Opposition To Reconstruction

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.

After the Civil war ended, the United States had to reintegrate both a formerly slave population and a formerly rebellious population back into the country. After Lincoln was assassinated, Andrew Johnson was guiding Reconstruction. He was a Southerner, he resented all the elites in the south who had snubbed him, and he was also a racist who didn’t think that blacks should have any role in Reconstruction. Between 1865 and 1867, Johnson appointed provisional governors and ordered them to all state conventions to establish new all-white governments. Those governments looks suspiciously like the old confederate governments they had replaced. Many schools were established at that time. Johnson ordered all land

Almost immediately following the end of the Civil War, the South was in a state of political disturbance, social disorder, and economic discomposure. The Union’s destroyed southern crops, plantations, and cities, while hundreds of liberated slaves hurried to Union lines as their masters fled the oncoming Union army. Thousands of southerners starved to death, and many lost everything such as clothing, homes, land, and slaves.

Reconstruction and whether it was a success or a failure is a much debated topic with varying viewpoints. While Reconstruction does have some successes to boast, I believe that the failures far outweigh the successes. During Reconstruction, the 13th Amendment which banned slavery was passed but that only prompted white southerners to find a “legal” method for blacks to work for them. This method is known as sharecropping, which is essentially slavery with a different name. When African Americans were freed from their slave owners, they were desperate for work and white plantation owners took advantage of these unemployed and uneducated former slaves. The sharecropping system was formed in a way that tenants would become so indebted to the

The Reconstruction Era the period most memorable during the 1860 to the 1877. The period passed through out a lot of problem like violence the assassination of president Abraham Lincoln, country been divided over the issue of slavery and a lot of reconstruct had to be made after the fight of the civil war.

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.

In 1865 all slaves were emancipated which declared them free, but racism was far from over. In the South, freed African Americans continued to be killed as an act of racial violence. Between the period of 1865-1905 African Americans fought to defeat their oppression. By the year 1905, freedmen were still fighting for the same rights they were fighting for in 1865. African Americans were oppressed in many regards, a great example of this is the black codes. These codes were written into Louisiana law which prohibited blacks from passing within the limits of said parish without a special permit, renting or buying a house within said parish, working without a white person supervising them,

The United States went through many changes after the Civil War and during the Reconstruction period of 1866-1877. Before Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on December, 1863, by John Wilkes, Lincoln announced the first Reconstruction plan a year before the Civil War had ended and Lincoln offered general amnesty to white southerners who would pledge an oath of loyalty to the government and accept the abolition of slavery. During the summer of 1865, Johnson not long after he took office had revealed his plan for Reconstruction or as he preferred to call it “Restoration,” which reflected both his staunch Unionism and his firm belief in states’ rights. He offered some form of amnesty to Southerners who would take the oath of allegiance.

After the Civil War, groups like the Freedmen’s Bureau were set up by the government and educational opportunities, medical help, and other opportunities were offered to newly freed African Americans. Later, the United States Government passed the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, which granted protection and more rights to African Americans. President Abraham Lincoln had many visions for Reconstruction and planned the movement. However, he was assassinated before any change occurred. Although plans were made by the government to help newly freed slaves, a group called the Ku Klux Klan threatened others to turn against African Americans. Black codes and other laws were passed by states to limit the new rights of African Americans. Sharecropping was a system set up to provide a

Based on the supplementary readings, I believe that the Civil War and Reconstruction failed to produce equality and freedom to the former slaves in America. Although these events are a major development in the process of liberating African Americans from slavery and dehumanization, many obstacles still exist in which the black community suffered from discrimination and lack of basic rights as a black man in the late 1800s. For example, black soldiers were recruited into the Civil War due to shortage of manpower and “receive the sum of ten dollars per month…[while]..the regiment would...be allowed the three”(Gooding, "We Feel as Though Our Country Spurned Us"). This shows prejudice to the African Americans despite their efforts. Even though

I believe that reconstruction in the United States of America should continue. It has come to my attention that the government is debating how we should further our country's success and to fully reunite the nation after the Civil War we need to spend more time aiding the freedmen and helping the south’s financial and social situation.

After the Civil War, the United States government was left with the ordeal of reintegrating the Southern states back into the Union, as well as with controversies over the status of African Americans. The North struggled to restore southern allegiance to the Union due to the destruction by Sherman’s March and federal control from the Reconstruction Act. Many argued that African Americans were inferior to whites, while others argued that all men were created equal. Although several laws were passed after the Civil War in an attempt to extend civil rights and equality to freedmen, African Americans still faced prejudice and discrimination due to persisting white entitlement and continued oppression.

As the great Civil War of 1861 came to a close many in our country knew a plan to rebuild and reconstruct our land and laws was needed. Unfortunately there were many opposing ideas of the correct Reconstruction plan making it difficult for our president to instate something concrete. It is well known that Lincoln, Johnson and the Radical Republicans all had similar but different ideas of what needed to be done. The ordeal was messy and heavily induced by the radical response and assassination of Lincoln, inducting Johnson into office. Many attempts to help those of lower class failed but some came through in the end. The ideas of Reconstruction were long and thought out but by the 1870s waned down to make room for

The Reconstruction Era was known as a time to reconstruct the United States of America by the expansion of governmental power that began in 1865. “There were two central problems that animated Reconstruction; providing justice for freedmen and facilitating national reconciliation. (A New Birth of Freedom, pg. 1) After the 12 year span, reconstructing the nation succeeded in only a few of the goals that were set out to achieve within those 12 years that it was in progress. The Reconstruction’s intentions ended up becoming its own failure. It was the failure that brought forth the foreseeable success in changing the South. There were three goals the reconstruction set, and failed to achieve; social, political, and economic power, as well

After the Civil war, the Union was reestablished in racism. Reconstruction was the constitutional effort (13th, 14th, 15th amendment) of the north to force the south to treat the freed slaves as citizens. Reconstruction failed miserably. It is one of the least glorious parts of American history. Some nationalists like to think that there are no badly edifying chapters of America, and decide to forget about it. The civil war was one of the big three events along with the Revolution and World War Two. Everybody knows about the civil war, but when it comes to reconstruction, most of my friends have never heard of it. I think it is a travesty and just ignorant of our society to not teach about Reconstruction in history classes. Reconstruction