Social Effects Of Reconstruction

After the Civil War between 1865 and 1877, the country went into Reconstruction. They had to rebuild the south because of Sherman’s plan of total war. In Sherman’s plan, his army took food and burned property, destroying everything that could be used by the Confederates during the war. President Lincoln helped by giving amnesty for Confederate soldiers and a plan for readmission to the Union of the Southern states. He also proposed the Ten Percent Plan. The plan allowed states to be readmitted to the Union if ten percent of its voters swore a loyalty oath to the Union and agreed to the end of slavery. President Johnson took office once Lincoln got assassinated, this changed the course of Reconstruction because he was a southerner and a democrat. He had more sympathy for southerners and many former Confederates assumed political office as soon as their state was readmitted to the Union.

The Reconstruction Era lasted up to 1877 from the time just after the Civil War. The Reconstruction failed to bring about social and economic equality to the former slaves due to the southern whites’ resentful and bitter outlook on the matter, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Jim Crow laws.

The Reconstruction Era occurred between 1866 and 1877, immediately following the Civil War between the Northern and Southern states. The Reconstruction Era brought change to not only the American economy, society, and government, but significant changes to the lives of African Americans as well. Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865 impacted conditions for African Americans in the post-war period through political and social changes in the Reconstruction Era; which ranged from a new array of rights to many new opportunities in society.

The Union won!This is great for the north, however what is next for the Confederate army. With slaves becoming freedmen and the south destroyed after total war, a lot was to be done after the civil war. A solution to this was Reconstruction. Reconstruction was a period in american history from 1865 to 1877 lasting twelve years (Foner). Reconstruction after the war caused many social, political, and economic changes to the newly formed union.

After a life of slavery and no rights, slaves became free. However, this caused problems. A group of people called the KKK caused harm to African Americans, using fear tactics to force certain actions upon them, sometimes ending in death. The reconstruction period, 1865-1877, was a time when the United States of America was trying to recover from the war. The United States was once again a united country, but during the war things got destroyed and the states were still divided with their beliefs. Many areas of the south were burned or wrecked, therefore they needed to be rebuilt. Also, many Southerners did not agree with the laws to make former slaves free. This caused the establishment of the Ku Klux Klan. Reconstruction was a success because

In 1865 to 1877, a very important part of U.S. history took place, and that was Reconstruction, where every slave was freed, and the whites and black lived equally among one another. It wasn’t an easy breeze and took a long time for whites to accept blacks, and even in current day there are some problem with racism, the main focus was to get rid of slavery, and that was a success.

Just imagine that you were born when slavery was allowed in the United States. Better yet, imagine yourself as an African American/ black and being born into slavery. What would you do? Would you try to escape to freedom or remain a slave and serve “your master” until you die or until slavery is totally abolished? Well that’s when the Reconstruction Era comes in. The Civil War was a major cause that led to the Reconstruction Era. This was due to the Union winning the war between them and the South. The end of this war was thought to give freedom, peace, and stop the suffering of slaves all over the country, but the South didn’t want to let go of slavery that easily. Reconstruction was when the South was rebuilding and also when the country

During the Civil War, the Confederacy and the Union battled to fight over the morality of slavery. In the end of the Civil War, the Union won and resulted in the abolishment of slavery in the United States of America. This caused the Reconstruction period between 1865 to 1877; where North began to incorporate freed slaves into society. With the North’s involvement in the South, the Southerners tried to refute the new civil rights of the slaves. In the new battle of reconstruction post Civil War, American citizens witnessed social, political, and intellectual changes.

The slaves were finally freed in this time period, but the whites kept treating them badly because they thought that the slaves forgot how to act human. The South killed reconstruction, they are mainly the reason it failed. The KKK went around killing any political figure they could, they mainly targeted carpetbaggers though. “It is my mournful duty to inform you that our friend John W. Stephens, State

The reconstruction of the South after the Civil War, also known as the Reconstruction Era, lasted from 1865 to 1877. This time period was meant to affect the south, but also affected North. The Reconstruction Era was considered in the South worse than the Civil War itself. Many acts were passed including the Third Force Act, Black Codes, the Reconstruction Acts of 1867, The Thirteenth Amendment, and many more. The Reconstruction Era made many famous figures, Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth, Andrew Johnson, and Ulysses S. Grant. The Reconstruction Era’s ultimate effect was to help the South regain strength after the Civil War, but it did not always affect the South in a positive way.

An example for the negative social effects which Reconstruction brought alongside its introduction could be found in Document “I” where Abram Colby states, “On the 29th of October 1869 The Klansmen broke my door open, took me out of bed, took me to the woods and whipped me three hours or more and left me for dead”. This impact was negative because alongside giving more rights, officers were unconcerned with what happened to African Americans during this time. They let people torture and mistreat them as they pleased. Sometimes they even did the beating themselves. Alongside with rights also came many misfortunes for African Americans as they weren't still viewed as equal to whites in any way in the South. Another example for the negative impacts which Reconstruction brought can be found in Document “J” where a petition of the freedmen is taken and addressed to the United States Congress in March 25th of 1871, the freedmen state, “We believe you are not familiar with… the Ku Klux Klan’s riding nightly over the country, going from country to country, and in the towns spreading terror wherever they go by robbing, whipping, ravishing, and killing our people without provocation, compelling colored people to break the ice and bathe in chilly waters of the Kentucky river…”. This shows that during reconstruction African Americans lived in

“Where slavery is, thecan re liberty cannot be; and where liberty is, there slavery cannot” -Abraham Lincoln. The Civil War began on April 12, 1861 at the Battle of Fort Sumter. This war was also known as “The War Between the States”. It involved The Confederates (south) and The Union (north). The issue between the groups were slavery and central power.

The United States was challenged with many issues after the Civil War like crop lien work contracts, segregation, and unresolved problems with the seceded states. This period was called Reconstruction.

The article that I read shows us that even though slavery was ended by the 13th amendment, life still was not fair or equal for former slaves. Reconstruction tried to give slaves the same rights as whites had, but the whites that lived in the southern states didn’t want this to happen they did everything they could to make the slaves live bad by ignoring the federal laws and passing new state laws. The end of Civil War in 1865 should have meant freedom for the slaves. But reconstruction gave them fake freedom. The painting shows in many ways the hardships that the former slaves ended even after they were no longer consider property. That era was one of the darkest era after the reconstruction. KKK was the one that raised the violent action

Following the Civil War, the Reconstruction Era began. During this time, the southern part of the United States attempted a transformation directed by Congress from 1863 to 1877. Known for its successes and failures, the Reconstruction was a time of great pain and an infinite amount of questions. As well as many long term, short term, positive, negative, social, and political effects.