Ordeal or Reconstruction

Despite the black codes had provided rights such as the marriage legalization and the ownership of property, they violated the free labor principle and denied the African-Americans the right to vote, and sue any white man. Foner (2014) found “In response to planter’s demands that freed people be required to work on the plantations, the Black Codes declared that those who failed to sign yearly labor contracts could be arrested and hired out to white landowners” (p. 570) . In fact, it was a totally failure of what freedom was supposed to be.

After the Civil War, the United States had many problems to solve. The country had to figure out how to integrate newly freed slaves into society and bring the former Confederate states back into the Union. Reconstruction was period of time after the civil war in which the United States addressed these problems. Reconstruction had two different phases: Presidential Reconstruction took place from 1865 to 1867, and Congressional Reconstruction took place from 1867 to 1877. Presidential Reconstruction began with Abraham Lincoln, who proposed the Proclamation of Amnesty and the ten percent oath plan. Lincoln was focused on leniency and forgiveness; under his plan southerners would take an oath of loyalty to the Union, and after only ten percent of a state’s voters had taken this oath, the state could be readmitted. After Lincoln’s assassination, Andrew Johnson took over Reconstruction. Johnson wanted to punish landowners, but liberally handed out pardons, as he greatly enjoyed the power that he had over southerners. Under Johnson, former confederates were re-elected, and southern states discriminated blacks. Eventually, Congress took over Reconstruction. During Congressional Reconstruction, the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments were passed, and the freedman’s bureau was created. Overall, the failures of Reconstruction outweighed the failures because it took a very long time for it to achieve its goals, and the South was still able to

The black codes were laws passed by legislatures to restricted the right of the free African Americans The purpose of the black codes was to keep the freed slave in a servitude state to ensure cheap agricultural labor they made it a crime for blacks to be out after a certain hour or carrying a weapon of any kind the could also be arrested for speaking loudly in the presences of woman also the could be arrested for selling their own farm product after dark If a black people had a job a permit need it to be purchased but if they didn’t work they were accused of vagrancy once convicted they could be hired out to work for someone and they would not have to pay for labor work, the black codes vary from state to state but they all had the same purpose

Even before the war had ended, Lincoln issued the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction in 1863, his compassionate policy for dealing with the South. The Proclamation stated that all Southerners could be pardoned and reinstated as U.S. citizens if they took an oath of allegiance to the Constitution and the Union and pledged to abide by emancipation.Lincoln’s Proclamation was called the “10 percent plan”: Once 10 percent of the voting population in any state had taken the oath, a state government could be put in place and the state could be reintegrated into the Union. During and after the civil war the US had to decide how to change the federal government to better both the North and the South . Bills like the Emancipation Proclamation and 13th Amendment which freed slaves and sealed the war as a North victory.As a result of the civil war in retrospect to race relations at the time what changed in the United states of America was govennment regulations of Africans Americans, and what stayed the same was Southern Democrats aganist reconstruction, and quizi slavery.

After the Civil War, the United States had a lot of rebuilding to do. The war had halted the development of the country in its tracks, and many efforts had to be made to fix the economy, the physical state of the land and satisfy the needs and wants of the people. Integration of newly emancipated slaves, known as freedmen, and their safety was a question mark in the minds of many Americans, and ideas of how to fairly pull the South back into the Union were extremely varied amongst lawmakers. Compromise played a big role in keeping every side happy to prevent slipping back into war. It was prioritized that the North and South were blended back into one, united country, and many actions were taken in expediting this process.

The big behind-the-scenes northern industrialists with their enormous financial resources were making political decisions, and these hardheaded people were not playing for sunflower seeds. They were out to win more enormous wealth and power. The fifteen states in the Southern block were Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia (including what is now West Virginia). These fifteen states comprised all the land in the country where Slave labor could be used profitably in large numbers and to better advantage than white labor. The South had reached its peak of expansion. There were eight million white people and four and a half million Negroes, and nowhere could the South look for additional political strength. In the North there were nineteen million white people and one-forth million Negroes and a vast area of undeveloped territory which was rapidly being settled with people whose economic interests would not be with the South. Against such odds, the South could not hope to hold its own against the Union. On every issue, the South was being and would continue to

In early 1863, president Abraham Lincoln started to think about methods to use to help with the reconstruction of the South. His plan also allowed states to return to the Union if certain conditions were met. This led to the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction; this meant that a minimum of 10 percent of voters had to take a loyalty oath to the Union (Davidson, DeLay, Heyrman, Lytle, Stoff, 2013, p. 440-441). They also had to agree with the emancipation of African American slaves. Congress, on the other hand, did not agree with how lenient Lincoln was to the South. Congress countered Lincoln with the Wade-Davis Bill, which was a much stricter approach (Reconstruction: The Challenged of Freedom, 2014). President

The Black Codes were laws passed in the Southern states from 1865-1866 following the Civil War. These laws had the intent of restricting the newly gained freedom of the African Americans, also known as freedmen, after the South’s loss in the Civil War. These laws included restrictions to voting, bear arms, gathering in places for worship or learning to read and write in order to prevent rebellion. These laws held the intention of preserving slavery in the South, as they were modeled after the previous slave codes, which were laws previous to the Civil War that defined who slaves were, in addition to what they were or were not allowed to do.

the black codes were established to regulate the lives of former slaves. It put laws and stipulations on the conduct and behavior which was idealy to keep black people from changing their sitiuations as being successful or becoming more of a free and independant race. The black codes was used as an attempt to support slavery under the counter. If the black parents of a minor could not take care of their kids. The kids would be removed from the household and they would be subjected for apprenticed for trade. The masters would have to provide food, clothing and supply their educational needs such as to read and write.they were not allowed to mis spend what they earned such as gambling and if caught they could be fined in prison for 10 days.It

During the Civil War there was a lot going on at the time. The North and South decided to split, and this caused some problems. One reason the Civil War happened was because of slavery. The South didn't like the idea of keeping slavery. The South wanted everyone to have equal rights. The North, on the other hand didn't think that slaves should have equal rights.

After the North won the civil war, it was time to rebuild this nation. This period of reconstruction was supposed to have a profound change on society. Unfortunately this was not the case. Reconstruction did not fundamentally alter this nation. Not to say that nothing happened, but nothing that really made a change or difference happened. First, the control of the south was given right back to the planter elite. Also, even though slavery was abolished; blacks were not free. Finally, Congress and President Johnson could not get along. Although the civil war reshaped this country profoundly. The reconstruction efforts did little but scratch a surface, before being quickly wiped away.

What the black codes were designed to do was keep some sort of slavery. It was to have African Americans have restricted freedom and being forced to work long hours for very low wages. So they created a list of rules and regs to present to the court that African Americans had to follow and all of them stating what would happen if the rules were broken and the repercussions that comes with them. This was the only way the south can keep some sort of slavery since the north had been done with slavery altogether. The south still wanted to keep African Americans "in their place" by adding these sets of rules and regs. How the codes aimed to accomplish these objectives was still letting African American work but under the harsh rules they were put

President Lincoln's Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction called for a general amnesty or pardon, to all Southerners who took an oath of loyalty to the United States and accepted the Union's proclamations concerning slavery. After ten percent of the state's voters in the 1860 presidential election had taken the oath, the state could organize a new state government.

Those who felt threatened by the massive amount of African-Americans who would now be participating in the government criticized this Amendment, which allowed all male citizens the right to vote regardless of race. Ex-Confederates, many of which were not allowed to vote after bitterly losing to the north, argued that African-Americans were not ready to vote because they were ignorant to the political system of the U.S. The political power of the south would be in the hands of the formerly oppressed, as opposed to their oppressors, who would be practically powerless. The debate on this topic would cause more tension in southern society, which was already undergoing a difficult period of adaptation. Another problem which arose in the south were laws which would further the oppression of the African-American population. Commonly called Black Codes, these laws also punished white persons who supported emancipation during the Civil War. These Black Codes were often unreasonable or unneeded to keep order within society. They were simply created as bitter retaliation by the ex-Confederates who were not pleased by the integration, which had just taken place. Black Codes were created and enforced on a State level which became superior to the Fourteenth Amendment. The laws would be psychologically damaging to the African-American population, who would be forced to feel

On December 8, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln declared his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction in order to establish peace-making and to reunite the United States. By this time in the Civil War, Lincoln felt a needed to make some initial plans for after-war reconstruction. The proclamation announced a full forgiveness and re-establishment of property to all those who were involved in the uprising with the exclusion of the high level officials of the confederation and military leaders. Additionally, it also permitted that a new state government could be formed only if at least ten percent of the qualified voters had taken a pledge of loyalty and allegiance to the United States. Moreover, the Southern states that accepted this approach were encouraged to make and execute plans to engage with the liberated slaves so long their own freedom was not endangered.