Reconstruction Essay After four years of gruesome fighting, the Civil War ended, leaving the South, confederate territory, in ruins and defeat. The North’s advantage over the South was industrialization and this led to their victory over the South. In order to move on from the war reconstruction is essential. However, this became a major controversy on how much power the South should have and the creation of methods to enforce the new laws with the abolishment of slavery. The North struggles with strategies to improve the South without restarting the Civil War. Also there was difficulty incorporating the former slaves into everyday society without confederate backlash. The failure of the reconstruction was because of the actions that were took by the presidents between 1865 and 1877. Republican President Ulysses S. Grant influenced the failure of …show more content…
President Grant brought the US economy into a six year depression because of the war reparations that had to be paid off from the Civil war. A decision aspect that affected the economy was the decision to decide the extermination of paper money or better known as during the civil war greenbacks. This also affected the decision of how to pay war reparations back, with greenbacks or specie, coins. Because of the economic status, it worried and overtook the countries attention and made them forget the problems with Reconstruction. In Document C, Harper's Weekly states, “ many Northern voters shifted their attention to such national concerts as the Panic of 1873”. The North was now worried about the economy and the stability of the US instead of Reconstruction, and this created more hardships during the already failing project. The photo to the right of the paragraph represents the amount of pressure and anger from citizens (slideshow). Also the political and economical disturbance also negatively influenced the North's views on the republican
“The battle was done, the buglers were silent. Boneweary and bloodied, the American people, North and South, now faced the staggering challenges of peace.” After the Civil War, no one knew what to do next. The terrible conditions of the South after the war made it so no one wanted to participate in such a situation. When President Abraham Lincoln held office, he knew that the Union must be reassembled while treating the blacks respectfully which began the period of Reconstruction. Throughout this period, four presidents held office each trying to reform the poor conditions of the United States. Reconstruction ended when President Rutherford Hayes forced the Union troops to retreat from the southern states as a
After the Civil War, the South was strongly altered through a series of passed laws and acts in the a period known as the Reconstruction Era. This plan of reconstruction which was to bring reformation to the lives of Southern African Americans lasted from 1865-1877. This plan was brought by President Lincoln . Unfortunately he was shot and killed by a leader of a Confederate sympathizer, John Booth. As a result, President Jackson took office and was left in charge. The reconstruction was a great necessity for the fact that the result of this was a united nation between the North and South including the equality of African Americans.
America has been through many different things. Firstly, many leaders have came and gone throughout the years. Secondly, many wars have took place and had some positive outcomes but also the negative.Thirdly, there has been many laws put into place. To sum it all up, America had faced multiple things. I am going to be talking about what it was like for newly freed slaves during the Reconstruction Era and how African-Americans came out of slavery and into the American way of life.
Although the attempted reformation of the U.S. were increasingly substantial, the reconstruction era had a negative connotation, leaving a wounded nation to attempt to reconstruct after. The Civil War, one of America’s bloodiest conflicts, has left a lasting imprint with the high percentage of fatalities and significant damage to property. The division of the north and south left scarring results, fueling the fire of the slavery debacle. With the Unions win in 1865, the skirmish was far from over. Through the anguish and discord of the rebuilding, those w Those who were persecuted before can not escape the discrimination and freedom yet to come. Equality for all comes with a hefty price. The reconstruction of America saw successes, yet is overshadowed by the impending darkness that
On the KKK Document, Reconstruction was a failure because it lead to white supremacy. Abram Colby, who was a former slave and a member of the Georgia legislature, was beaten in an effort to put an end to him being a Radical Republican. In the KKK document, it states, “they sent in and whipped me a thousand licks more, with sticks and straps that had buckles on the ends of them.” Members of the Ku Klux Klan had beaten Colby savagely in 1869 in an attempt to end his political activities as a Radical Republican, after prior efforts to bribe the black legislator had failed. Colby was kidnapped and beaten by the famous white supremacy group known as the Ku Klux Klan because he was a radical. Radicals wanted African Americans to be given full citizenship
In the year 1865, the United States Army defeated the Confederate Army in the American Civil War, leaving large segments of the south in destruction. Reconstruction of the south began almost immediately after the Civil War was over. In fact, as the war was coming to an end, President Lincoln was formulating a plan that triggered the historical period of the reconstruction of the south. Both Lincoln’s plan and his successor’s, were unsuccessful in the rebuilding of the south at the time, and the country was in desperate need of a new system.
The Reconstruction Period it was from 1865-1877, it established the 13th-15th amendments which abolished slavery, gave rights and citizenships to African Americans, and gave the right to African Americans the right to vote. There was Black Codes to control the labor and behavior of former slaves. President Andrew Johnson wanted to abolished the 13th-15th amendments because he only believed that white would control the world. After the Civil War, the states became part of the Confederacy which brought all together into the United States. The trial of James Byrd Jr. was when James Byrd Jr. was beaten up and dragged by three white men in 1998. There was interviews for the two races, black and white, to put their point of view on what they think
In 1873, Jay Cooke and Company went under, and it triggered the violent crashing of the economy in a matter of weeks. When the company went under the Stock Market closed for 10 days, during that time factories closed and banks failed. Mass unemployment occurred as a result, and President Grant was widely blamed for the panic. The government did not do very much to aid the panic, and it was even nicknamed the long depression because of its half-decade length. The Panic of 1893 was caused due to the government running out of gold to redeem for paper currency.
During the 19th and 20th centuries America as we know was going thorugh the biggest changes imaginable. Their were several changes both locally and globally that contributed to this matter. Ranging from matters that plague every nation to some known specifically to the United States. Examples we as a class and growing nation have come to understand are Population growth, Industrialization, and immigration. Still a young nation, on the ending time of Reconstruction how could a nation learn to adapt to these things with such a “hostile takeover” in the foreseeable future cooperate?
After the Civil War, reconstruction was considered unsuccessful because it did not help the ethnic tensions between black and white people. Although, black people were free from slavery with the help of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendment; they still were being treated unfairly against white people. When Andrew Johnson was elected president after the assassination of Lincoln, he vetoed bills that would help black people; he made it easy for the Confederate states to come back into the Union without guaranteeing the equal rights to blacks. Andrew Johnson allowed the returning southern states to enact “black codes”, which made the freed slaves like serfs, working on plantations and forced with hard labor. For instance, Mississippi
Reconstruction is often thought of as something that happened in the South. But events there were part of a much broader transformation. Far beyond the ex-Confederacy, the United States embarked on an ambitious process of nation building. (A. 446) The U.S. Constitution does not address the question of how to restore rebellious states. After the Civil War, the nation had to determine whether the Confederate states, upon seceding, had legally left the Union. If so, then their reentry required action by Congress. If not — if even during secession they had retained their constitutional status — then restoring these states might be an administrative matter, best left to the president. Lack of clarity on this fundamental question made for explosive politics. In the early years of Reconstruction, the president and Congress struggled over who was in charge. Only by winning this fight did Republicans in Congress open the way for the sweeping achievements of radical Reconstruction. (A. 447) As of 1877, all of the Confederate states had drafted new constitutions, recognized the new Amendments set forth (the 13th, 14th, and 15th), and had fully pledged their loyalty to the United States government. This allowed for the settling of states’ rights vs. federalism debate that had been ongoing since the mid1790s. While Reconstruction was a success on many fronts, there
After the Civil War, there was a lot of rebuilding and reconstruction to be done but, nothing ever got accomplished. Personally, I think the North is at fault for the failure of reconstruction in the South because, they were concerned about blacks being a part of the government. Also, they were concerned the problems going on in their own government. Northerner’s were supposed to support the reconstruction of the South. And, they didn’t follow through with what they said they were going to do to help. So, here’s why the North is at fault.
After the war Republicans had considerable power and the Democratic party was in shambles, which led to them having their own objectives and visions of Reconstruction. (Nash, et al., 2007., p. 468) Congressional Republicans feared losing their power and attempted to set the tone of Reconstruction by passing a civil rights bill in 1866, refused to seat members from the former Confederacy, and investigated conditions in the South, which led to the passage of the Reconstruction acts that divided the South into five districts. (Nash, et al., 2007., pp. 472-473, 476) Republicans also moved against President Johnson as they reduced the expanded power of the executive branch and eventually impeached him. (Nash, et al., 2007., p. 476) Democrats also had a vested interest in Reconstruction as after the war the party was in shambles and had to grapple for the power to push their interests over the Congressional Republicans. This power contest led to unsavory tactics in the South such as the Mississippi Plan, which was devised as an intimidation tactic to force people to vote Democratic. (Nash,
From 1865 to 1877, the United States flourished with opportunity and innovation. Railroads were built at an astounding rate and millions of immigrants arrived to pursue better lives and find happiness. However, many African Americans were frustrated to get secure rights and become equal as everyone else. There was also reconstruction happening which was to bring the former states of the Confederacy back to the Union. The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment goal was to abolish slavery, allow citizenship for everyone, and let everyone vote no matter what race you are. At the end, many people still ponder over the fact who is responsible for the end of reconstruction: North or South? The North is responsible for ending reconstruction by not taking
Reconstruction in the United States is historically known as the time in America, shortly after the Civil War, in which the United States attempted to readdress the inequalities, especially of slavery and many other economic, social and politically issues including the poor relationship between the North and the South of America. These problems were highly significant in America, and a variety of groups in government tried to resolve these problems, but this only led to the Civil War. Unfortunately although there were numerous new constitutions and laws introduced to tackle these issues, it could be said that reconstruction did indeed fail, and there was a variety of reasons that many historians touch upon to