Question: How effective or ineffective was Reconstruction, and what part if any did conflict in government play this? When analyzing the Reconstruction period, it is evident that there are two perspectives that can be deduced. Firstly, it is vital to review the issue of slavery. It is during the reconstruction that slaves received new rights and opportunities as citizens of America. Respectively, it is through the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendments that slaves were guaranteed freedom. Some of the freedoms include: the right to vote, receive an education, have their own property, get married and even hold a political office. By the 1868, the progression in civil liberties offered to the black community yielded fruit as the voter turnaround was much greater since many of them were able to register as …show more content…
The black people of America were subjected to segregation and seen as the lower class, could not have mixed marriages, or even carry a gun. Many Southern states created laws to prevent blacks from voting and traveling. Jim Crow`s Laws were simply unjust. It is also important to point out that there was corruption during that time period that slowed down the positive growth of the society. MARK ZEES Thank you for the wonderful read. I absolutely agree that there are effective and ineffective points of the Reconstruction. The outcomes you pointed out are very important facts. For instance you mention that the United States was united and a new form of government was created. Black Americans did become equal citizens, but as the result they still had a lot of issues to be able to use their rights. There were Black codes and Jim Crow`s laws which were like speed bumps for blacks on the way to a better life. Today we can say that the Civil war and reconstruction had a great impact on today’s standards of
From segregation and voting laws to sharecropping, reconstruction did not turn out to be the success it had the potential to be. Many years later, we are
The Reconstruction was unsuccessfull because of some important reasons. First, the South was still aracist part of the United States because they created the Jim Crow Laws, what means that the people who lived and administratedthe South were not intelligent. The second example is that Abraham Lincoln, who started and incentivated the Reconstruction, was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, so it made the Reconstruction process to be less efective. Finally, the last problem was the Solid South, it is a name that the South recieved because it was a solid white, solid racist and solid Democrat, what means that they were not able to support black people. Concluding, all of these examples shows why the Reconstruction was unsuccessfull
During the 1930’s, racial tension and discrimination had been widespread throughout the South. In the year before, the stock market had crashed, causing the Great Depression. Meanwhile, the Dust Bowl was also going on, affecting farmers and workers in the mid-east. Although life was already hard for many, Jim Crow Laws were created. They were laws written to segregate Blacks and Whites.
Black people could not accumulate the same amount of wealth as whites. Most black families weren't allowed to fall into the same traditional roles as white families. Black women were more likely to have a job than white women of which were more likely to be stay-at-home mothers.
African americans were discriminated against strictly because of their race and had limited rights compared to other people. They were very restricted because of their race. Some examples would be segregation, limited utilities and education, and they had to give up their seats on buses for white people.
Many historians disagree over the success of the Reconstruction of the United States following The Civil War. There are various factors to take into consideration while trying to determine if the Reconstruction was successful. People have argued over this topic for over a century, all coming to different conclusions. William A. Dunning offers the main opposition of the Reconstruction but men like W.E.B. Du Bois continue to argue how Reconstruction was successful. Historians all have a different views of the true success of the Reconstruction.
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.
Positive gains from the Reconstruction Era include: Freedmen’s Bureau: food, Medicare, and legal advice granted to newly freed African Americans; 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment which abolished slavery, granted citizenship to everyone born in the U.S, and granting everyone the right to vote. Negative effects from the Reconstruction Era include: the KKK: a group of whites who threatened blacks so they wouldn’t vote, and killed many; Black Codes: laws that limited the freedom from U.S citizens. The effects of the Reconstruction, which linger in our society nowadays, are the three amendments passed by congress, the Civil Rights act of 1866, and black schools and universities were established; most importantly, we are once again a unified
Jim Crow: The Continuous Oppressor of the Black Community After centuries of unpaid labor, Black (or African American) citizens were finally able to enjoy the freedom that the United States brought. However, this joy did not last long before the nation’s federal government legalized various discriminatory laws known as Jim Crow Laws. Despite the abolishment of these laws, the Black community continues to feel the negative effects instilled within them. Not only did the Jim Crow Laws hinder economic and educational opportunities, they also restricted African American communities from being able to cast votes and created an overall more discriminatory society for them to live in. By segregating both public and private property, Black people struggled
Although many attempts were made to prioritize freedom and equality for all, these values were undermined by racist Southerners who wouldn’t accept equality. In the end, Reconstruction had failed and former slaves endured another hardship akin to slavery. However, Reconstruction still could have prospered. There are multiple events that, if they had occurred, Reconstruction would not have failed. For example, had the government continued to fund the Freedmen’s Bureau, then the South would have legislated their discriminatory laws much later, if not at all.
Jim Crow was not only legally implemented but also created the standard norms for society. Jim Crow created etiquette norms such as black men not being able to shake hands with white men because it would imply that they were equal, and at that time, they were not seen as equal. Courtesy titles like Mrs. Mr. and Ms. were to be used only by black people to white people because it was disrespectful for black people to address white people by their first name. The social norms did everything they could to make black people inferior to white
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.
The reconstruction period was a failure because African Americans, mainly males, were not treated with equality although the constitution said that the they were free and had the right to vote, be educated and had the right to liberty, life and the pursuit to happiness. Organizations, like the KKK, were created to harm freed slaves and their families. Laws were created such as the Black Codes restricting former slaves from their rights. African Americans endured a lot of violence over the years. “In Grayson, Texas, a white man and two friends murdered three former slaves because the wanted to ‘ thin the niggers out and drive them to their hole’”.
No, I disagree with this proposition that Reconstruction was a missed opportunity. In the history of the United States, "Reconstruction" refers to the policies between 1863 and 1877 when the U.S. focused on ending the slavery, demolishing the Confederacy, and rebuilding the nation and the Constitution. Abraham Lincoln’s whole post war idea was to facilitate and reconciliation but he was assassinated and we left with Andrew Johnson. Although the slavery was banned, segregation created new social injustice, which lasted for another century. Economically speaking, the South was never recovered completely and there were specific problems left unsolved over state rights.
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.