was taught. This helps to show the significance that even after the war, which was fought for fair treatment of all, racist ideals still shaped the north and south and this would not be corrected for another 100
He wanted quick restoration for the Union states and not so much the southern and confederate states. He was not a person who was in favor of the slaves. He didn't have any intention on giving equal rights to the slaves, like white people, and he came into conflict with the Republican-dominated Congress. Later this will lead up to his impeachment. Andrew Johnson was the first US president to ever be impeached.
Mainly, Reconstruction was unsucessful because of South and North disagreement on the slavery isssue. Firstly, after Emancipation Proclamation was announced, Southern States started to prevent African-Americans from leaving the plantation and moving west, thus creating the black codes. These black codes were several restrictions on African-Americans like voting or serving on juries. Those black codes were a way of Southern states showing their disagreement with the North which showed opposement to the Reconstruction. Secondly, the Radical Republicans were determined not to let Johnson control Reconstruction.
In the twenty-first century the Blacks education is more segregated than it was during the Reconstruction (Source 3). I argue that the Reconstruction did not successfully solve problems of segregation, Ku Klux Klan, and freedom caused by slavery and the Civil War. Nearly 90% of intensely segregated, black and Latino schools are also where at least
Because of this he let southerners decide on controversial topics such as voting. Naturally the Southern states did not head to the Northern influence and they made sure to makes the lives of the African American as close to slavery as they could without making them slaves. They accomplished this goal with a series of laws called “Black Codes”. The Black Codes laid out exactly what being a black southerner meant. If a somebody who is bad was found unemployed they could be put to work in a field or a house by a white man, thus making an unemployed black man or woman essentially a slave.
They did not know what it would be like to be free, to live normal like every other white men and women. They didn’t know what normal was, most of they didn’t know how to read or write yet. Now they are expected to take care of themselves, your money, get jobs. How are they going to do this without a basic education. From the whites that would whip them if they were caught reading or writing?
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.
The reconstruction focused on abolishing slavery for good in order not to move war again, but this really did not happen. As soon as Reconstruction ended and the Southern states were allowed to do what they wanted, they imposed segregation on blacks and did all sorts of things to prevent them from voting. In addition, reconstructions failed to help blacks economically. They did not get the land acres that they hoped for. Therefore, they continued to be poor farm workers who pretty much had to work for the rich landowners.
Reconstruction, if executed properly, would have eliminated the racial segregation and racial tension we have today. For instance, in the news recently there has been a controversy regarding the Confederate flag. The Confederate flag is said to represent slavery because the Confederates, during the Civil War, used this flag as their battle flag; the Confederates fought to keep slavery. Therefore the Confederate flag DOES in fact represent slavery. The recent shooter of 9 African-American people in a South Carolina Baptist Church, Dylan Roof, sparked this debate of whether the Confederate flag should be removed.
After the Civil War, the Reconstruction Era began, in which America attempted to reform the southern states. It’s purpose was to rebuild the South and to unite the nation. Reconstruction introduced many different changes that were both beneficial and harmful for the United States.. Laws were passed that granted African Americans legal rights, however there were also many occasions where they were being persecuted. Some people had good intentions during Reconstruction, but overall, it was a failure.
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.
Reconstruction caused prejudice and inequality. To elaborate, the creation of the Ku Klux Klan and the Black Codes were both in the time period of reconstruction, which caused chaos and violence throughout the Union. One of the goals of reconstruction was to repair the economy in the South, because it depended on slavery, which was now illegal, due to the thirteenth amendment. The South’s economic system now depended on Sharecropping, which caused former slaves to be in constant debt and was unjust to the black society. The reconstruction time period, was a time of dispute between the Union.
Presidential Reconstruction by Andrew Johnson promoted racism and injustice against the Freedmen and was one of the reasons why Reconstruction failed. “Johnson openly encouraged the South to draft its notorious Black Codes law enacted across the south by the Fall of 1865, that denied the Freedmen political liberty and restricted their economic options and physical mobility” (Blight 29). The Black Code law which was established by the White Southerners was a way to reverse the rights and freedom gained by the African Americans, during the radical Reconstruction era, rights which were very hard for the Freedmen to obtain in the first place. The Black Codes gave power back to the White Supremacists to control and manipulate the Freedmen
The purpose was to help the South become a part of the Union again. Federal troops occupied much of the South during the Reconstruction to insure that laws were followed and another war did not occur. Abraham Lincoln was first in charge of Reconstruction when the Civil War ended on April 9, 1865. He had a plan that any southerner who took an oath to the Union would be given a pardon and that if 10% of the voters in a state supported the Union, the state could then be readmitted. His plan also stated that any state that was readmitted must make slavery illegal as part of their constitution.