Reconstruction After Civil War

It altered the course of the war, led to the impartiality of all blacks, and changed the future for the posterity. The Emancipation Proclamation altered the course of the war for the better. It was now moral responsibility to triumph the Confederacy and unbind the millions of African Americans held in subjugation (Bodenner). This document also changed the Civil War from a war of troubles to a campaign of human freedom (Emancipation Proclamation History.com). Amongst the Civil War, General Patrick Cleburne had mentioned how, “slavery, from being one of our chief sources of strength," had evolved into "one of our chief sources of weakness" (Bodenner).

The South wanted to keep slaves while the North wanted to abolish them. In conclusion, the primary cause of the civil war was not slavery instead was the issue of states rights. The Northern armies won the Civil War and the the South returned to the Union. “The Civil War started because of differences between free slaves states and the power of the government that said if slavery was correct or incorrect.”(The Civil War in America Prologue). Slavery was right at that time but now it is wrong.

While the north was becoming increasingly industrial, with factories and mills popping up all over, the southern states stayed with family farming, and plantations. With the conquest of the north came their ideologies, including factories. Rhett once again realized this when he told Scarlett about the decline of the Old South. Abolishing slavery was not Abraham Lincoln 's main goal of the Civil War, but in a way he did on the down low. The north being against slavery and the south supporting it was the main cause for the division which caused the war.

(Source B2) Lincoln’s proclamation was one of strategy as it aimed to abolish slavery as well as recruit those previously enslaved to help the North win the civil war. The freeing of slaves would also result in the weakening of the South’s economy since “The South’s economy was based on slavery.” (Source A). Thus the South’s ability to effectively wage a war against the Union North would have been depleted and the slaves in those areas would be freed from years of slavery, both being a dual victory for Lincoln. “Slaves, as the property of individuals and businesses, represented the largest portion of the region’s personal and corporate wealth, as cotton and land prices declined and the price of slaves soared.” (Source H). Slavery was becoming a growing concern in the initial stages of the war and Lincoln soon realized that by ending slavery he could help end the Civil war.

Twain uses the King’s greed to represent the southerners who did not want to give up slavery because they would lose money from it. In the end, slaves were freed and hundreds of plantations and southern properties were destroyed during the Civil War. One critic even wrote, “ Huck has to keep moving,

President Andrew Johnson had tried to veto the Civil RIghts Act of 1865 but it was overturned and the act became a Law. President Johnson’s attitude toward this led to the growth of the Radical Republican Movement and it also increased intervention in the South, more help to former slaves and also to Johnson’s impeachment. The Black Code, Freedman’s Bureau, and the Bill of 1865 are all prime examples of how the African American’s have freedom. In 1865, the Civil War ended offering more freedoms to all African American

During the war, slavery became the most prominent issue. Black men and white men fought alongside each other. The war brought a much stronger federal government while the state governments still had rights over themselves. The federal government had to get control again over the major issues and topics. Since the Emancipation Proclamation, it gave freedom to all African Americans.

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. As far as success goes, the Reconstruction Acts were mostly unsuccessful.

The rebuilding of the south after the civil war was called the reconstruction. It lasted for 12 years. During that time, southern economic has dropped drastically and slaves in the south had to wandered in the streets. The purpose of reconstruction was to get the states who seceded back to the union, rebuild south and also ensure black rights and protection.Even though most people were unhappy with the south and wanted them punished, others wanted to rebuild. However, President Lincoln wanted to be tolerant to the south by making the laws easier for them to reunite back with the union.

The Reconstruction was a period of rebuilding relationships between the North and the South in the U.S. It was a significant period for ex-slaves (freedpeople) to seek a better life in the U.S. and one of the significant eras in the U.S. history that historians have been debating. After the end of the Civil War, about four million ex-slaves gained their freedom from the institution of slavery. But most ex-slaves struggled with the meaning of inequality and freedom during the Reconstruction. Historians have been debating about the evaluation of the Reconstruction.