The Reconstruction Period and Racism Towards African Americans

The Reconstruction Period was the time after the Civil War when The United States government was trying to reunite the North and South, as well as integrate the free slaves. When the troops left in 1877 everything started to go downhill. The United States government made laws to help integrate the freed slaves called Pig Laws and “Black Code”. These laws were definitely geared towards pleasing the Southern people because they were made by the Southern State Legislature. These laws did give free slaves some freedom, but still highly restricted them.

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.

The Radical Republicans, and the rest of Congress, were the ones who passed most of the bills for Reconstruction, because of their ability to override the president with their majority. They expanded the Freedmen's Bureau, which did show some progress in the helping of former slaves and poor white men. The Freedmen’s Bureau set up hospitals, schools, and also gave out supplies. This achieved the enablement of former slaves having the right to free education. Later on, however, the Freedmen’s Bureau became neglected, and was often forgotten or overlooked. The Freedmen’s Bureau is accurately described in this following statement, “This auspicious beginning belied the great disappointments that lay ahead,” (CITE TEXTBOOK).

History helps shape the future and what we can learn from it to make sure that we do not repeat the same mistakes. During Reconstruction, the country was trying to make amends after the war was over. The country needed to find a way to mend a broken nation because it was divided. The main issue during reconstruction was the status of African Americans because they wanted their civil rights, but could not get that. The question that needs to be answered is: who did the most to aid the cause of African American during Reconstruction, and why? Many organizations and people helped African Americans, but the Freedman’s Bureau did the most.

At the end of the Civil War, America faced the difficult task of uniting not only two separated territories of the United States, but also two races long separated by racism and culture. Devastated and embittered by the damage of the war, the South had a long way to go in order to achieve true equality between the former slave owners and former slaves. The majority of the South remained set in racist behavior, finding post-Civil War legal loopholes to diminish African American rights (Tindall & Shi, 2010, pp. 757-758). Southerners continued to marginalize Blacks in their behavior toward ex-slaves and the later African American generation,

Slavery was a huge issue that both helped and hurt the Union during the Civil War, and later in the Reconstruction. African Americans had to make sacrifices in order to make reality their dream of being freed from the chains of slavery. America reached many changes through the beginnings of Civil Rights legislations, the changes in the power of government, as well as the amount of racism and it’s effects on society.

American Reconstruction began in 1865 at the end of the civil war. The period's main focus was to rebuild the country after war by enacting and changing many key pieces of legislature in the American government. One divisive factor that needed to be addressed was how much representation African Americans deserved in America. During the reconstruction period, African American rights were extended through various new amendments and working opportunities, however, these rights did not last long as they were undermined by black codes and sharecropping.

The reconstruction period refers to the time between 1865 and 1877. It refers to the period after the American civil war where the South of United States wanted to secede and form its country. It was an opportunity for transformation and a series of changes that were directed by congress. During this period, the state and society were influenced by different leaders, thinkers and activists that believed in the post-Reconstruction of United States and regarded that African-American upward mobility needed top priority. There were also leaders that were against this movement and struggled to have their voice heard by congress so that things would remain just as they were.

Even after slavery was erased from the lives of African Americans, something rather equal to slavery was introduced. Sharecropping was what they called it and although it didn 't fool all African Americans, it still resembled the same practice of slavery itself. Equality and opportunity were the main words that would have African Americans develop faith during the time period of 1865 to 1905. Of course, lives of African Americans continued to be painfully raw in disguise.

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. America's position as a country was established on principles of freedom but those beliefs were weakened by slavery. At the end of the Civil War, many blacks felt that they were entitled to start collecting the benefits that had been denied for so many years. Being able to vote, own land and have a voice in political affairs were all goals that they believed were reachable.

The Reconstruction period after the Civil War was a fail attempt at uniting a divided nation over the issue of slavery and integrating freed African Americans into society. The efforts of the North was met with large, aggressive, and often violent white southern resistance. White supremacy groups like the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) with the combination of Black Codes, laws passed by Southern states post Civil War to prevent African Americans from achieving political and economic autonomy, intimidated African Americans and pushed back their civil liberties that was gained with the establishment of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment. The 13th amendment abolished slavery, the 14th amendment granted former slaves recently freed citizenship as well as anyone who is born or naturalized in

Frustrated confederate soldiers made their way back home after losing the war that they had been fighting for four years. These men formed vigilante groups, attacking black people. While soldiers did this, wealthier men who had avoided fighting in the war formed agricultural and police clubs for the same purpose; both groups soon took shape and evolved into one large group, known as the Ku Klux Klan and Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest became the first leader, known as the Grand Wizard. The name Ku Klux Klan is derived from the Greek word, Kyklos, meaning circle. The Ku Klux Klan, often shortened to the KKK, was founded in Tennessee in 1866 and grew to be one of the most feared terrorist groups in the United States, before dying off in 1869, but later being revived in 1915 (History.com Staff). The Ku Klux Klan negatively impacted the Reconstruction period through terror, intimidating Republican voters, and killing Republican officials.

Before the Reconstruction period, helping blacks was not even in the question; everyone’s focus was on the war. During the war, wealth had depleted even for the ones who had it. Even though there was nothing left when the war ended, at least the Confederacy had been almost completely wiped out. All in all, anything that had to do with the Confederates was not allowed in the formation of individual states. The fight was worth it in the end because in less than a couple of months the Freedmen’s Bureau was

After Abraham Lincoln ended slavery, he had hoped that everyone in America would have equal treatment.  During the Reconstruction Era, the goal was to rebuild the nation in a way that everyone would be treated fairly, including the African Americans.  The southern leaders still believed that African Americans should still be slaves and were lower class than them.  Southern leaders created laws in their states and towns that racially segregated whites and African Americans.  These laws were called the Jim Crow Laws. The laws were put into action in 1877 and  ended in 1954. They impacted African Americans by giving them unfair conditions and treatment. This essay is going to show how the Jim Crow laws impacted African Americans’ marriages and education and how the used public

The reconstruction era was a time period during the 18th century where control switched from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party after the Civil War. President Johnson, a democrat from the north, pushed for a more conservative and lenient route for the defeated southern states to rejoin the union. On the other hand, the Congress, which consisted of republicans, aimed at helping freed slaves gain more opportunities in America. The Freedmen’s Bureau was one of the regulations put into law that enabled African Americans to seek a better life by helping freed people gain a better education and reunite with their families. Other laws like the Black codes and labor contracts were then put into place by the president to keep freed slaves impoverished and inferior to the white American Citizen. Providing help to Freed slaves was problematic to many white American