Southern Horrors And Other Writings

After a war that claimed the lives of more men than that of all other wars combined, much of the country was left in ruins, literally and figuratively. Dozens of towns in the South had been burned to the ground. Meanwhile, the relations between the North and South had crumbled to pieces. Something needed to be done so that the country could once again be the United States of America, not the Divided States of America. The years from 1865 to 1877 were a time of rebuilding – the broken communities and the broken relations. This time period was known as Reconstruction. Reconstruction was a failure on the basis that the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments that were passed should have given protection and freedom to the African

After the Civil War, the government had changed from a republican rule to a democratic rule that had hatred towards the South because of conflicts that had arisen during the Civil War. The Northern Republicans wanted to punish the South by forming laws that terminated slavery and granted freed blacks the right to vote, the right to own land, the right to due process, and outlawed discrimination based on race; all were attempts to try and end slavery by reconstructing the justice and social and economic equality among freed blacks.  In theory, the thought of reconstruction was practical and could end slavery however, a thought is never the same when put into physical use

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

At the end of the Civil War slavery was outlawed by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution and the blacks was finally free. In the South there was a sense of anger and shame in losing the war. The Reconstruction era was put into effect by Congress in 1866 and lasted until 1877. Reconstruction was aimed at reorganizing the Southern states after the Civil War. The reconstruction plan granted the means for readmitting the southern states into the Union, and tried to come up with the methods by which whites and blacks could live together in a non-slave society. However during reconstruction the United States government took actions to protect freedman and with each action the south countered with actions that would try to eradicate the laws put in place by the winning northern forces for example, the infamous Jim Crow Laws. The law segregated the whites and the blacks, thus can be commonly heard as “separate is not equal.” The Reconstruction was still seen as a success towards the United States as a whole in many ways as it unified the nations.

The American Civil War claimed the lives of over 700,000 people. The war was fought from 1861-1865. The results of the war were described as; a union victory, abolishment of slavery, territorial integrity preserved and the destruction and dissolution of the Confederate States. The twelve years that followed were called the Reconstruction Era, 1865-1877. The purpose of the Reconstruction Era was to restore National Unity, strengthen the government, and guarantee rights to freed slaves. The reality of reconstruction though was; violence (260,000 dead), newly freed slaves suffered the most, and Lincoln's hopes of trust and rededication to peace were lost when he was assassinated on April 15th, 1865. It is these realities of the Reconstruction Era and beyond that this paper will address and how those realities affected the newly freed slaves. Life in post-bellum America for African - Americans was violent and filled with fear because of white supremacy, lynching, and the brutal mutilations of blacks.

The Reconstruction of the United States was an experiment in interracial democracy. The Civil War victory by the North brought to a close the establishment of slavery but, in turn, opened Pandora's box. The questions and answers pertaining to economical, political, and social equality for freedmen had yet to be addressed on a practical level. The Southern states, still bitter from defeat and economic stresses, strongly rejected the societal transformations thrust upon them. The Northern states' focal point remained on the necessary political powers by which to enact constitutional amendments, therefore empowering the federal government with the capabilities to enforce the principles of equal rights. On paper, slavery was abolished, but in reality, African-Americans were once again enslaved on a ship without the security or knowledge of what the next port held for them. The Civil War had not truly ended. It was still active under the guise of Reconstruction, but now coats and flags of many colors existed, and battles were merely fought on alternate battlefields. A war of ideas lacking in substantial practicality resulted in repetitious battles being won and loss. The motivating forces that set Reconstruction into motion were for the most part the North's quest for unification among states', and the emancipation of slaves. However, the primary objective of Reconstruction was to grant political, economical, and social opportunities for the freedmen. The

The thirteenth and fourteenth amendments attempted to establish the freedom and rights of former slaves, but was not entirely successful in its goals. Legally, former slaves gained their freedom in 1865 when the Thirteenth Amendment was passed, and received “equal protection of the laws” as well as other privileges in the Fourteenth Amendment, passed in 1868. (Document A) The years following the Civil War brought on many changes for both former slaves and former slave owners. While slavery was prohibited in the United States, white landowners found ways to twist the laws and create a system beneficial to themselves. The Reconstruction era was filled with a changing economy, a large predicament for white landowners, and unfair situations for

The reconstruction era was a pivotal time period that shaped how the newly freed black slaves would be seen by the government of the United States. The Northern States were already tolerant of free black men that had rights however, in the south many were scared that those black men would be put in charge of them and ultimately suppress the white race. Eric Foner stated that “most white southerners insisted that blacks must remain a dependent plantation workforce in a laboring situation not very different from slavery (1998, p. 103).” In the south many people believed that their future relied solely on the exploited labor of blacks and they felt that this future was being threatened by the freedom of the blacks.

Roark looks at slavery during the war from a solely White Southerner perspective. He paints a picture of what Southern planters promulgated concerning slavery before and during the Civil War, but he never discusses the day to day lives of slaves from any other perspective. He acknowledges that Northerners believed Negros in the North had better lives than those in the South, but he never discusses how slaves themselves felt about slavery, or what Northern Negros thought of their socioeconomic status. Furthermore, Roark’s writing shows that White “affection” toward slaves only lasted if slave loyalty and behavior continued in a positive manner. The shock Southern plantation owners received when their slaves deserted or misbehaved

When the Civil War came to a close one hundred fifty years ago, the Union forces ended up victorious. The future seemed bright for the newly emancipated Blacks of the South; no longer bound in servitude, freed slaves must have felt indescribable joy. Sadly, what seemed like a dream come true quickly became a hellish nightmare. White Southerners were beside themselves with rage against Americans they considered property who were now their equals, at least in the eyes of the law. This fury fueled brutal and malicious racial violence in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Lynching, intimidation, destruction of property, and other acts of terrorism were quite prevalent throughout Texas. Yet, despite the multitude of physical and political

According to Alexander Stephens, the new Government was founded on the idea that blacks were inferior to whites. He believed that enslavement of the African was socially, morally and politically wrong, as if it was evil. Assumptions of the equality of races, anti-slavery fanatic conclusions stated that the “negro” was equal, he had equal rights as the white men. Stephens believed this as long as the fanatics premise was correct. If the premise was wrong their whole argument fails. If blacks were to have honor and showed success as whites, they would receive the equality as white people do.

Following the Civil War, Confederate soldiers return home to “cope with the consequences of their defeat.” (Goldfield, ed., The American Journey: A History of the United States, 451)Upon their return, they notices the downfall and destruction of their homes and towns, economic devastation, death, and poverty. Transforming their “struggle into a symbol of courage” (Goldfield, 452) they sought for redemption, Reconstruction. Having to seek shelter with their families, the ex-confederate soldiers feared the revenge of the former slaves for the many years of slavery and mistreatment. They believed that improvement of African Americans as a direct challenge to white superiority. They could learn to accept the destruction of families, farms, and fortunes, but not racial order. White southerners were determined to keep control over their governments. “The war may have ended slavery, but white southerners were determined to preserve

Newspapers circulated within Franklin County operated as the perfect forum for the abundance of motivations and ideas when it came to race relations leading up to the civil war. Economic, religious, and political justifications for slavery dominated much of the newspapers discussion, arriving from a wide array of viewpoints and sources. Franklin county’s newspaper before the civil war served as a forum of discussion for the quickly changing everyday life that the American people were experiencing. Greater interconnectedness, specifically through newspapers, created a space for intellectual discussion that had previously been closed off to the common people. As newspapers popularity began to grow in the early 19th century, the political system began to greatly dominate the intellectual discussion that happened around these institutions. Ripe with sensationalism, these papers became hotbeds for debates regarding black and white relations in the county, and following the onset of the civil war, the debate grew to a national scale. The paper of Franklin County called ‘Valley Spirit’ lays bare the economic and social reality experienced in the Civil War period, and showcases rhetoric that was based more off of economic uncertainty then racism.

One of the most dramatic demographic events that had a significant change in America would be the Great Migration. It had to do with the moving of 6 million of African American from the southern hemisphere of the united states to the northern hemisphere around the time of the 20th century. To better explain this event in American history it would be best to start with the chain of events that caused it in the first place. That starting point would have to be the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. This was an announcement that was laid out to say that if any state if not by the start of the 1863 that is in rebellion would have all there slaves declared free if they did not reunite back with America. Abraham Lincoln, being the president at this time, pushed this through because would have hurt and reduce the South’s capacity to start a war by encouraging and threatening that their slaves would leave the southern lines and come to America’s. Once the slave would come and join America they would be enlisted into the army and fight against the south. This defiantly was the most important and first act done to help Africans in America because it helped bring up the idea of freed slaves, but this was only done as a war measure because slave was at that time very essential to the South’s war effort and did not have helping and freeing slaves as the main idea. This announcement did not

Slavery was abolished in 1865 by President Abraham Lincoln. However, the ending of slavery did not mean that African Americans would be seen as equal. After slavery ended, many southern states instituted laws known as Black Codes and other laws meant to segregate the population. Black codes limited the freedom of former slaves and other African Americans by preventing African Americans from doing certain things, such as serving in juries, the army, testifying against the white population, and attending certain schools. These laws forced African Americans into jobs revolving around manual labor, such as sharecropping. Sharecroppers had to rent land from ex-slave owners and give a