Causes And Effects Of Reconstruction

After the conclusion of America’s Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln pitched the idea of “Reconstruction,” which would bring the southern states back into the Union. President Lincoln, according to many radical Republicans, was too gentle on the south. The government was divided on how to solve the issue of readmitting the southern states back into the Union. In addition to that, the government was not certain on what rights to enumerate to the newly emancipated slaves. These issues became more difficult to solve after President Lincoln was murdered. Lincoln’s successor, Vice President Andrew Johnson, was a Tennessee Democrat that lacked respect of the Republican Congress. The legislative and executive branches of the American government

The Radical Republicans, and the rest of Congress, were the ones who passed most of the bills for Reconstruction, because of their ability to override the president with their majority. They expanded the Freedmen's Bureau, which did show some progress in the helping of former slaves and poor white men. The Freedmen’s Bureau set up hospitals, schools, and also gave out supplies. This achieved the enablement of former slaves having the right to free education. Later on, however, the Freedmen’s Bureau became neglected, and was often forgotten or overlooked. The Freedmen’s Bureau is accurately described in this following statement, “This auspicious beginning belied the great disappointments that lay ahead,” (CITE TEXTBOOK).

“...the slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery”(Dubois). The Reconstruction wasn’t just a time of leaving slavery behind us, it was a time of progression and development. In 1869, four years after the Civil War, the first ever college football game ensued, and in 1870 Hiram Revels was the first African American senator. Then, in 1877, the first ever easter egg hunt occurred. Moving past all the fun of the Reconstruction, is the death of it. The Reconstruction died due to the efforts, or lack thereof on the North. A financial crisis, racism, and a lack of effort brought the Reconstruction to a halting stop.

The Reconstruction Era occurred between 1866 and 1877, immediately following the Civil War between the Northern and Southern states. The Reconstruction Era brought change to not only the American economy, society, and government, but significant changes to the lives of African Americans as well. Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865 impacted conditions for African Americans in the post-war period through political and social changes in the Reconstruction Era; which ranged from a new array of rights to many new opportunities in society.

At the end of the Civil War slavery was outlawed by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution and the blacks was finally free. In the South there was a sense of anger and shame in losing the war. The Reconstruction era was put into effect by Congress in 1866 and lasted until 1877. Reconstruction was aimed at reorganizing the Southern states after the Civil War. The reconstruction plan granted the means for readmitting the southern states into the Union, and tried to come up with the methods by which whites and blacks could live together in a non-slave society. However during reconstruction the United States government took actions to protect freedman and with each action the south countered with actions that would try to eradicate the laws put in place by the winning northern forces for example, the infamous Jim Crow Laws. The law segregated the whites and the blacks, thus can be commonly heard as “separate is not equal.” The Reconstruction was still seen as a success towards the United States as a whole in many ways as it unified the nations.

The Civil War and the period of Reconstruction brought great social, political, and economic changes to American society. These changes affected the way everyone in the nation was used to living. Slavery was a huge thing that led the economy for the south, providing a free source of labor, which would soon lead to a lot of change in the southern economy when emancipated. Slavery also did not allow the African Americans to have any rights or participate in any political things. White people dominated the nation and restricted all that the African Americans were allowed to do. The emancipation of slavery led to changes in economics, politics, and brought many social changes. These changes ultimately had positive effects on the world, and these changes are still seen today as they continued into the 20th century.

Reconstruction Era has two uses; the first covers the entire nation in the period 1865–1877 following the Civil War; the second one, used in this article, covers the transformation of the Southern United States from 1863 to 1877, with the reconstruction of state and society in the former Confederacy.

Beginning in 1865 and ending in 1877 the Reconstruction Era was an Era that caused many changes in America. Reconstruction was a plan that Abraham Lincoln mentioned in 1863 for the aftermath of the Civil War. Before Lincoln could accomplish his plan of Reconstruction he was assassinated allowing the Reconstruction idea to be pass to his successor Andrew Johnson. One main reason for the Reconstruction Era was to establish rights for all freedmen. During the start of the Reconstruction Era the South was in political, social, and economic turmoil; however, the Union was responding to the South in a very unpleasant way by planning to regain Confederate states and change the way of the southern government operates to make it easier for many freedmen to live.

After the Civil War between the Union and the Confederacy, both sides became one again. Once the war was over and the Union had won, the U.S. entered the Reconstruction period. Between 1865 and 1877, the U.S. brought about great change in both the North and the South. Constitutional and social developments during this time ,as well as years before, that amounted to a revolution.

The Reconstruction Era which followed the Civil War was a period marked by a severe effort to re-establish a depleted and distraught society. The war, which was aimed at confronting the national dilemma of slavery, only led to subsequent problems over emancipation and an undefined condition of freedom. Some, who had naively assumed that ending slavery would resolve the problem of racial inequality, overlooked the prejudice and unpleasant feeling towards blacks.

The Reconstruction Era can be distinguished from other eras by looking at the relationships between the northern and the southern regions, along with the rights of African Americans. Having won the Civil War, the northern part of the country (anti-slavery) pushed for more rights and freedoms for those freed from slavery.

The Reconstruction after the Civil war was a tedious process of making sure both sides rejoined the union and recovered from the war without issue. President Lincoln originally began the Reconstruction with the Emancipation Proclamation and the Ten-Percent plan. However, after Andrew Jackson took office, the blueprint was changed to include the “Black Code” and many other state legislatures to still make it difficult for the blacks to live peacefully.

Another plan was called the Radical Republican’s Plan their main goal was to for the federal government protect the civil and social rights of newly freed African Americans this includes not liking they black codes. They also want to give the Confederate soldiers and officeholders a

As the South fell to ruins after the Civil War, the infrastructures of the railroads were ripped apart, and the Union was in desperate need of reconstruction. In addition, the once-booming Southern economy based on cotton had crumbled due to the lack of slaves to perform the necessary tasks needed to maintain a stable single-crop economy. As tensions grew stronger, two leaders, Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, stepped forward to help create a logical solution to the issue at hand. The Republican Congress, on the other hand, wanted to develop a plan that would leave a damaging impact on Southern society. Although each party’s plan for Reconstruction differed in their own ways, each was ultimately an attempt to reunite the Union and return

The goal for the Reconstruction of the United States was to unite the country and make it a better place for everyone. Unfortunately, some facts indicate that it failed. For starters, a terrible consequence that became more evident was the racism. A really common thing at the US during the Reconstruction time was the segregation: to separate people in groups. In this case, African-Americans being separated from whites. There were laws called Jim Crow laws, a pejorative caricature of African American, that were made to separate them at schools, parks, public buildings, hospitals and in transportation systems Also, the cities became over populated because of the immigrants that became to arrive. There were so many people that the tenement system became necessary.