The Era Of Reconstruction During The Civil War

Reconstruction is the period of rebuilding the south that succeeded the Civil War (1861-1865). This period of time is set by the question now what? The Union won the war and most of the south was destroyed. Devastation, buildings turned into crumbles and lost crops. The South was drowning in poverty. To worsen the situation there were thousands of ex-slaves that were set free by the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13 Amendment. "All these ex-slaves", Dr. Susan Walens commented, "and no place to put them," The ex-slaves weren't just homeless but they had no rights, unlike white man. The government and congress had to solve the issues present in the south and the whole nation

Another important characteristic of the Reconstruction after the civil war was the creation of the Freedmen’s Bureau. Its responsibilities according to Foner (2014) were related with social work, “ Bureau agents were supposed to establish schools, provide aid to the poor and aged, settle disputes between whites and blacks and among the freedpeople, and secure for former slaves and white Unionists equal treatment before the courts” (p. 562) . Still, the Bureau lasted only until 1870, but made many achievements helping the black community.

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 South was greatly troubled by economic problems that arose as a result of the Civil War. The basis of the South’s economy, agriculture, recovered slowly and few southerners had enough money to start new industries.

In hindsight it is sometimes claimed that Reconstruction was a failure. Although there was some good that came out of the Reconstruction it was mostly just a relentless uphill battle against Southerners and immoral politicians that were here to delay change and keep racism alive. Reconstruction brought the Ku Klux Klan who displayed great resistance, and poverty that swept the South once the blacks were freed. The freedom of these black slaves led to discriminatory legislatures such as the Black Codes and the Jim Crow laws to keep the blacks constrained from actually being free. The South was then encountered with corruption and high property taxes, as a rebuild was in order to reestablish the war torn part of the nation.

After the Civil War, the southern soldiers were going back to devastated cities, destroyed railroads, and many cities were burned to the ground as a result of Sherman’s march from sea to sea. After the Civil War occurred, the slaves were given freedom from their owners, and slavery was banned. That attempt at reconstruction was not a complete fail, but it took a little bit of time for America to give social and economic equality to slaves. There were many attempts made by several different presidents, but not all seemed to work due to the South’s stubbornness. The failure of reconstruction later did not bring social and economic equality to former slaves in the south because of things like the Jim Crow laws and the South’s strong disproval

A revolution is a dramatic and sudden change in an organization in the social order that is replaced by a new, more favorable system. When Historian Eric Foner called the Reconstruction period “America’s Second Revolution”, his characterization was correct. Reconstruction can be viewed as a revolution because the previous social order, slavery, was replaced suddenly by a more favorable one, freedom for African-Americans. There was a long period of politicization for incorporating free African-Americans into white society. Reconstruction also revolutionized the preconceived notion that the states had autonomous power.

Although the end of the Civil War and the beginning of the Reconstruction brought great hope to America’s four million former slaves, the efforts of Congressional Reconstruction ultimately failed to establish equal rights for the freedmen because the racist mindset still dominated American society at the time and Democratic influence steadily overcame Republican control in Congress. Despite the Union’s victory, the end of the Civil War brought many significant national problems, including an economically and culturally devastated South and the protection of the freedmen. After a period of Reconstruction under Lincoln and then under Andrew Johnson, it was Congress’s turn to determine the path of Reconstruction. While the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment and the Emancipation Proclamation were large steps in the freedmen’s road to equality, it was never going to be that easy to attain true equality for all. The Southerners’ mindset was still fixated on the idea that freedmen were naturally inferior.

Radical Republicans envisioned the Freedmen’s Bureau as an agency that would reshape the South by providing food and shelter to freed slaves in the immediate aftermath of the war, regulate black labor as both former slave owners and their freed slaves adjusted to the elimination of slavery, administer justice in any conflicts between African Americans and Southern whites, manage land seized from Confederate office holders and distribute it to freed slaved; and finally, establish schools and promote the education of freedmen and their families. The newly freed slaves, on the other hand, were clear from the start about what they expected the Freedmen’s Bureau to do for them. As a teacher from the northern states noted in an August 4, 1865 letter

When the Union defeated the Confederates in the Civil War in 1865, millions of slaves gained freedom but left areas of the South a wreck and destroyed their plantation-based economy. Shortly before the Civil War ended, Congress established The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, more commonly known as The Freedmen’s Bureau. The Freedmen’s Bureau was a government organization that was created to help poor Southerners and to make the transition of being a slave to a free person easier. The bureau was intended to last the duration of the war and then one year after so they’ll help you for the time being and then you’re on your own. The Freedmen’s Bureau did just about everything that you could have imagined, they provided food, clothing, housing and medical aid, established schools and offered other legal assistance.

Now not all blacks were slaves there were free blacks in the south roughly a quarter million who had bought their freedom and moved on to own their own land and slaves. The south was known for their large tobacco and cotton fields, which required daily excruciating backbreaking labor. Slave hands were what made this possible to complete and continue for too long. Not all slaves were out working the plantation or fields, there were also slaves doing everything from carpentry and masonry work to raising children and not necessarily their own children. This was a way of life in the south and without that amount of work; being completed that the slaves were responsible for, the ability to sustain life would be imaginable. As the civil war erupted all war worthy confederate males left their home to defend the southern states against the Union Army. At this time the minimal amount of personnel were left at home to support the family and continue to work the land while maintaining a positive outlook and forward progress. Times were rough for the south if the land was not worked then the crops could not be sold and the family had no income or means to sustain life. Not only did they not make a living, the crops were supporting the confederate troops fighting the war. Soldiers of the confederate army were struggling to sustain the fight, the food was scarce,

After the Civil War, the South was in need of change. They were so reliant on cotton and other agricultural dependencies, and black slaves who worked for little to nothing. Without slaves, all they had was damaged farmland – and nobody to help repair it. The industrialized North was a model for the South. Influential southerners saw what could be, and started to take action.

The South was in ruins.They faced homeless refugees who needed food, shelter, and work. They also had to reconstructed, because the South was destroyed.

The reconstruction of America would decide how the south would rejoin the Union, what was to become of the nearly 3 million black slaves freed, how America was going to recover from such a devastating internal war. There appears to be phases that the Reconstruction Era went through, roughly three of them. The first is that of the Presidential Reconstruction, it lead to a more radical Republican party. After such we find ourselves in what was to be known as the Radical Reconstruction. A period where the blacks found their voices being heard. Finally we lead up to the end of the Reconstruction-era. It is said that the reconstruction lasted from 1865 to 1877, however it can be said that, to this very day, some reconstruction is still ongoing.

I agree, the reconstruction failed to properly introduce the freed slaves into society and it is part of why we still see inequality today. The freedman bureau had the right idea and intentions but fell short in its efforts. Sadly, there is a strong correlation between poverty and education which reveals a little insight into why this vicious cycle continues to run it's course. Like most other societal problems they have a tendency to creat a domino effect off one another and we a continue to see the sufferage of minorities as a result. I don't know if congress could've budgeted land & educational grants to freed slaves but if so, we could've possibly had a different outcome today. It seems to me that the avid supporters of abolishing slavery