Was Reconstruction A Success Or Failure

Their audience were those who agreed with emancipation, and more specifically blacks who had just been free. Clearly from the image described, those two groups didn’t see blacks as their equals and despised them. Their purpose in creating this image was to install fear in blacks to keep them from voting and believing that they are equal to those in the ex-confederacy. The kkk had been using terror tactics all throughout the Reconstruction era because they didn’t want blacks to vote or participate in their politics the kkk wanted to keep white supremacy. For a while the South had enacted black codes which replaced the slave codes.

At the end of the Civil War between the North and South arose the Reconstruction era. This was a time period of the late 1800s where the united states, specifically the North started to attempt the rebuilding of the South. Abolitionists were eager to see the end of slavery and Lincoln attempted to end slavery. President Lincoln attempted to put in place the Emancipation Proclamation which stated all slaves in confederate states would be free. This was to weaken the southern states; except, the confederate states did not obey.

In South, torn between the economic benefits of slavery and the moral and constitutional issues raised, and white Southerners grew more and more defensive. They argued that black people were incapable of caring for themselves. They said that slavery was a benevolent institution that kept them fed, clothed, and occupied. Most Northerners did not doubt that black people being inferior to whites, but they did doubt the benevolence of slavery. The Civil War changed the future of the United States.

The American Civil War that was started due to the controversy over slavery in 1861, was won by The Union supported by President Lincoln against the Confederate states. President Lincoln’s original goal during the civil war was to reunify the nation as quickly as possible and help both sides come to an understanding. After the Civil War ended in 1865, the newly formed United States’ reconstruction era began. The Reconstruction era was put into effect by the Congress in 1866 and lasted until 1877. The Union’s victory in the Civil War had given African Americans a new sense of hope, devastated the southern economy, and eased the history of disunity in American political life.

Fearful of abolitionists seeking to incite a slave insurrection to overthrow the southern society, southerners resorted to mass burnings of mail from northern outlets in an attempt to quell the anti-slavery messages. Further, southerners viewed these efforts as an undermining of their right to property that “God...entrusted to [their] charge” and became further convinced of northern ambitions to eradicate slavery and the slaveholders themselves. Despite the abolitionists consisting of a small number of people, the overarching impact of their propaganda and literature caused southerners to take drastic measures as many in the slave states increasingly felt their livelihoods and safety were under attack by an anti-slavery north. The manifestation of this paranoia in slaveholders would in essence create a connotation of the anti-slavery movement with that of the entirety of the “free” states and northern

During the Civil War each side had some advantages and disadvantages. Before the Civil War there was the election of 1860, President Lincoln was elected president. The south knew that Lincoln wanted to abolish slavery, so the south seceded from the union. Then there was the attack on Fort Sumter, and the war began. “The war that ensued started at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, on April 12, 1861, and lasted four years”(Confederate.., pg1).

President Lincoln developed a reconstruction plan called the “Ten Percent Plan”. This reconstruction plan offered general amnesty to former confederate supporters and to former confederates if they took an oath in which pledged allegiance to the Union and accepted the end of slavery. Also, after ten percent of a state’s voting population had taken that oath, the state could then set up its new government. After those requirements were completed, and the state outlawed slavery, the state could then be readmitted to the Union. The president felt that only some African Americans deserved the right to vote, with that he decided that only black men who served in the Union army, owned property, or could read would be allowed

Racism’s Impact on Reconstruction While the issue of slavery evidently contributed to the divide that resulted in the American Civil War, it is debated whether prevailing ideals of racism caused the failure of the era following the war known as Reconstruction. With the abolishment of slavery, many of the southern states had to reassemble the social, economic, and political systems instilled in their societies. The Reconstruction Era was originally led by a radical republican government that pushed to raise taxes, establish coalition governments, and deprive former confederates of superiority they might have once held. However, during this time common views were obtained that the South could recover independently and that African Americans

Some people were for slavery and some people opposed it. Bring equality to slaves during Reconstruction is said to have fail because when Reconstruction was over, blacks were still unable to defend themselves and their rights. The Reconstruction era might have fail to give blacks social and economical equality at the time, but it brought about many issues of slavery. After the Reconstruction Era, slavery might have died down, but it never died out. This era is what started the issue of slavery, and today slaves are free.

The flag of the Confederacy was also another symbol of Southern Nationalism. “The Confederate government quickly became for the South, the successor to the federal government at Washington. A flag, the “ Stars and Bars,” was adopted for the new republic after a study by a committee that concluded that keeping the United States “Stars and Stripes” would be impractical and unpatriotic.” Southerners feared that white supremacy was in danger and feared slave rebellions. This was heightened by national events like John Brown’s Raid. This unified the South against the abolition of slavery