Why The Reconstruction Failed

The Reconstruction Era lasted up to 1877 from the time just after the Civil War. The Reconstruction failed to bring about social and economic equality to the former slaves due to the southern whites’ resentful and bitter outlook on the matter, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Jim Crow laws.

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.

However, all the privileges that come accompany freedom were still unattainable. It was no secret that the Republican Party wanted freedom for the slaves and in 1864 Lincoln granted it by establishing the 13th amendment. This amendment abolished slavery forever. Even though, the act was a noble one, the end result was not favorable for blacks. They were still segregated, and not given any rights. They could not vote or receive a decent education. They were separated from whites at social events and public places. This amendment may have ended the Civil War but it did not help the African Americans in their quest for fair and equitable treatment.

The North’s victory after four years of fighting in the Civil War in 1865 allowed the 13th amendment to pass, and eventually added the 14th and 15th amendment to the constitution. These abolished slavery and attempted to create equal rights among all people. The Reconstruction Act divided the South into separate military districts and formed governments based on male suffrage. The South and North had extremely different views on how to rebuild the South and how former slaves should be incorporated into the country as freed people. The process of the Reconstruction period of rebuilding the South proposed many new challenges. The efforts to ensure equal rights to the freedmen failed because of the acts that were passed to control the labor and

In the same way, the issue of racism was more opposed to people and was more openly abused in the past compare to present. African Americans were mistreated, and were slaved for a long time, and they did not have any rights until the 18th century. In 1865 and 1866 Southern states passed a laws called "black codes" which was meant to limit the rights of black and segregate them from whites; however, during the 1865 African American believed that the process of reconstruction would bring equality. The main object of reconstruction was to help African Americans become equal citizens, but reconstruction failed to help them, because the Southerners were not willing to accept the laws that were placed to give rights to the African Americans.

Reconstruction was a failure because, during the reconstruction era, congress had become very radical and powerful because they could never agree with Andrew Johnson and with Andrew Johnson as president, they couldn’t get much done because congress and Andrew Johnson had opposite views. Despite having different views on important topics, congress got almost anything they wanted because they had more members that wanted to be strict on the south than members who wanted to be lenient on the south. This radical congress ended its “dictatorship” 1877 when they longer could control everything and the houses were finally balanced. This radical congress had also caused problems in politics by getting president Andrew Johnson impeached and causing

Radical Republicans, who identified as the anti-slavery and pro-reconstruction wing of the Republican party, were another key group driving transformations in the country during this time. They had a bold agenda: to punish the south for the Civil War, ensure the complete elevation of former slaves to the current standards of American society, and to prevent the Democrats from ever gaining another foothold in the south. To do this, they set out to pass the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments. The amendments forbade slavery in the United States, guaranteed equal protection under the law and citizenship to anyone born in the United States, and ensured the right to vote for all men over the age of 21, respectively. They also supported the Freedman’s Bureau,

The Reconstruction was unsuccessful, because it had a lot of problems and a lot of enemies that do not supported it. First, the people that did not support the Reconstruction had more power in this time, because they were white and rich. These people wanted to prevent African-Americans from voting so they put in vote the literacy tests to vote, they established poll taxes and added the grandfather clauses to state constitutions. Withe that a lot of African-Americans could not vote, weakening the Reconstruction, because they were supporters of it. Second, they also faced opposition from the wealthy, that ignored it, or hadn't a problem or were supporters of the Social Darwinism. The people that supported it, believed that the rich

Southern politicians stated that they made the move from racism, saying that they now endorsed African American Rights while attacking the Republican regime in the South instead. Many African-Americans living in the South were denied by Southern politicians and courts the right to be heard in courts or serve on juries. One example of this was seen in Alabama when Caucasian Southerners beat an African American woman and was forced to raise money to have her case heard in court. Once doing so, the offenders were released with no impending charges, and the woman was forced by the courts to drop her case or thrown into jail. (Page 182) Many politicians created poll taxes, which disenfranchised the African American voters clearing the Republican vote. One such example is seen in Delaware where political officials stated that they were not bound to the amendments passed during Reconstruction created poll taxes, which eliminated African American voters. (Page 183) Many economic leaders

Our founding fathers imagined a country full of freedom and opportunity. This divine objective, however, did not promise such to everyone. As our government today views the original documents made by our fathers, we come to realize that they did not specify all our questionable rights presently.

When the Civil war ended, southern soldiers were going back to destroyed railroads and cities. Several cities were burned to the ground after Sherman’s march from sea to sea. Slavery was banned and the slaves were given freedom from their owners after the civil war. Attempting reconstruction was not a failure, but took too much time for America to give social and economic equality to slaves. Many different presidents tried to make the process quicker, but the south was to stubborn of this idea, which held them back. When the reconstruction failed, social and economic equality was not given to the slaves.

Following the Civil War, the Reconstruction Era began. During this time, the southern part of the United States attempted a transformation directed by Congress from 1863 to 1877. Known for its successes and failures, the Reconstruction was a time of great pain and an infinite amount of questions. As well as many long term, short term, positive, negative, social, and political effects.

Q: Scholars have disagreed regarding the success or failure of Reconstruction. What was reconstruction? How and why was in a success or a failure?

Even though African-American's rights made some progress during the Reconstruction Era, most of them were insignificant and never truly effective in their lives. The emancipation of slaves was one of the great stakes of the Civil War and the Reconstruction Era, but it was a failure as well. Many Northern leaders weren't Abolitionists but didn't want to lose the support of their electors. Even Abraham Lincoln (as well as his successor Andrew Jonshon) was arguably a white supremacist, even though he passed Abolitionist laws that benefitted slaves. But he would have rather sent them to other countries, so that they wouldn't be his problem anymore as his projects to send freedmen in colonies in Central African and Haitian colonies show. Furthermore,

The union victory in the civil war may have given some 4 million slaves their freedom, but by doing so it brought many problems in the social system and reconstruction failed to solve them. The 1863 Emancipation proclamation freed slaves in the confederate states, nevertheless all slaves were not free until the ratification of the 13th Amendment shortly after the war. Southern legislatures passed black codes which forced freed slaves to work for the lowest wages and rent off former slave owner’s land. Reconstruction was a failure because almost all those free slaves were homeless and starving. Congress created the Freedmen’s Bureau on March 3rd, 1865 because many freedmen were unskilled, without property or money, and have little knowledge on how to survive as a free people. It provided clothing, medical care, food, and education for them. However, the Bureau