The Ineffectiveness Of The Reconstruction Era

The education tests, Grandfather Clause, and Black Codes all express that Reconstruction was unsuccessful. This was on account of it didn 't finish the objectives of Reconstruction since one of the two fundamental objectives of Reconstruction was to increase social liberties for liberated slaves. Thusly, this turns out to be unsuccessful in light of endeavors at taking without end the privileges of African Americans, which undermined this bigger objective. Through state governments, laws were made which took away the rights that they were attempting to be picked up by African Americans, for example, voting, being able to pick who they work for, and not being oppressed. The motivation behind southern state governments taking endlessly those rights from African Americans was to reproduce servitude and reproduce an arrangement of white pecking order, which in fact had been banned.

Teagan Crisamore 802 In this essay I will be explaining the pros and cons of each plan then explaining which one is better. In the Wade-Davis bill the cons were: Having to Pledge to the union and Only white males who didn 't fight could vote,President Lincoln did not like this plan but Wade Davis made President Lincoln realize he would have to compromise. The Wade Davis bill also made it hard for people to vote so they started looking at the 10% plan. In the 10% plan the pros were : Only 10% of voters had to pledge allegiance to the union , there would be a new constitution to ban slavery and offered amnesty to the southerners or official pardon for illegal acts supporting the rebellion.

Although reconstruction brought essential changes for African American slaves it ultimately failed its purpose of unifying the nation. However, in order to comprehend why reconstruction failed it is important to understand the two phases it underwent. In addition, it is also crucial to look at the different plans that were propose in order to reunify the nation and if they were successful or not. First, phase one the presidential reconstruction was very complex due to the fact that it was carried out by two very divergent presidents and lacked unification. On one hand we had Abraham Lincoln 's plan which consisted of reconstructing and unifying the nation again.

The conventional idea is that Georgia did not succeed at its intentions is challenged by the interpretations of Noeleen McIlvenna, who wrote The Short Life of Free Georgia, a contradictory story of the colonization of the thirteenth colony. First and foremost, the proprietary colony was a place that was meant for debtors and the worthy poor. The colony was created to rid England of the poor and find suitable work for them. The elite looked at them with disregard; there was constant separation, such as The Black Act, which didn’t allow hunting and fishing on private property. This new colony was to be built for the betterment of English debtors.

Reconstruction was an attempt by Abraham Lincoln to rebuild the war-torn South. Its goals were to fix the economy, allow new freedmen to exercise their freedom, and restore white Southerners’ loyalty to the Union. Although the passing of the 14th and 15th amendment ensured that African-Americans’ rights are protected; white Southerners found ways to prevent them from enjoying their rights, such as the establishment of the KKK and the creation of Black Codes. The Government attempted to fight these problems with laws, such as the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871. In spite of these revolutionary efforts; laws passed by the Government failed to be effective.

He appointed a cabinet composed of Northerners and Southerners and hoped to keep peace between the country’s pro-slavery and anti-slavery people, but it created lots of tension. People were accusing James of being biased to the southern colony interests and slavery issue. Two days after being in office, the U.S. Supreme Court gave a document that stated, “The federal government had no power to regulate slavery in the territories and denied African Americans the rights of U.S. citizens.” He hoped that the document would resolve the slavery issue, but he, “reportedly pressured a Northern justice to vote with the Southern majority in the case.” Then, the southerners were contempt, but the northerners were protesting, which led to diversity.

In the election, Lincoln did not win a single southern state vote, because of his reputation as being moderate on the slavery question. Although Lincoln initially arranged to abolish slavery in the south, he decided that he would control it in the south and refrain from allowing it to spread throughout the western territories. Lincoln contemplated war if slavery distributed into the western territories from the southern states. Since slavery already existed in the south, he did not have the motive to withdraw it because of the success it brought to the economy. With his

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.

Child labour laws did come to exist, but during 1900 to 1920 they were “purely a state authority.” So they did not achieve national recognition. As for civil rights, W.E.B. DuBois and other African-Americans “fought gladly and to the last drop of blood” for America, but were repented with “gloats in lynching, disfranchisement, caste, brutality and devilish insult”. (document I) Eventually later child labour laws and civil rights would be achieved at the national level, but progress can take time.

Efforts from the congress after the rejection of President Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan involved enacting laws and amendments that enforced equal rights only to the now freed male slaves and gave them the right to vote and hold office. The government, confronted with formation of anti-equality groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and many others that opposed equality, soon enacted the Black Codes. The congress then passed the Freedmen’s Bureau and Civil Rights Bills in hopes to settle the quarrels of slavery by declaring all born in the U.S as citizens but unfortunately, Johnson declined these bills. To retaliate, the Civil Rights Act

Sectional party system was a new and improved system that challenged people’s views to make good decisions for humanity. Slavery was a big problem that political parties avoided. After the Whig party collapsed, the Know-Nothings started to trend, but also collapsed,

Although Johnson’s plan allowed the South join the union fairly faster than the Wade-Davis Bill, the republicans still had great power and presence against the southern democrats. The republican’s had obtained such a large portion of congress that the republicans would have impeached president Johnson. However that power became short lived, as the Southern democrats were able to regain power in event of the compromise of 1868. With the compromise the Republicans won the presidential election, but the southern democrats were finally able to regain their power in the state governments and drown out the southern republicans. Thus the Southern white men prevailed the winners of reconstruction,

The Black Codes denied blacks availability to guns, insulting language (or blasphemy) illegal, and barred blacks from voting. In Mississippi, blacks were even subject to plantation work if they could not prove their employment. Andrew Johnson allowed this behavior and even vetoed a bill that would 've denied his right to. Proving the ultimate weakness of the reconstruction plans. In response, the Republican Congress was able to override Andrew 's vetoes for once, and the pass laws for civil

DuBois, "The slave went free, stood a brief moment in the sun, and then moved back again towards slavery" summarizes the situation of the former slaves during reconstruction quite well. The slaves had a moment of glory with the 14th and 15th amendment to the constitution, granting them rights. But the federal government and the Northern white quickly lost interest in the "black issue" and did not push it further. At the end of Reconstruction, the freedmen were still exploited, treated badly and unfairly and still economically dependent on the whites. Reconstruction was "a splendid failure" (W.E.B. DuBois) in granting former slaves freedom and equal rights; but then, the war had not been about freeing

To do this, they sent troops into the South, which they were not very pleased with. During Reconstruction, freed slaves still did not have the same opportunities that white people did. The Civil rights laws were made to protect former slaves and make sure everyone is equal, but still, the South cannot agree and continues to make life nearly just as bad as it had been before the war. In the document written by a former slave, he expresses how poorly they have been treated. When Lincoln was president, Reconstruction ran alot smoother.