During the Reconstruction period, the North and the South had very different ideas on how to handle all of the new problems in America regarding the freed slaves. Though the North and the South had contradictory ideas that ranged from the basic needs of the freed slaves to establishing new state governments, the Reconstruction period strived to unify the North and the South. In the Reconstruction period, freedom was a new idea for many African Americans and they aimed to establish all of their new rights, even if they were unsure of their lives after the Civil War. The North and South, both having different ideas, had two different ways to meet the basic needs for food, service, and industry. Most of the Northerners believed that the freedmen …show more content…
The freedom in the new society led to more improvements and beliefs on how to make the changed society better. During the period of Reconstruction, three new amendments passed that had to do with the freedom and rights of freed African Americans. The 13th Amendment, passed in 1865, abolished slavery once and for all. Passed in 1866, the 14th Amendment gave everyone who was born in America full citizenship. Lastly, the 15th Amendment said that no citizen can be denied the right to vote because of your race, the color of your skin, or of previous conditions of enslavement. The Civil Rights Act of 1875 gave freedmen, and white men the same rights and legal protection, regardless of different laws. Though the bill said that blacks could serve on juries, the bill did not provide means for enforcement. Although these acts were no longer enforced, they served as a model for the civil rights acts passed in the twentieth century. The South used laws called black codes. They were like another type of slavery that would place whites higher than blacks, instead of everyone being equal. If a black man was not employed, he would be arrested and he would probably not be able to pay the fines. Even during this time, the whites struggled to see if the blacks should have the right to carry arms, but other codes told the African Americans that they could own property. During this time, a group was formed of former
Reconstruction is during which the United States began to rebuild the Southern society after they lost to the civil war. It lasted from 1865 to 1877, and it was initiated by President Lincoln until his assassination in 1865. President Johnson continued Lincoln’s agenda to continue the Reconstruction. Throughout the process of Reconstruction, one of its main purpose was to guarantees for equal rights for all people, especially for the African Americans. Even though slavery was abolished after the civil war, many Southerners were still against the idea of equal rights for all black people, such as the Republicans.
They were in existence from 1865 through 1872. 10. The significant three amendments during the Reconstruction were the 13th Amendment abolished slavery, 14th Amendment granting citizenship to people born in the US regardless of race, and the 15th Amendment voting rights to all regardless of color or if you were a slave.
In the aftermath of the civil war with the union the victors political change was inevitable. The north had just won a war fought over the issue of slavery and to not address the issue permanently after their victory would be a failure on their part. Despite heated tensions and many in the south opposed to any final resolution on the subject of slavery that did rule in their favor Abraham Lincoln and his allies were able to garner enough support in congress to pass the 13th,14th, and 15th amendments. These 3 amendments clarified finally the rights established in the constitution applied to African Americans just as much as those of European descent.
Before the civil rights act they would treat blacks with the “separate but equal” clause. Segregation was major in the south. Blacks could not use the same facilities as whites. Also for voting, whites made it somewhat impossible for blacks to vote by rigging “required” literacy tests. The civil rights act relieved blacks from feeling like they were limited with the things they could do.
To work, the freed slaves were forced to sign contracts with their employer. The Mississippi and South Carolina Black Codes of 1865 required blacks to sign contracts of employment and if they left before it ended then they would be forced to pay earlier wages. Freed blacks’ status in the postwar South
Freed slaves felt that reconstruction was going to help them so in general, they felt good about reconstruction. The Southerners hated reconstruction and everything else about the North. You can see
The Reconstruction Era of American history was plagued by many problems. One of the most important problems being the recently released from slavery Freedmen. Freedmen were in a tricky situation in which they had just been released from their owner and had nowhere to go, but the Federal Government made many successful attempts to help them out. The Government helped alleviate all the problems Freedmen had from their finances to basic needs and rights, and in doing so, made the period of reconstruction more helpful than harmful for Freedmen. The events of reconstruction were helpful to freedmen as they were not only freed from slavery, they were given rights directly from the federal government.
At the end of the Civil War between the North and South arose the Reconstruction era. This was a time period of the late 1800s where the united states, specifically the North started to attempt the rebuilding of the South. Abolitionists were eager to see the end of slavery and Lincoln attempted to end slavery. President Lincoln attempted to put in place the Emancipation Proclamation which stated all slaves in confederate states would be free. This was to weaken the southern states; except, the confederate states did not obey.
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).
In the period of reconstruction, there was a lack of racial equality and racism towards blacks. The 13th amendment abolished slavery, with the exception of allowing it as a punishment for a crime (“Thirteenth Amendment” 19). Although it abolished slavery, there was still a lack of equality towards blacks. The Black Codes were state laws in the south, that were implemented in 1866. These laws limited the rights of African Americans and were
The Civil Rights act of 1866 was also supposed to give newly freed African Americans most equal rights as whites. The other Civil Rights act (Civil Rights act of 1875) attempted to give African Americans equal accommodation rights, as well as trying to make racial profiling illegal and an arrestable crime. The Civil Rights acts made an attempt to give African Americans a lot of rights on par with whites. Lastly, the Bureau of Refugees was also created in order to aid the rights the African Americans now held. It was created in 1865 to aid slave and freeman migration from the South to the North.
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.
Reflection on the Reconstruction Period The reconstruction period was a time of cause and effect. It was a time when in order to rebuild the strength of society economically, socially, and politically after a the loss of life and stability in the civil war. In the socratic seminar we discussed how the during the reconstruction period the goal was to ‘fix’ the south as in the eyes of the government, they were the cause of the problem.
The blacks had the same rights as whites but they were not treated the same. A lot of time they really had no rights. The blacks basically stayed in their own community so they would not be bothered. Which leads us to the next topic Social Stratification.
However, the black citizens weren’t the only ones having trouble adjusting. The white citizens still looked at African Americans as “different” because of the color of their skin. Laws known as the Black Codes still restricted African Americans. These laws were passed by southern states in 1865 and 1866 to restrict African American’s freedom and forced them to work low income jobs. In 1866, the Supreme Court was able to overrule the Black Codes, giving the black American citizens full citizenship and freedom.