Was Reconstruction A Success Or A Failure

In the beginning of 1865, the Civil War came to a close, abandoning over 620,000 dead and a destructive path of devastating all over the south. The North now was confronted with the task of reconstructing the destroyed and aggrieved Confederate states.

The Civil War and Reconstruction periods had many positive outcomes for America, such as the reunification of the Union, the expansion of the North and South’s economy, education for all, and much more. Although there were many positive results from these two periods, there was also an aftermath of much failure. The post Civil War, and Reconstruction period consisted of the formation of the Ku Klux Klan and the black code laws. Despite the fact that African American’s were no longer slaves, in many ways they were still not free. Furthermore, the creation of things such as the Ku Klux Klan and the black codes created high tension between the black and white races, a tension that can be argued is still present in modern day America. This essay will examine the aspects of how the post Civil War and Reconstruction period was a failure with regards to social, economic and political, and radical development for newly freed slaves.

The end of civil war in the United States of America brought about many problems, in particular for the South. Some of the problems were political, economic decay and social disorder. The war destroyed the plantations and crops thus causing many to starve to death while others became homeless. The reconstruction became the only hope for the people. Radical reconstruction began in 1867, which enabled the freed black men to have a voice in the government. Before the civil war, the Southern state had enacted laws that suppressed all African American. This fact angered many people from the North who were seeking to end slavery. Therefore, during the reconstruction era, the black people wanted their voices to be heard.

1. The war in 1862 was only more than a year old and the people in both the Union and Confederate sides didn’t anticipate it would last that long, but it is going to go on. Close to the end of the summer in this same year, the Union has made huge progress in claiming confederate lands, winning some major battles. They have put the confederacy in the defensive. They have taken over New Orleans, with even black troops major on the ground of New Orleans. They have taken Missouri and are working hard to take over the Mississippi Valley and maybe even Richmond itself. Bruce Catton puts it this way in The Civil War, “Except for guerrilla activity, Kentucky and Missouri has been swept clear of armed confederates, Western Tennessee had been reclaimed, there was a Yankee army in Cumberland Gap, another one was approaching chattanooga, and a third was sprawled out from Memphis to Corinth, preparing to splice down through Mississippi and touch hands with the Union occupation forces in Baton Rouge and New Orleans” (85) So not only that they Union had taken over regions, they are advancing as well, but they did not win the way this year for some reason. Firstly, because they did not have generals and army heads capable of taking them to victory. General Halleck, chief of the Union Armies and Pope in charge of one of the Union armies in Virginia, were major examples of this.

Reconstruction is the rebuilding of a country after a largely impacted war. The US reconstructed their country after the damage of the Civil War. This lasted 12 long years. Reconstruction was not only physically rebuilding buildings, it was altering the government, the beliefs of the people, food, shelter, and homes, and much more.

Reconstruction brought forth good leaders and laws but ultimately failed at its goal during its time period. If certain parts of reconstruction are looked at, some good did come out of it. Some were the rejoining of black families, the Amendments, and inspiring political leaders. Much of the reconstruction was spent with blacks rebuilding up their families and finding what unity they could. With the addition of the 14th and 15th Amendments, more freedoms was offered to all men regardless of race. Many Radical Republican leaders helped make many of the changes. We can look to many now for inspiration. One was Thaddeus Stevens who wanted to take power away from planters and give rights back to the slaves. Unfortunately, all of these points aren’t

From 1865 to 1877, Reconstruction was on the forefront of challenges newly freed slaves and the federal government were facing in America. Reconstruction was both a success and a failure in many ways.

Obviously, the beginning of the Reconstruction was when the United States was at it’s lowest point, with no new amendments regarding slavery, with lots of destruction and death, and a lot of work to do ahead. Once things began to progress, things started to look up, especially for African Americans. The United States was becoming a more equalized environment, until the later events from 1870-1877, with the Ku Klux Klan ordeal, and the removal of federal protection in the South. Clearly, this twelve year Reconstruction period had made the US become a better and more controlled place than it was before, but the ending events caused damage to the minorities living in the South which would last for a very long time until the Martin Luther King Jr. era. If it were up to me, I would have kept protection in the South for a longer period of time, until the US was a guaranteed place of

During the Reconstruction Era, Congress passed many laws to provide equal rights to people of color. But at the local level, specifically in the South, many Democrats took the law into their own hands. They supported the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) hoping to restore the pre-Civil War social hierarchy. The texts in Going to the Source illustrates two groups of individuals who opposed the KKK. In testimonies given by white witnesses, Republicans from the North felt the KKK posed a political and social danger in the South, but did not feel intimidated. The testimonies given by black witnesses were people who had experience of the Klan’s violence, and felt their lives were threatened. The Klan’s attacks on whites were more inclined towards social harassment, while their attacks on blacks, which consisted of voting intimidation and night rides, were violent and abusive because the KKK’s main goal was white supremacy.

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.

Many historians argue about the result of the reconstruction. By reading the sources I concluded that the American reconstruction after the war was somewhat successful. According to Frances after the civil war, the north sent many generals to the south to control territories until the land was settling. According to her augments the claims that the generals would force the people to bow down to them. People in the south considered them as tyrants. Another thing that many people in the south were angry about was the fact that most black in the south had more right to vote that some of the whites themselves. She mentions that if blacks in the north could not vote why the blacks in the south should (366). This clearly shows the high disapproval

In the lead-up to WWI, the United States faced a variety of economic fortunes and misfortunes. After the Civil War, there had been unprecedented economic growth, however the Panic of 1873, shook the economy to its core. Recovering from the Panic took the recovery of American industries, such as tobacco farming and cotton. However, competition in both of these areas had increased and markets that previously relied on American exports, such as Great Britain, had found, or created, new sources for these goods. That left the US in a position where it needed to find new markets for its goods. And if Europe wasn’t that market, then it had to be South or East.

Reconstruction was a time period from 1865-1877 immediately following the Civil War in hopes of rebuilding the United States, where several different groups in the government tried to solve the economic, political, and social problems that was a result of the Civil War. Whites didn’t want change they felt they didn’t need any sort of help or correction and blacks only wanted their freedom and to be able to own their own land. Although Reconstruction did a whole lot of good for the nation and the southerners, it didn’t entirely result in a success in the

and in reality it was a demonstration of the failure to make a dependable political

After the North wins the Civil War the South was in ruins. Train tracks are demolished therefore preventing supplies to be sent to the people living in the South, and hundreds of buildings have collapsed. Thousands are dead or injured. Everyone knows what is coming next. Reconstruction has just begun, but how long will it last? The Civil War ended in the year 1865 and because the North won the war slavery was abolished. Amendments thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen have been ratified. Amendment thirteen ended slavery. Amendment fourteen gave African Americans, American citizenship and civil rights. The fifteenth amendment made it “illegal to deny someone the right to vote based on race.” (The DBQ Project 505). Reconstruction started in 1866 through 1909. A terrorist group called the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is a white supremacist group that was against Reconstruction and freedom and civil rights for the African Americans. Information for this essay was used from the newspapers Harper's Weekly, Independent Monitor, and the Boston Evening Transcript. Through thinking the African Americans should not be in the government, paying more attention to the government frauds than reconstruction, and the public opinion turning against reconstruction, the North is responsible for killing reconstruction.