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Reconstruction Good Or Bad Essay

Decent Essays

Reconstruction did more harm than good to the United States. There was anger, tension, and division that came out of Reconstruction. Also, there was debt, poverty, political conflicts, and African-American struggles. Some political problems were Andrew Johnson’s relationship with Congress which led to his impeachment trial. Another problem was that Confederates worked their way back into office. The main problem in Reconstruction was freeing slaves into society. This is justified by black codes, the creation of the KKK, rise of other white supremacy groups, and the Compromise of 1877, which led to the downfall of African American rights. This was the beginning of allowing racism into society. When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, Andrew Johnson, created his own plan. This initially worked, but eventually, rich white planters made it back into office, and …show more content…

From then on, Congress controlled Reconstruction. Early in 1867, then Congress passed two acts to reduce the President’s power. President Johnson’s reaction was this was calling both laws unconstitutional, and fired one of the officials under the Tenure of Office Act. This led to President Johnson’s impeachment trial. He escaped with one vote. All in all, President Johnson had a bad relationship with Congress, which created a lot of anger and division. This sidetracked the Union from the real problem, which was bringing the South back into the Union. While this was all happening, there was a concept called sharecropping being proposed. Sharecropping created “High-interest rates, unpredictable harvests, and unscrupulous landlords and merchants often kept tenant farm families severely indebted.” (“Sharecropping”, Public Broadcasting Service). This created a lifetime amount of poverty or

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