The Civil War And Reconstruction

During the post-civil war era, America, specifically the south, was undergoing a period of reconstruction. The general goal of reconstruction was to successfully readmit the former Confederacy back into the Union as smoothly as possible, as well as enacting specific safeguards of freedmen’s liberties. The social and constitutional developments in America between 1860 and 1877 were very minor. The lack of change between pre and post civil war status could hardly be considered a revolution.

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.

The author wrote this book to summarize the Revolution Era with a brief description of the pre-revolution; with some analytical arguments and opinions incorporated within the book. Morgan takes into prospective the actual motives behind the founding fathers' decision during the Revolution, which he claims to have been driven by their personal benefits. This shows as slavery was not eliminated even though a fundamental basis of the revolution was human equality. Morgan aimed to make an easily accessible outline of the Revolution Era, backed with several documents which critical to the outline; such as, The Constitution of the United States and the Articles of Confederation. He also devoted several pages outlining important dates mentioned throughout the book.

The American Revolution changed American politically by allowing the people to be governed by representation, a central government, and a state government. Americans wanted a government different from the one of England so they created their own. Document I, informs us from a Federalists point of view that abuses of government must be controlled, the need of control of

Reconstruction was a period of time after the Civil War (1865-1877) that was supposed to be the rebuilding of America. It was also the process used to readmit all the Confederate states back into the Union. There was controversy, however, on how to go about rebuilding the nation. Abraham Lincoln proposed a lenient plan. After he was assassinated, Andrew Johnson proposed a very similar plan. The Radical Republicans, a group of legislators that were in favor of freedmen’s rights, were opposed to both plans under “Presidential Reconstruction”. They initiated “Congressional Reconstruction”. Because of the conflicting views, there was little cooperation between the Executive and Legislative branches. This lead to many unsuccessful

The American Revolution had a very intense fundamental change on American society between the years 1775 to 1800. The thirst for independence resulted in the revolution which caused many political, social, and economic changes. When the revolution began, the people were drowning in jingoism, and after the seven years of fighting for our independence, several changes had to be made. Although some political, social, and economic parts of society seem to have remained the same, America experienced drastic fundamental changes throughout these years and set the standards for even more changes to come.

The Civil War and Reconstruction both changed politics in terms of participation and the role of the federal government. To start off, the African American population was allowed to vote which increased participation in the government. This was because of the 15th amendment which made it illegal to deny a person’s right to vote because of the color of the skin or their previous condition of servitude. This meant that men who were African American could legally vote and hold office which greatly increased the amount of political participation in the government. In certain states in the South, African Americans even outnumbered the white people in voter registration. Before the Civil War, African Americans couldn’t vote because most were slaves and there were laws prohibiting black people from voting. Even free African Americans weren’t allowed to vote. However, because of the Civil War and in turn Reconstruction, African Americans were given the right to vote, greatly expanding the diversity of

The Civil war could very easily be known as one of the greatest tragedies in United States history. After the Civil War, the people of The United States had so much anger and hatred towards each other and the government that 11 Southern states seceded from the Nation and parted into two pieces. The Nation split into either the Northern abolitionist or the Southern planation farmers. The Reconstruction era was meant to be exactly how the name announces it to be. It was a time for the United States to fix the broken pieces the war had caused allowing the country to mend together and unite once again. The point of Reconstruction was to establish unity between the states and to also create and protect the civil rights of the former slaves.

The american revolution was not revolutionary. The impact of the war was not the cause of change for some of the categories, but was further down the line during other times. the revolution was not revolutionary because it inflicted moderate change in the political and social categories and inflicted no change in the aspects of Slavery

The Radical Reconstruction was a historical period after the American Civil War, during this period, the South was in economic, governmental, and social, chaos, in addition to 11 Confederate federations had withdrawn from the Union. As an answer, the Union struggled to recover mandate in the Confederate states.

America went through numerous changes through the Reconstruction Era.The north and south were now a united nation again after the south had seceded. During the time of reconstruction, many constitutional and social developments brought change to the country. Some of the Constitutional developments was the Emancipation Proclamation, Civil Rights bills, and some social developments that could lead to a revolution was the Freedmen’s Bureau, KKK, and others. Since the status of blacks in America was greatly altered and the power of government was increased greatly, in the time period of 1860-1877 mostly amounted in a revolution, but only to an extent.

1. The war in 1862 was only more than a year old and the people in both the Union and Confederate sides didn’t anticipate it would last that long, but it is going to go on. Close to the end of the summer in this same year, the Union has made huge progress in claiming confederate lands, winning some major battles. They have put the confederacy in the defensive. They have taken over New Orleans, with even black troops major on the ground of New Orleans. They have taken Missouri and are working hard to take over the Mississippi Valley and maybe even Richmond itself. Bruce Catton puts it this way in The Civil War, “Except for guerrilla activity, Kentucky and Missouri has been swept clear of armed confederates, Western Tennessee had been reclaimed, there was a Yankee army in Cumberland Gap, another one was approaching chattanooga, and a third was sprawled out from Memphis to Corinth, preparing to splice down through Mississippi and touch hands with the Union occupation forces in Baton Rouge and New Orleans” (85) So not only that they Union had taken over regions, they are advancing as well, but they did not win the way this year for some reason. Firstly, because they did not have generals and army heads capable of taking them to victory. General Halleck, chief of the Union Armies and Pope in charge of one of the Union armies in Virginia, were major examples of this.

Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines a revolution as an, “activity or movement designed to effect fundamental changes in the socioeconomic situation.” or, “ a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something.” In this sense, the constitutional and social developments of the United States of America between 1860 and 1877 amount to a drastic revolution. Previously to Abraham Lincoln’s election to the position of the American Presidency, slavery was an institution deeply rooted in Southern American’s way of life. Throughout Lincoln’s terms and following his assassination, America underwent many constitutional changes and dealt with a changing social order as well. The most notable of these was the uprooting of the institution of slavery and the effect it had on the United States of America.

The American Revolution is defined as the political turbulence that took place towards the end of eighteenth century when thirteen colonies in America united to attain freedom from the British Empire (Clifford, 2005). The union of the thirteen colonies is now known as the United States of America. According to Clifford (2005), the American Revolution occurred because of a series of political, intellectual, and social transformations in the American government and society, which is known as the American Enlightenment. The American Revolution created a variety of opportunities for the American slaves to attain freedom (Waldstreicher, 2004). Slaves were provided with an opportunity to escape their thralldom by being recruited

The Civil War left a country divided not only by property lines and borders but by beliefs as well. Not just religious beliefs, moral beliefs also. It left both sides, north and south struggling, trying to figure out what their next move towards reuniting the divided America was going to be. The period following the end of the Civil War would become known as the “Reconstruction Era.” An era that raised just as many questions as it did answers. A reconstruction of America that seems to carry on many decades later.