Postbellum And Reconstruction Era

During the Reconstruction era, the idea of freedom could have many different meanings. Everyday factors that we don't often think about today such as the color of our skin, where we were born, and whether or not we own land determined what limitations were placed on the ability to live our life to the fullest. To dig deeper into what freedom meant for different individuals during this time period, I analyzed three primary sources written by those who experienced this first hand. These included “Excerpts from The Black Codes of Mississippi” (1865), “Jourdan Anderson to his old master” (1865), and “Testimony on the Ku Klux Klan in Congressional Hearing” (1872). The ability to have absolute freedom is a common theme in these three documents. Freedom means more than just having the independence to make your own decisions and pursuing your own happiness. The hopes of Reconstruction were to create

The Red Record written by Ida B. Wells-Barnett opened the eyes of the people around the world to the horrific lynchings that had been happening. This book was directed to everybody to inform the world of the inhumane actions. If I were alive back in that time, this would have been motivation to make a stand. As it could have been motivation for the Civil Rights movement to begin. Being lynched served as punishment for pretty much anything that the mobs saw fit for an African American. Throughout The Red Record, Ida stated different reasoning’s or not for African Americans being lynched. She simply stated facts. She provided many statistics regarding to deaths and reasoning of being lynched. The chapters were organized in a way that the situations

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.

The era after Reconstruction and 1900 is often referred to as the 'Gilded Age'. The Gilded age was a period where rapid change in the economy, but also in the population of the U.S. The name ‘The Gilded age’ was given by Mark Twain in a book, gilded means golden on the outside but not golden on the inside. Mark Twain referred to this as the Gilded Age because he believed that the greed for wealth was a cover for crime, fraud, bribery and corruption. This era lasted from 1860-1910.The overall aspect of this era was to expand industrialization.

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 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).

During the era of reconstruction there has been a chain of flaws of many different plans. Many of these plans angered either the southern or the Northern. Most of these plans also impacted a dramatic number of people for an example the Freedmen. These plans helped out the freedmen in many different ways. It formed the social structure to this day. One of the most dramatic effects that impacts our social structure are the amendments. Amendments number 13,14,15 helped the freedmen to the extent that many have gotten jealous; I.e the southerners. Overall. there has been a lot of social changes that both caused success and failure, but mostly success.

Stemming from some of the Populist party’s ideas and following the turbulent times of the Reconstruction Era and Gilded Age, the Progressive movement arose in the 1890s in the United States as a means of utilizing the federal government to achieve national development. This was a huge step forward for the common man, as the industrialization of the nation and rise of big businesses, which exploded around the 1860s, left him robbed and mistreated. But this backtrack no longer reigned with the development of the Progressive Era, which brought prosperity through major reforms. This movement was a nationwide event, not bound to any singular political party or social class, but rather a mix, demonstrating its widespread success. The Progressive

Reconstruction was a period of time dedicated to rebuilding the nation after the Civil War. The war ended with the South being defeated and their economy being devastated. Many Southerners struggled after the war with rebuilding their land and lives. The President and Congress had to decide the terms for which the former Confederate states would be permitted to join the Union. President Lincoln’s plan for reuniting the country was found in the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction. He favored a moderate policy that would conjoin the South with the Union without any punishment for treason. Many resisted Lincoln’s plan, saying it was not harsh enough while others did not know if Lincoln was being too lenient. The Radical Republicans and moderate Republicans were caught in a conflict.

During the reconstruction era the Civil Rights Act of 1875 protected all Americans, regardless of their race, equal treatment in public accommodations, public transportation, and to prohibit exclusion from jury service, however it was not enforced and the supreme court declared it unconstitutional in 1883. The Court ruled that the 14th Amendment prohibited states, but not citizens, from discriminating. This civil rights reversal was devastating for African

Evan Meekins, the author of The Black Banner describes the period of Reconstruction as, “War was easy. The hard part was cleaning up afterward.” Reconstructing a divided and severed Union was a difficult and insurmountable task, but it had to be done. It fixed the issue of slavery by freeing the slaves and had rejoined the ex- Confederate states into the Union once again. Reconstruction was semi-effective in the state of Texas. Reconstruction brought healing to the nation and the newly freed slaves through Congressional Reconstruction; however, it also brought destruction to them as well through Presidential Reconstruction.

In my opinion I believe that the reconstruction was both a success and also a fail. The reason that it was a success was the simple fact that the United States got its name back again. The reconstruction era helped the United States become a unified nation. Another pro from this era was the fact that the North and the South no longer had any form of separation. During this time, three new amendments were added to the constitution. They were the thirteenth, fourteenth, and the fifteenth. These three amendments helped the colored people receive equal rights.

Finally the marking of the end of Reconstruction was the Election of 1876 and the new President Republican Hayes. Great upset to the Democrats their solution for Republicans to get anything done in congress was to make filibusters. With the constant and neverending interruption the two parties came to agree on the Compromise of 1877. This meant the removal of troops out of the south. This lead to the south once again being controlled by white Democrats.

In the years following the civil war, the union and the confederacy worked together to salvage land and fix towns that had been destroyed. Because the Union attacked the south at their homes, entire towns were in ruin. There were left in an agricultural crisis because of attacks on farms, destroying barns and killing animals. Reconstruction was necessary because of this.

Most historians deem the period of United States’ history known as the Reconstruction Era a total failure. This is the period of time directly following the end of the Civil War in which the government put reforms in place to reintroduce Confederate states into the Union and aid former slaves in their new lives as free people (McFeely). The era was deemed a failure because of the ineffectiveness of the governmental reforms to solve the problems America was facing. The United States Government could have handled the Reconstruction Era more effectively if they had acted more swiftly and decisively, compromised and cooperated, did not sacrifice the improvement of the nation for their own political gains, and attempted to change the culture of the Southern States.