The Reconstruction Reconstruction is defined as the period following the Civil War in which the Republican-dominated Federal government sought to reunite the Union; the measure included drastically remodeling Southern society in order to secure equality and independence for blacks through granting them various freedoms. Many historians believe that in order to fully understand the modern United States, one must understand Reconstruction. Studying it, therefore, has been a top priority amongst historians. Over the years, three main schools of thought have developed concerning Reconstruction. The Dunning School viewed the Northern Republicans as tyrannical leaders who pushed aside the governments …show more content…
Following the Civil War, many blacks argued that their hard work as slaves entitled them to a portion of their former masters' land. Southern whites, however, denied the blacks of this arguable right. It was left up to the state governments to take action and issue land distribution plans. The strong opposition from whites and even some Republicans to black land ownership, based on racism and fears of economic instability, stifled any government action. Left in poverty, many blacks, Burns argues, were forced to depend on their former masters for work, developing strict bargaining relationships with them in exchange for the paternalistic one that had existed during slavery. Foner argues that this dependence was not all bad; blacks were able to embrace the free-market, saving up money to purchase small luxuries, such as clothing and different foods. Ultimately, however, no land was distributed and Reconstruction failed to provide blacks with economic autonomy. Burns argues, through evaluation of other regions where slaves were emancipated, that if land had been distributed, blacks would have been productive on it. Foner, on the other hand, argues that due to the National banking system, Blacks would have been unable to obtain a loan to purchase supplies for the redistributed land,
“Summer 1865, President Andrew Johnson, who had succeeded Lincoln, ordered nearly all land in federal hands returned to its former owner.” Foner P 483 “ The Civil War was an important time in the US history as well as the Reconstruction. The Civil War and Reconstruction were disappointing to a large part of the US population, especially slave, whose liberation was one of the major reasons for the Civil War. The Reconstruction gave slaves the basic rights and liberties but not all the freedom that the African Americans desired in their terms as being free. Even though, the Civil War and Reconstruction began the further development of the United States as a nation it also began controversies between different social groups in the US society, such as the social tension between different racial groups.
Reconstruction was a time that was supposed to be about healing and rebuilding the U.S.A. But instead was made into a racial division between blacks and whites like the South Carolina black codes taking away black rights. Then, there are the Luisiana black codes that take away black rights to own any thing. Finally, their are the Luisiana constitution (goes hand and hand with the black codes) that stop blacks from voting or anything else.
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
The Reconstruction was a period of roughly ten years that came after the American Civil War. During this time black Americans were able to vote, attend school and even hold public office. These ten years were a small break for black Americans following the end of slavery and preceding the Jim Crow Laws of the South. There is a question to be answered, who killed Reconstruction? There are those who say that the South lead to the end of Reconstruction because of the actions of hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. However, the most important cause of the end of Reconstruction were the actions of the North because of lingering racism and a lack of caring by Northerners.
“…the slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery” (W.E.B. Dubois). Reconstruction was an era, from 1863 to 1877, used to rebuilt the damage done in the South by the Civil War. Many people resisted in the South, so it was difficult to carry out the new ideas of Reconstruction. Rebuilding the United States was not an easy task, only lasted 12 years ending in 1877. The Compromise of 1877 settled the intensely disputed 1876 U.S. presidential election, which was pulled federal troops out of state in the South, and ended the Reconstruction Era. The United State come up with three Amendment to help the African Americans there are the 13th Amendment: ended slavery, 14th Amendment: gave blacks Americans citizenship and civil rights and the last one was the 15th Amendment: right to vote. Was the North or South to be blamed for ending the period of rebuilding in the United State after the Civil War? Reconstruction is the process of rebuilding or reorganizing
America has gone though many political changes since its birth as a nation. Many presidents have come and gone, trying to bring about change, thus creating revolutionary moments in this country’s history. These “revolutionary movements” have created lasting impressions on the United States that helped mold the nation that it is today. One such movement was Reconstruction. Reconstruction was a time in America consisting of reuniting the country and pulling it from the economic catastrophe that stemmed from the Civil War. The reconstruction era had dealt with three separate plans: the Lincoln Plan, the Johnson Plan and the congressional Plan. These plans, each with their own unique way of unifying the country and integrating newly freed blacks into American society, came with their pros and cons.
Although sharecropping may not be a primary cause for the social failure of Reconstruction, it still remained significant. “Emancipation left the planters poor, and with no method of earning a living,
Imagine being a soldier in the Civil War, fighting with a great risk of dying, and then, somehow win the war. Since winning the war, slaves had been freed and the United States would start rebuilding itself. Former slaves were even able to get jobs and become part of the government. However, after several years of rebuilding, there is still more things to do. Then, all of the sudden, the rebuilding stops and no one knows why. Racism was making a comeback, even more so fierce than before the Civil War. There was even talk of a second Civil War, and People started wondering if it was the North or South who had stopped this great rebuilding. Recently, there has been talk about who had caused the end. However, because of the North having the most power, them getting sick of carpetbagging government/“Negro Question”, and also deciding on slaves having a probation period, it is clear that the North was the problem to Reconstruction.
In the book Reconstruction, Eric Foner wrote that “When the Civil War ended, the white South genuinely accepted the reality of military defeat, stood ready to do justice to the emancipated slaves, and desired above all a quick reintegration into the fabric of national life. Before his death, Abraham Lincoln had embarked on a course of sectional reconciliation, and during Presidential Reconstruction (1865-67), his successor, Andrew Johnson, attempted to carry out Lincoln’s magnanimous policies. Johnson’s efforts were opposed and eventually thwarted by the Radical Republicans in Congress. Motivated by an irrational hatred of Southern “rebels” and the desire to consolidate their party’s national ascendancy, the radicals in 1867 swept aside the Southern governments Johnson had established and fastened black suffrage upon the defeated South. There followed the sordid period of Congressional or Radical Reconstruction (1867-77), an era of corruption presided over by unscrupulous “carpetbaggers” from the North, unprincipled Southern white “scalawags” and freed men. After much needed suffering, the South’s white community banded together to overthrow these governments and restore “home rule” (an euphemism for white supremacy). Foner concluded that “Reconstruction was the
The period after the Civil War was a very difficult time in the United States’ history. This time was known as the Reconstruction period and it was a very controversial time. There were many issues that had to be addressed such as what to do with the free blacks in the south and how states would be readmitted to the Union. This era saw the rise of the Radical Republicans. The government was going through changes, southerners were going through changes, and blacks were going through changes. Whites in the south were left without people to work their plantations. Slavery was indeed a very important topic during this time. Many of the reconstruction plans that were proposed required states to prohibit slavery in
After the period of the United States civil War, African Americans became free from slavery. Therefore, plantation owners and African Americans made an arrangement, in which the owner of the land would supply the land with mule, plow, seed, and other necessities and they will work in order to stay in the land and them offering to share the crop and pay from the profits if the worker produce it.
Blacks saw emancipation as their opportunity to become involved with society without the burden of being owned by someone. The labor system of "free labor" versus slavery contained a transition that few in the south were willing to accommodate. Planters went from owning blacks as property, to negotiating a wage in exchange for their labor. Although blacks were declared free, some were required to sign a yearly contract that promised service to one planter. If a free black chose not to sign the contract, he was intimidated into signing. The underlying message was clear, sign or have you and your family live in constant fear of abuse. With these contracts, planters tightened authority and presided over all details of the lives of blacks. Blacks were closely supervised to the point that the pace of work they desired was routinely challenged. The freedmen were persuaded to sign the contract in order to preserve the labor system that had been prevalent in the South. "By voluntarily signing and adhering to contracts, both planters and freedmen would develop the habits of a free labor economy and come to understand their fundamental harmony of interests"(p.75). The Southern white planters would determine these interests. The contracts themselves bound the freedmen into a continued extorted form of slavery. At harvest time, most planters did not pay the blacks their earned wages. Blacks would labor the entire season only to be left with the feeling of desperation that
Historians have described Reconstruction as a “splendid failure” even though great accomplishments were obtained during this period. During Reconstruction many new laws were passed, such as the 14th & 15th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act. However, at the end of Reconstruction, many of the southern whites returned to their positions of power they had held previously. This led to southern states passing black codes and the Democratic Party using methods of intimidation and violence in order to control black voters. Therefore true equality for black Americans had not been achieved as was desired by those in favor of the Civil
From 1865 to 1877, the United States underwent an era of political complexity and social turbulence known as Reconstruction (Tindell). This period of American history generated extensive implications for life of Americans (Tindell). The main goal of the Reconstruction was to rebuild a devasted South after the abolition of slavery, disruptions of the economy due to the war, and the tremendous amounts of deaths left it in near ruins (Tindell).
The purpose of having a reconstruction feature in a forensics tool is to re-create a suspect drive to display what happened during a crime or an incident. Another reason for replicating a suspect drive is to create a copy for other computer detectives, who might need a fully functional copy of the drive so that they can achieve their own procurement, test, and study of the evidence. These are the subfunctions of reconstruction: