By the end of the Civil War, the South was in a state of political upheaval, social disorder, and economic decay. The Union’s tactics of total war destroyed southern crops, plantations, and entire cities, and hundreds of thousands of emancipated slaves rushed to Union lines as their masters fled the oncoming Union army. Inflation became so severe that by the end of the war a loaf of bread cost several hundred Confederate dollars. Thousands of southerners starved to death, and many who did not starve lost everything they owned: clothing, homes, land, and slaves. As a result, by 1865, policymakers in Washington had the nearly impossible task of southern Reconstruction. This reconstruction would need to encompass every aspect of the South’s dwindindling …show more content…
Reconstruction of the south encompassed three major political initiatives: restoration of the Union, transformation of southern society, and enactment of progressive legislation favoring the rights of freed slaves. President Abraham Lincoln’s Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction—issued in 1863, two years before the war even ended—mapped out the first of these initiatives, his Ten-Percent Plan. Under the plan, each southern state would be readmitted to the Union after 10 percent of its voting population had pledged future loyalty to the United States, and all Confederates except high-ranking government and military officials would be pardoned. After Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, President Andrew Johnson adopted the Ten-Percent Plan and pardoned thousands of Confederate officials. Radical Republicans in Congress, however, called for harsher measures, demanding a …show more content…
The Radicals therefore attempted to reshape the South by enfranchising blacks, putting Unionist and pro-Republican governments in southern legislatures, and punishing southern planter elites, whom many politicians held responsible for the Civil War. As “carpetbaggers” (northerners who moved to the South after the war) and “scalawags” (white Unionists and Republicans in the South) streamed into the South, southerners denounced them as traitors and falsely accused many of corruption. However, through organizations like the congressionally approved Freedmen’s Bureau, the U.S. government did manage to distribute confiscated lands to former slaves and poor whites as well as help improve education and sanitation and foster industrial growth in rebuilt southern
How would reconstruction have ended if Abraham Lincoln was assassinated and was able to enforce his reconstruction plan? How would the Emancipation Proclamation be enforced in the previously Slave-South? Would we enforce it differently than the Fugitive Slave Act?
The Redeemers were a group of democrats who won the votes of southern white males. Texas, Tennessee, and North Carolina are examples of states who had a majority of white population and therefore voted for these democrats. This group of democrats labeled themselves “the Redeemers” because they thought they saved the white population. In Give Me Liberty! by Eric Foner, it is stated that the Redeemers thought they were saving the south from “corruption, misgovernment, and northern and black control”(584).
Page 1 of 8 Running head: PRESIDENTIAL TRIUMPHS AND FAILURES1 Presidential Triumphs and Failures During Reconstruction EraTrent M. AndersonDaymar CollegeAuthor NoteTrent M. Anderson, Associate’s Degree Business Program, Daymar CollegeTrent M. Anderson, is now in Bachelor’s Degree Business Program, Daymar College PRESIDENTIAL TRIUMPHS AND FAILURES2AbstractThere were two Presidents who had the difficult issues to be dealt with during the Reconstruction Era. During the Reconstruction Era there were three main plans. Abraham Lincoln offered his plan for reunification of the United States with his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction. The citizens of the South had to take an oath of loyalty, and once 10% of the state had taken the oath
The North and South, from 1861 to 1865, lost over six hundred thousand men in an armed and gruesome conflict over the issue of slavery. Despite the North winning militarily, the death rates for both sides were relatively equal. Following the South’s surrender at Appomattox, a time of Reconstruction ensued. Southern beliefs and behaviors, along with the Grant Administration’s growing indifference about freedman issues, influenced Reconstruction politics across the country. White Southerners scored a resounding victory in the Reconstruction Period by passing restriction laws against Negroes and intensified the Southern atmosphere beyond its original Pre-Civil War environment.
By 1865, the South has been devastated by the war. Cities have burned, farms have been destroyed or left barren, and the railroads have been smashed. In addition, the South’s primary source of cheap labor, slaves, has been lost due to the Emancipation Proclamation (Paskoff). The land teeters on a knife-edge. Unrest flows through the population as poverty and chaos knock at the door.
At the beginning of Andrew Johnson’s Presidency many believed that he would punish the South for their treason during the Civil War and support African American suffrage. (Page 83) However, this changed when Johnson began to set up his plans for Reconstruction in 1865 when he moved to pardon all Confederates that pledged an oath of loyalty and the returning of all of their property with the exclusion of slaves. The only exception to this would be for high-ranking Confederate generals who owned property that exceeded over $20,000 were required to apply for Presidential pardons. With the passing of the Black Codes and violence seen towards African Americans in the South, prompted the Radical Republicans to take matters into their hands.
After the Civil War, the United States was faced with numerous challenges. The Union had won and had to resolve several issues including handling the country’s debt, how to punish Confederate traitors and slavery. Slavery was one of the leading causes of the war and once it was a abolished the government had to work out a plan to help former slaves and freedmen. The solution was conducted by Radical Republicans; it was called The Southern Homestead Act of 1866 which allowed former slaves and freedmen to purchase land in the South for a low price. Although the Southern Homestead Act (1866) was meant to help blacks in Florida, it failed to do so due to discrimination on the basis of race, lack of government support and the land that was bought was of poor quality.
Sami Davis Rowan American History 2 27 January 2016 Post Civil War I like to think of the Reconstruction Era as the period of the underdogs! The nation was attempting to unite to make equality possible for all of black and white-skinned Americans. Countless carpetbaggers- northerners who moved south after the war- and scalawags- white Unionists and Republicans in the South- flocked to the South during Reconstruction.
When reconstruction began, Southern citizens faced destruction to its property and buildings; oftentimes due to burnings of the city; for example, when Richmond was burned down by the Confederates or Petersburg destroyed after the siege. Though the South was able to rise, it was never able to match the economic status of the North. The wartime destruction that occurred was devastated and burned down towns, citizens seeking new ways other than slavery to make money all while trying to adjust to Congress’s
All Americans are familiar with the Civil war: its purpose, impact, and how it shaped the country. One may wonder, however, was this the necessary path in reshaping the United States? In closer examination, the war and the Reconstruction were quite brutal and messy. Pre-war, the North and South were distinctly divided into the ambitious and modernized North, and the old fashioned and plantation-dependent South, in which both sides radically believed in different values. In fact, many issues, especially slavery, were precariously balanced until everything finally collapsed after the 1950s.
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).
The South decided to continue to fight about the ‘Carpet-Bag’ government and resisted the North’s help when it was offered. Reconstruction slowly died when the South kept resisting the help from the North. In the South, people such as the KKK took control of the South and the North got sick of it. Southerners resisted help and decided to use an corrupt government and ideas in the South.
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.
Prior to the Civil War ( 1861-1865) the southern states of the United States were a very wealthy aristocracy that thrived off of the labor of slaves and their position in agriculture. Providing most of the known country’s food, cotton, livestock, and other raw natural agricultural resources, the south would become an enormous burden on the nation as a whole, if the economy could not be restored. Post Civil War, the southern half of the country was largely destroyed, as most of the battles were fought on farmer’s fields and acreage belonging to essential crops. Additionally, the south was in social and emotional turmoil after such a lengthy and violent war, which would eventually lead to resistance and further destruction. Newly emancipated
Carpetbaggers were basically people in the North that came south to help the Radical Reconstruction that sought financial or political gain. The name originated from them carrying their valuables in small suitcases made from pieces of carpet. They brought the North the Capital. The South had scalawags, which were basically white Southerners who supported the Radical Reconstruction. The South also had Redeemers, which were conservative Southerners.