Pros And Cons Of Reconstruction After The Civil War

Abraham Lincoln's victory alarmed many white southerners because this meant that their future was now in the hands of a political party that was primarily against their region's personal values and interests. The people that wanted the South to secede from the Union had their reasons to do so. They were worried that Lincoln's election might lead to future Republican administrations interfering with slavery in the states. In the Deep South, southerners feared that they might become a sticking minority in a nation that was overrun by their political opposites. With this in mind, they instead seceded from the Union and saved slavery within their states.

The Reconstruction happened in period following the end of the American Civil and the main goal was to reintegrate the Southern Confederate States back into the Union after they had been defeated by the Union (Northern States). As would be expected, the process was met with many challenges as the interests of both groups had to be addressed. There was debate over the terms under which the Confederate States would be allowed back into the Union, and whether it was the president or congress to set these terms. There was also the question about what rights freed slaves had and their role in the new American society. Even though the war had ended, the reconstruction presented a new battlefront for a political struggle between the North and the South. This paper analyses what reconstruction sought to achieve, and why it failed with dire long-term consequences.

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

After the civil war, the Federal government went to many lengths to try and help freedmen in former slave states. But these expansions were quickly terminated after Rutherford B. Hayes was elected in 1876. The South had started to limit the rights of blacks within the boundaries that the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments allowed. And the North started to turn a blind eye to all of the problems that existed in the South. (C)In the end, both states contributed to the end of reconstitution, but the South made more efforts to persecute blacks than the North did. Although both the North and the South were responsible for ending reconstruction, the South was mainly responsible for the end of reconstruction in the South.

Presidential reconstruction, alongside Lincoln and Johnson had a political goal of re-entering the south into the Union. Politically, the south needed to swear loyalty oaths to the Union before being allowed to participate and hold any offices. Johnson’s plan specifically did not offer a role to blacks in the political world. Socially, those in the north did not want to see these southerners rejoin so quickly with ease, and made sure others knew. The plan was to rejoin the south to the Union, regardless of their crimes. Economically, they wanted to see the Union together again to repair the country and thrive as a whole. Congressional reconstruction had different goals. First off, politically, those who supported congressional or radical reconstruction believed that blacks should have just as many rights politically and such as those who were white. Socially, they wanted to punish the south for the things they had done as a Confederacy and they also wanted to help and protect the African Americans. Economically, they did not approve of Lincoln’s plan, finding it too lenient and therefore taking action to benefit them and destruct the

Freedmen’s Bureau that helped distribute food, supplies, and land to the freed slaves, this remained a positive throughout the reconstruction. Furthermore positives added to the redevelopment of the south including Lincoln’s Ten-Percent Plan and the 13th and 15th amendment, which remained perserved. Lincoln’s plan agreed to allow each secessionist state to rejoin only after a new constitution was reestablished on their behalf. The majority of the Civil War reconstruction was a failure but there were few positives that kept hope alive for former slaves.

Due to the gradual elimination of African-American rights and the withdrawal of Federal troops from the South to enforce such rights, the end of Reconstruction surfaced in 1877. In the eyes of blacks, Reconstruction was a point in history where they could see their civil rights expanding before their very own eyes. On the contrary, whites were deeply disturbed at the way their once “white supremacy” government was dwindling in the rear-view mirror behind them. This fourteen year period known as Reconstruction houses the memories of temporary freedom, scandal, backdoor deals, and the unresolved social, political, and economical issues of our country.

Reconstruction began early in 1865 after the end of the civil war when the South was undergoing political, social and economic upheavals (Foner 15). The South embraced Union methods of total wars that led to damage to their land and crops. As a result, many people died while others were captured as slaves due to the huge drought and inflation facing their state, while their masters fled oncoming unions. From these losses, policymakers by 1865 in Washington had no other choice rather than reconstruction. Reconstruction involved several initiatives including abolishment and transformation of the Southern society, recovering the Southern Unions and most importantly the enactment of an assimilation legislation program that would aid in favoring the freed blacks into the American social and economic system. President Lincoln had pardoned reconstruction of the South long before in1863 two years before the war ended (Kennedy and Cohen 44). This was known as the ten percent plan that supported one of the initiatives. This plan allowed the Southern state to be assimilated to the union after every ten percent of the population. Later in the year 1865 president Lincoln got assassinated and Andrew Johnson succeeded him. President Johnson carried on with the ten percent plan. Both presidents shared a similar interest during their reign which was to abolish slavery before joining the union.

Although the reconstruction did unify the United States and passed the 14th and 15th amendments, reconstruction failed on many other vital issues. The radical republican legislation that promised freedom and equality for all was far from a reality for black Americans. Legislation failed to protect former slaves from white supremacy, and persecution. The entire social and cultural backbone of the south needed reform in order for African Americans to enjoy the freedom and equality that this nation promised, unfortunately this change did not come during the reconstruction. In 1877 president Hayes removed federal troops from the south, almost immediately former confederates and slave owners returned

This period of Radical Reconstruction did not bring much change in the South. Although blacks began to participate in political life, they met tremendous hostility. Some Southern whites adopted a policy of terror to keep the freedmen from becoming too independent. Because blacks had no jobs or land they became sharecroppers in a kind of economic slavery.

Some of the stronger defenses revolved around slavery’s impact on the Southern economy. Slaves were almost essential for keeping massive plantations profitable and were essential for doing manual labor that whites were not willing to do themselves. They also argued against the sudden abolition of slavery by stating how such a sudden change would cause too be a shock on the southern economy. While some of these supporters believed that slavery was a necessary evil, many Southerners actually believed that slavery was morally just and the natural state of the world. They saw themselves as being like parents to slaves, guiding them on the matters of right and wrong and taking care of their needs, and in turned believed that “a merrier being does not exist on the face of the globe than the Negro slave of the United States”.

By 1870, the Northerner lost interest in reconstructing the south. The north tried to reconstruct the south and change southerners attitudes about black people. Although they failed at this because many southerners were still racists and believed that the white race was superior to others, blacks were not as good as southern white men. To add to that, the Northerners lost interest in the reconstruction, which gave southerners a chance to gain control of their state governments again.

The Civil War caused mass destruction in the South as the Northern troops won battles and gained power over the south, they destroyed everything in their path. After the Civil War, the south had started to rebuild. This time period was called Reconstruction. Reconstruction was a hard time in the South as the price of land was cheap and the price of crops was very low. As a result, many of the southerners were poor. One group of people who were in danger of losing a large amount of money during Reconstruction were slave owners, as the end of the Civil War freed all of the African Americans from slavery. African Americans were greatly effected by Reconstruction. Reconstruction effected African Americans greatly because they gained new political

At the times of reconstruction ex slaves were fighting for equal rights. They wanted to be able to vote, own property, go to school, have church service, legalize marriages, and so forth. Ex slaves also wanted to be reconnected with their long lost family members. Ex slaves also wanted to be more apart of politics. They believed that if there were more blacks in office then they would gain more rights as citizens.

This chapter is about the reconstruction era which overlapped the civil war starting in 1863 and came to an end in 1877 when Hayes became president and troops were removed from the south. In 1863 Lincoln proposed the Ten Percent Plan, which would reinstate the southern states if 10% of the 1860 voters agree to take an oath of allegiance to the U.S and abide by the Thirteenth Amendment, abolish slavery. Confederates rejected this plan. In 1864 Congress passed the Wade-Davis Bill, which would make readmission for the stats more difficult. Lincoln later vetoed the bill. Lincoln was assassinated in 1865 and Andrew Johnson became president.