Problems Of Reconstruction Essay

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).

After the great battle of the American Civil War was fought, and the North won, a bigger battle still had to take place; reconstruction. Reconstruction after the war was not going to be easy, and it was not. What was the primary goal? What should be done to ex-confederates? Free Blacks? How should this reconstruction take place? Many of these questions were solved by the government, but how well? Reconstruction could have gone very differently, and that is what I intend to show. I will develop my own reconstruction policy for the United States after the American Civil War, dealing with several critical points, and the overall re-integration of the south into the Union. My policy is based on equality for the South and North, and making

During reconstruction, blacks were no longer forced to work as slaves however they still needed to work to support themselves and their families. Not many blacks had skills outside of farming so most worked the lands of the wealthy white landowners but not as slaves. They had the right to do whatever they wanted and the landowners could do nothing about it. Wealthy landowners still needed work hands and blacks needed an income so former slaveholders established the sharecropping system. Land owned by a white person would be farmed by black families and they shared the crop yield. This often resulted in the white person taking more than their share and the black families struggled to support themselves. Sharecropping did little to help economic advancement for blacks and was a way the white man could prevent blacks from making enough money

After the Civil War, America was still amidst great turmoil and economic instability. During this time period, the ultimate goal for Americans was to seize the “American Dream”. This was defined by most as being able to support their family and live a comfortable life. Although some did achieve this, many faced social, political and economic hardships. Beginning with the unjust treatment of African-Americans, then the struggles of immigrants, and followed by the rise of big businesses, the challenges faced during this time of rebuilding varied among the classes.

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.

Disagreements over Reconstruction lead to conflict in government and in the South. Andrew Johnson was the vice president of Abraham Lincoln. After Lincoln was assassinated, Johnson became President and was in control of how Reconstruction would go. Johnson was originally from the South, he was pro-slavery, and he wanted a lenient plan for Reconstruction. While Congress was out of session, Johnson created and put into effect a Reconstruction plan. The opposite party to Johnson was the Radical Republicans. Radical Republicans were mostly from the North, they were anti-slavery, and they wanted a strict plan for Reconstruction. They had strong support from scalawags, carpetbaggers, and freedmen. Their main goal of Reconstruction was to be a total reconstruction of society to guarentee black people true equality. Another party in this battle was the Klu Klux Klan. The Klu Klux Klan used terror to stop African Americans from gaining any power. They would whip, torture, shoot, hang, and sometimes burn people alive. There were hundreds of lives lost during the 1868 election. This cause voting from African Americans to decline. After all of the disagreements about Reconstruction, the end of Reconstruction still failed to give African Americans rights.

“...the slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery”(Dubois). The Reconstruction wasn’t just a time of leaving slavery behind us, it was a time of progression and development. In 1869, four years after the Civil War, the first ever college football game ensued, and in 1870 Hiram Revels was the first African American senator. Then, in 1877, the first ever easter egg hunt occurred. Moving past all the fun of the Reconstruction, is the death of it. The Reconstruction died due to the efforts, or lack thereof on the North. A financial crisis, racism, and a lack of effort brought the Reconstruction to a halting stop.

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.

With the era of American Reconstruction in America during the mid to late 1800’s came a sense of opportunity and hope for its people. America was on the move as nation, railroads being built faster than ever and the freedmen looking to find their niche in society. Although in the beginning the government provided support for these new citizens, efforts toward reconstruction faded as the years passed. Those efforts faded to a point where they were all but nonexistent, and with the unwritten Compromise of 1877, what feeble efforts that were left of reconstruction were now all but dead. Politically, reconstruction failed to provide equality by pulling Federal troops from the South, allowing former Confederate officials and slave owners

“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.

President Johnson’s Plan, known as Johnson’s Plan was to restore the Old South minus slavery and minus the plantation elite. The second theory was the Radicals in Congress. They wanted a kind of revolution within southern society. They also wanted to give blacks the vote. However, Johnson’s Plan ended in utter failure. Johnson was known to have terrible characteristics, to be a drunken demigod, have no politics, and heckled by hostile crowds but, he protected the South from the Radicals in some way (source 6).