After the Civil War: The New South Essay

After the conclusion of America’s Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln pitched the idea of “Reconstruction,” which would bring the southern states back into the Union. President Lincoln, according to many radical Republicans, was too gentle on the south. The government was divided on how to solve the issue of readmitting the southern states back into the Union. In addition to that, the government was not certain on what rights to enumerate to the newly emancipated slaves. These issues became more difficult to solve after President Lincoln was murdered. Lincoln’s successor, Vice President Andrew Johnson, was a Tennessee Democrat that lacked respect of the Republican Congress. The legislative and executive branches of the American government

The New South: an era of change, a time of transition away from the destruction of the Civil War and chaos of Reconstruction. However, while the institution of slavery and a cotton-based economy faded away into the past, feelings of intolerance and inequality resided in the hearts and minds of Southerners, shaping a new society that closely mirrored the old. Blacks and other minorities, such as women, remained in an underclass with strict social and economic rules as the South expanded outside it agrarian roots. William Faulkner captures the preconceived sentiments keeping the Civil War relevant in the South in his novel Light in August. He chronicles the stories of the outcasts Lena Grove and Joe Christmas, both people who break social

Reconstruction was a period of time after the Civil War (1865-1877) that was supposed to be the rebuilding of America. It was also the process used to readmit all the Confederate states back into the Union. There was controversy, however, on how to go about rebuilding the nation. Abraham Lincoln proposed a lenient plan. After he was assassinated, Andrew Johnson proposed a very similar plan. The Radical Republicans, a group of legislators that were in favor of freedmen’s rights, were opposed to both plans under “Presidential Reconstruction”. They initiated “Congressional Reconstruction”. Because of the conflicting views, there was little cooperation between the Executive and Legislative branches. This lead to many unsuccessful

Tensions between the North and South had grown steadily since the anti slavery movement in 1830. Several compromises between the North and South regarding slavery had been passed such as the Nebraska-Kansas and the Missouri act; but this did little to relieve the strain. The election of President Lincoln in 1861 proved to be the boiling point for the South, and secession followed. This eventually sparked the civil war; which was viewed differently by the North and the South. The Northern goal was to keep the Union intact while the Southern goal was to separate from the Union. Southern leaders gave convincing arguments to justify secession. Exploring documents from South Carolina’s secession ordinance and a speech from the Georgia

The civil war began early in the spring of 1861 after the South’s secession from the Union and ended during the same season four years later in 1865. Though the war lasted for a rather short amount of time, for the ones it affected it seemed to be never-ending. The impact that the war had on Southerners was rather traitorous, them being the ones who suffered most. Many men lost their homes and property while many, many more men lost their lives fighting for them. There were many types of Southerners in 1861, the war affecting all of them differently, with some of the richer and higher members of society having an easier time both before and after the war. One amazing author, Margret Mitchell, created an in depth story of a southern-belle

In 1865 Lincoln was assassinated, Andrew Johnson became president, the black codes were passed by Southern state governments, and the Thirteenth Amendment was added to the Constitution. Those four events paint a picture of just how much tension there was in the United States at that time. Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery and outlaw involuntary servitude in the entire nation. Involuntary servitude was only to be allowed as a punishment for a crime. The crime had to be one in which a person had been properly sentenced, and Congress had the authority to see to it that the law was being followed. Southerners rejected the new amendment and pushed the boundaries of the law as much as they could. They searched for loop holes in order to limit the amount of autonomy freemen experienced. The black codes that were put into place seemed to almost negate the Thirteenth Amendment. This further increased the tension in the South.

The crops grown on plantations and the slavery system changed significantly between 1800-1860. In the early 1800s, plantation owners grew a variety of crops – cotton, sugar, rice, tobacco, hemp, and wheat. Cotton had the potential to be profitable, but there was wasn’t much area where cotton could be grown. However, the invention of the cotton gin changed this - the cotton gin was a machine that made it much easier to separate the seeds from cotton. Plantation owners could now grow lots of cotton; this would make them a lot of money. As a result, slavery became more important because the demand for cotton was high worldwide. By 1860, cotton was the main export of the south. The invention of the cotton gin and high demand for cotton changed

The antebellum era exposed the entirely different views and ways of life between the North and the South. These differences can be observed on the economic aspect. The North was industrialized enabling them to have functioning economy without the use of many labors; however, in the south, people relied on agriculture, and thus they needed a large number of slaved labors to help them work on the plantations. Such difference led to the main distinction which existed throughout the entire Civil War, the dependence on the slavery. These differences sparked conflict between the North and the South placing them in an indisputable position, eventually leading to the Civil War. The prosecution of the Civil War of North and South differed drastically. The North fought to preserve the Union which entailed abolishing slavery, enlisting the black in the army and also paying them proper wages, and the South fought to withdraw and preserve slavery and their agricultural lifestyle. These conflicting views did not disappear after the war. Although the North won the Civil War, they still wanted to unify the country, not only territorially, but also economically and politically by enforcing many new laws and amending the Constitution. And the South, even after the abolishment of slavery, people in the south remained hostile toward the freed people, saw themselves more superior than the freed people, and tried to resurrect the “Old South”.(192~198) To achieve the real union and realize the

Some states are currently threatening to leave the country because of the belief that the government has too much power over the people and the laws our country has to follow. In our society, we live by laws set by the government, and if any of them are broken, there is a punishment. These laws are set to make sure that the people of America are following the way things are ran so the country will not collapse. Although these laws are set for the safety of the people, sometimes when the government has that kind of power to make people follow certain things they should not have to follow, many issues arise. In the late 1800’s, many issues emerged between the South and the Union on whether the Southern states had the right to secede from the

nation of mechanics…You are bound to fail.” Union officer William Tecumseh Sherman to a Southern friend.

Directly following the Civil War, many ex slaves established crop frame on land that had been neglected from them fleeing the white Southerners. President Johnson, a former slave owner, gave this land to the original white owners and many free slaves had to depend on the South’s old planter system. The freedman wanted independence and refused to sign the contracts that required task labor, and sharecropping came out as a compromise.

This amendment specifically outlaws the institution of slavery and involuntary servitude. This means that the Emancipation Proclamation was formally made law by United States government. The South was made to accept the new reforms to the constitution in order to be allowed back into the Union, so therefore they had to accept the fact that they could no longer depend on the use of slaves to advance economic growth in the South. Not only did this amendment not allow slavery but it also made

* The ways that the south reinvented itself was through attempts in rebuilding their farms and negotiating new labor agreements with their former slaves. This method failed by the majority of southern land owners being to prideful or greedy to pay decent wages of the time. The south also became known for their railway system and is now the standard for development. The railway system brought urban life to the south through city growth and the growth of the iron industry. The southern people used their iron industry as their main competing industry with the northern. In these industries it was uncommon for black southerners to be allowed to work in the factories. Poor whites would be hired over blacks in the rail yards as well. The south being as picky to who they hired only bettered their communities rather than those of both black and white communities. These changes brought our country into an era of segregation. With segregation starting in the following years after the civil war it kept the south from truly catching up to the northern culture and industry because of their hate. If southern people would have been willing to bend more with their own losses after the war and been more willing to give equality to their former slaves things would have turned out

The aftermath of the Civil War shook the nation. A new way of life was beginning for the people of America. A way of life that was beautiful and free to some and absolutely devastating to the rest. The country had changed and nobody did a better job at documenting this change than the authors. The authors used this new world to explore new and unique stories as well as capturing what it was actually like living in the post-Civil War times. This paper will examine post-Civil War Literature and its importance to documenting this period in history.

What challenges did the “new immigrants” face (those arriving between 1877 and 1914) that previous waves of immigrants did not?  (Discuss at least 2 challenges.)