Reconstruction Dbq

Reconstruction was an achievement in that it reestablished the United States as a unified country. By 1877, the majority of the previous Confederate states had drafted new constitutions, recognized the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, and pledged loyalty to the U.S. government. Reconstruction additionally at last settled the states' rights versus federalism debate that had been an issue since the 1790s.

Wanted the rebuild relations with the south and believed the faster this happened the quicker the country could heal. Lincoln was assassinated , only days after Robert E. Lee’s surrender and didn’t have the chance to carry out his plans and vision for reconstruction. Lincolns plans for Reconstruction were taken over by his vice president, Johnson, who became president after Lincoln’s death and applied the reconstruction policies. President Johnson believed the sooner relationship between the north and south could be mended the sooner the country could move forward and grow. Radical republicans managed to gain extensive votes in the fall election.

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?

During the period of Reconstruction following the end of the Civil War, freedmen and freedwomen faced many challenges as they sought to establish their newfound freedoms and rights in American society. While some progress was made in terms of social, political, and economic opportunities for these formerly enslaved individuals, there were also significant obstacles and setbacks that hindered their progress. In my opinion, social rights during Reconstruction were beneficial for a temporary period because, in the beginning, slaves were now known as former slaves. Freed people were allowed the right to become independent citizens, to be freely educated, and to marry.

Historically, Lincoln was mainly focused on the idea of keeping the Union unified and he felt that the only way to accomplish it was through abolishing slavery. Lincoln believed that slavery was morally wrong and how it was the reason for the war because: “One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves… [and they were] localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest (Stanza 3).” With regard to Lincoln’s speech, he always chose his words carefully to portray the purpose of the Civil War referring that the slaves were part of the nation and all the government had a job to keep all the slavery together and not spread. On the contrary, Lincoln was against slavery because he didn’t want it to expand further and not let it spread to the newly formed state of America which was

The 15th Amendment to the Constitution granted African American men the right to vote by declaring that the “right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Although ratified on February 3, 1870, the promise of the 15th Amendment would not be fully realized for almost a century.

The U.S. Civil War ended with America bruised as the nation needed a path to unify on all fronts. President Lincoln stood as figure who would begin the task of restoration and integrate freedom of all people into American society. Reconstruction would be a difficult problem to achieve, especially with the states of the South challenging the Emancipation and a nation licking deep wounds. President Lincoln wanted the nation to heal quickly, and his blueprint for Reconstruction would have provided the unity that the nation needed for healing an unity.

The Reconstruction was a period of roughly ten years that came after the American Civil War. During this time black Americans were able to vote, attend school and even hold public office. These ten years were a small break for black Americans following the end of slavery and preceding the Jim Crow Laws of the South. There is a question to be answered, who killed Reconstruction? There are those who say that the South lead to the end of Reconstruction because of the actions of hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. However, the most important cause of the end of Reconstruction were the actions of the North because of lingering racism and a lack of caring by Northerners.

After the Civil War, between 1865 and 1877, was a period known as Reconstruction which was a time of rebuilding the United States. Reconstruction was a failure for three main reasons, segregation became more prominent, slaves were still unprotected, and economical obstacles became a substantial problem. Reconstruction was meant to be a time period of rebuilding and unifying the North and South into one undivided nation of compromise. There were many goals of this period such as reorganizing the Southern states, readmitting them into the Union, and setting rules against slavery so blacks and whites could live in an equal society.

The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified on February 3, 1870, and granted African-American (Black) men the right to vote by declaring the "right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." (U. S. Const. amend. XV).

African-Americans had been enslaved and treated unfairly without justice for over a long period of time, and it was time to take action. The cruel discrimination led to the Civil War, where the nation had broken apart and fought over civil rights for slaves. When the North side of the nation won the war and the slaves were freed from their owners, Congress added three amendments to the Constitution of the United States. These were called the Reconstruction Amendments, and one of which was the 15th Amendment. ( ) The Fifteenth Amendment gave African American men the right to vote. The amendment was ratified on February 3rd 1870 and was adapted into the US Constitution on March 30th 1780. The amendment states “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude”. (American Vision 144) Not only did the amendment grant African Americans the right to vote but also granted them as equal citizens. African Americans had to face a lot of obstacles that were put in their way to keep them from voting for about a century!

The fifteenth amendment was designed to ban discrimination against the people. One of the main motivations behind the fifteenth amendment was that republicans wanted to gain even more power in both south and north. Therefore, African American votes would help accomplish that. In 1867 congress passed a law requiring states to include black male suffrage in their new state constitutions. African American men in the south started voting, however men in the north could not because the northern states denied it. In the north the republicans voter majority over the democratic party was declining, that made them fear that they might lose control of congress. Their solution was to include all black mens votes in every northern state. For example, Ulysses S. Grant was a candidate for president, and he won thanks to the black men’s votes. Republican leaders knew that if they were to remain

Lincoln didn 't believe slavery was morally correct. There was one large problem with that; it had already been approved by the highest law in the current United States: the Constitution. This law was also approved by the Supreme Court of the time. The nation’s founding fathers, who also struggled with addressing slavery, did not flat-out write the word “slavery” in the Constitution, but they did many things include key clauses that were protecting the institution, including a fugitive slave clause and also the three-fifths clause, which allowed Southern states to count slaves as “partial people” for the purposes of representation in the federal government.

For most of his life, Abraham Lincoln abhorred slavery. He did not believe in the expansion of slavery, this coincided with his personal values, and the idea the forefathers held, that slavery would eventually end. However, he believed that the institution of slavery should be allowed where it already existed. In fact, during his early presidency he enforced pro-slavery laws to uphold what was already in the constitution. Though he was explicit in his plans to not interfere with slavery, southern states tried to secede in fear. The Civil war led Lincoln to adopt his personal views on slavery as a political maneuver to save the North in the war.

The hope of political equality was given to racial minorities when the 15th Amendment was passed in 1870, allowing citizens to vote regardless of race. This was beneficial to the Republican Party since majority of their members were black voters. The amendment allowed black men to hold power and more than 2000 African Americans were elected to political offices over the next 7 years. Unfortunately, the amendment was unsuccessful in preventing individual states from enacting their own voting laws. African Americans were legally forbidden from voting through literacy tests and poll taxes. A majority of the African Americans spent a large part of their life enduring slave work, so they were never given an opportunity to educate themselves. Therefore, the literacy test was effective in preventing illiterate blacks from voting. African Americans did not make enough money to pay the expensive poll taxes, either. Through this method, every Southern state eliminated