Essay on The Triumphant Reconstruction

Reconstruction was the time period following the Civil War, which lasted from 1865 to 1877, in which the United States began to rebuild. The term can also refer to the process the federal government used to readmit the defeated Confederate states to the Union. While all aspects of Reconstruction were not successful, the main goal of the time period was carried out, making Reconstruction over all successful. During this time, the Confederate states were readmitted to the Union, the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments were ratified, and African Americans were freed from slavery and able to start new lives.

The radical Republicans saw Reconstruction as a chance to bring change to southern society. Lincoln saw Reconstruction as an opportunity to abolish slavery and weaken the confederacy by establishing new state governments that could win support of southern whites. While the Republicans were divided on the issue of how to readmit the southern states into the Union, they enacted programs for emancipated slaves such as the Freedman’s Bureau. This Bureau provided food and clothing to former slaves and they were in charge with “supervising all the abandoned lands in the South and the control of subjects relating to refugees and freedman” (Buhle, 463).

Presidential reconstruction, alongside Lincoln and Johnson had a political goal of re-entering the south into the Union. Politically, the south needed to swear loyalty oaths to the Union before being allowed to participate and hold any offices. Johnson’s plan specifically did not offer a role to blacks in the political world. Socially, those in the north did not want to see these southerners rejoin so quickly with ease, and made sure others knew. The plan was to rejoin the south to the Union, regardless of their crimes. Economically, they wanted to see the Union together again to repair the country and thrive as a whole. Congressional reconstruction had different goals. First off, politically, those who supported congressional or radical reconstruction believed that blacks should have just as many rights politically and such as those who were white. Socially, they wanted to punish the south for the things they had done as a Confederacy and they also wanted to help and protect the African Americans. Economically, they did not approve of Lincoln’s plan, finding it too lenient and therefore taking action to benefit them and destruct the

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

In “Reconstruction Revisited”, Eric Foner reexamines the political, social, and economic experiences of black and white Americans in the aftermath of the Civil War. With the help of many historian works, Foner gives equal representation to both sides of the Reconstruction argument.

Reconstruction was a time period of major change in the United States of America for both African Americans and White citizens. After the Civil War, the reconstruction process started out as a failure, but over the years turned into a huge success because of how African Americans were able to live normal lives. Overall, Reconstruction was a success because freedom and growth of equality for African Americans was increased greatly.

The original purpose of Reconstruction was to restore the buildings and the economy of the south the best they could, but without the immoral element of slavery. But, reconstruction under the Johnson Presidency was a failure for a few reasons: 1) Convict Leasing, 2) Sharecropping, 3) the Ku Klux Klan, 4) Segregation in schools, even in the North, 5) Carpetbaggers/Scalawags, 6) misleading statistics, and 7) racism.

Congress’s plan for Reconstruction included several restrictions placed on the South and those involved in the Confederacy. One of these demands was that each state must write a new constitution that accepts the 14th amendment, which states that the black slaves are now free people. This meant that blacks could take part in things they never used to do before like marry,

During the early 1800’s in the United States of America, both the Early Industrial Revolution and the Westward Expansion contributed to the sectional tension between the North and the South. While the North had factories popping up everywhere, the South had more and more land dedicated to plantations. To stay at the pace of the North, the South decided it would be beneficial if they were to become their cotton suppliers. With the invention of the cotton gin, cotton was being mass-produced and sent to the North to be made into items such as clothing. Whilst this was going on, the point of slavery became a big issue and the debate over it began, dividing the North and South more and more over time. The North didn't support slavery and instead, hired workers to work in the factories (specifically low-wage woman), while the South supported slavery and used African slaves to work on plantations. This caused many problems as both sides wanted more land to promote their opinion on slavery for either plantations or factories. Due to each of the sides having contradictory points of view on slavery, the Missouri Compromise and the addition of other territories such as during the Louisiana Purchase, the Oregon Treaty, and the Annexation of Texas, much strife occurred in the Senate. The Westward Expansion led to the desire for more land, therefore the United States expanded their land from the East coast to the West coast. The Westward Expansion promoted the addition of new land and

Reconstruction was the time between 1863 and 1877 when the U.S. focused on abolishing slavery, destroying the Confederacy, and reconstructing the nation and the Constitution and is also the general history of the post-Civil War era in the U.S. between 1865 and 1877. Under Abraham Lincoln, presidential reconstruction began in each state as soon as federal troops controlled most of the state. The usual ending date is 1877, when the Compromise of 1877 saw the collapse of the last Republican state governments in the South

Due to the gradual elimination of African-American rights and the withdrawal of Federal troops from the South to enforce such rights, the end of Reconstruction surfaced in 1877. In the eyes of blacks, Reconstruction was a point in history where they could see their civil rights expanding before their very own eyes. On the contrary, whites were deeply disturbed at the way their once “white supremacy” government was dwindling in the rear-view mirror behind them. This fourteen year period known as Reconstruction houses the memories of temporary freedom, scandal, backdoor deals, and the unresolved social, political, and economical issues of our country.

The North may have won the war, but they did a horrible job in trying to win the peace. The south had their new form of slavery, which was contained in the "Black Codes"; laws passed throughout the South that laid heavy restrictions on what, who, and where African-Americans could be. President Johnson saw that the only way to get the freedmen as subordinates again was to let the south back in he started signing pardons so fast that they had to assign an office to help him keep up. Johnson didn't interfere with the south and they continued their plantations, with the plantation owners running the south, in essence becoming exactly what they were before the war. It was like it had never happened. When

“In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, it is perhaps not surprising that historians turned renewed attention to home-grown American terrorism. Recent books on Reconstruction…have infused their subjects with drama by focusing on violent confrontations,” Eric Foner notes in the introduction of the updated edition to his 1988 publication Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877. Up until now, Foner’s revisionist historiography of Reconstruction was the only alternative offered to the Dunning School’s account of the important historical era. In recent years a neo-revisionist interpretation of Reconstruction has emerged in works by a younger generation of historians such as Gregory Downs, Carole Emberton, Hannah Rosen, Megan Kate Nelson and Jim downs. This new scholarship pays close attention to violence, the body, language, and gender—how these important themes directly relate to power, struggle, and political status of freedpeople in the postbellum nation—and either rethink or are completely uninterested in Foner’s revisionist narrative of Reconstruction.

As a country, America has gone though many political changes throughout its lifetime. Leaders have come and gone, and all of them have had their own objectives and plans for the future. As history has taken its course, though, almost all of these “revolutionary movements” have come to an end. One such movement was Reconstruction. Reconstruction was a violent period that defined the defeated South’s status in the Union and the meaning of freedom for ex-slaves. Though, like many things in life, it did come to an end, and the resulting outcome has been labeled both a success and a failure.

Transportation networks took longer to develop in the South since they used canals and waterways to transport their crops. However, the North needed routes and transports for they were many and the kind of jobs available there were different and versified.