Social Reconstruction

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

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

In Gendered Strife and Confusion: The Political Culture of Reconstruction, Laura Edwards studied how gender, race, and class shaped not only the political terrain of the South during Reconstruction, but also its private and public foundations. Edwards viewed the Southern household during this period as a “highly contested political issue.” Following the war, changes swept southern society regarding how households were defined, who were the heads of those households, and what rights these heads and their dependents held. She argued that African American and common white women became a very loud and “vigorous public presence both during and after the Civil War.” Being poor, black, or both, these women demanded that concerns for their family’s welfare and safety, such as issues of rape and physical violence, be heard. Therefore, these women “moved private issues onto the public stage.” Within her work, Edwards extended Reconstruction to the end of the nineteenth century. She stated that “racial and class hierarchies appeared as ‘natural’ as gender hierarchy, and the political power of poor white and African-American men appeared as pointless as that of women.” She discussed that the end of Reconstruction concluded at different times in different places throughout North Carolina, ultimately ending with the white supremacy campaign in 1898 leading to disfranchisement. Before 1898, many African Americans and “dissenting whites retained their grip on local power,” which

I spent most of my time at underprivileged schools. Being from a school district where every student received the same education without considering the student’s race, gender, and/or ethnicity. The one experience that has stood out to me was when I was helping a fifth grade student with his math homework. This student was really struggling with multiplication. I recalled working on more advanced math when I was in the fifth grade. This opened my eyes to see that these children were more than likely not receiving the same education I received when I was their age. After spending all afternoon with this student, he thanked me for taking the time to help him, saying that no one, not even his parents have ever invested that much time into his education. This was one more thing I did not experience; I had two parents who were constantly helping me with homework even to this

Following the Civil War drew to an end, however the social, political and economic conditions did not, infact it only grew within the rebellious southern states fueled discussion about the reconstruction. Social, political and economic conditions impacted the reconstruction era. The KKK impacted socially in 1865, their reign of terror was felt throughout the south. Their organization spread fear using guerilla tactics, whipping, beating, and lynching. The Klan’s purpose was to destroy the republican party as revenge for the abolishment of slavery. They wanted to destroy the republican party infrastructure and end reconstruction control in southern black population. The era of Reconstruction there were massive changes in American culture, economy,

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.

The group of people most affected by the revolutions of Reconstruction was without question the newly emancipated slaves. There is no doubt that the liberation and ensuing reforms were serious improvements in the lives of black people in the United States. For the first time since they had been brought to the colony of Jamestown, blacks were allegedly granted, at least in principle, the same freedom as whites. Even though some of these new rights did not afford much real-world independence at the time, the end of the institution of slavery and its barbaric treatment of the captive blacks should not be dismissed. With the solidification of the Thirteenth Amendment, paired with Lincoln’s Freedman’s Bureau, the United States began to distribute

Finally, the social aspect of Reconstruction created problems such as violence and unbalance between African American and southern Confederates. Black rights and freedoms upset many white southerners who had ordered slaves around for years and caused retaliation from former Confederates. Violent hate groups began to form such as the Knights of the White Camelia, or the more well known Ku Klux Klan (Jackson n.p). These organizations sought to maintain white supremacy by suppressing blacks and government officials in favor of black rights. Methods of lynching, hanging, attacks on public jailing systems, and other forms of violence spread through the South (History.com n.p). Perhaps some consider land redistribution an effective solution

Reconstruction was mainly destroyed by the South because of the KKK's horrid actions against African Americans and Reconstruction. The discrimination and misconception of blacks in the South also contributed to the fall of Reconstruction. However, the North neglected to do all they could to help accomplish Reconstruction as well. Reconstruction was the plan to heal the nation from the war and slavery. The plan was to help the South move on from slavery and give African Americans new, fair opportunities in life. Reconstruction had a strong start in the early 1870's and was dead by 1877, because of the South.

Imagine being beaten for the color of your skin or even worse killed for trying to do something simple like voting.Before the reconstruction era began, Civil War had ended on April 9th, 1865, slavery was abolished and our 16th president was assassinated 5 days after the Civil War. The Civil War was started on April 12, 1861 by the confederates who were trying to protect the southern society which were things like economically depending on slaves and politically being white supremacist by attacking a Union fort. Once the Civil War ended slavery was abolished and the Reconstruction era began. The Reconstruction was the time when citizenship rights of freedmen were being established and protected. Its effect led slavery to come to an end and have the South accept the 14th amendment which stated that everyone had equal rights including the former slaves. Due to the success and failures of Reconstruction, although the social impact was positive for newly-freed African Americans because slavery came to an end, the impacts were mostly negative politically and economically because african americans were not able to vote and no laws protected them from the Ku Klux Klan and the jobs were scarce and usually did not pay much.

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

1. Some historians argue that Radical Reconstruction was not radical enough. After studying the events of the late 19th century, defend whether or not you agree with this position. What are the long-term implications?

Reconstruction started in 1865 after the war was coming to an end and completed in 1877. It Is the process by which federal government controlled the former Confederate states and the conditions for their readmission to the union. Abraham Lincoln was our president at the time and could not form a treaty with the defeated government. After the emancipation, thousands of freedmen left their plantation to find a new life without being owned and forced to work. This began the political, social, and economic goals for reconstruction regarding African Americans.

For generations African Americans have been disadvantaged in America and effects of these injustices have made a lasting impression. Education is one of the leading problems in the black community. Though there have many reforms in education over the years, racial injustices still exist because no attention in placed on how legislature affects people of color. I was raised in a middle-class family of educators. My entire life I’ve been told to “stay in school, get an education, and work hard so that you can beat the system.” Recognizing the structural forces in my life has helped me understand my place in society. Being able to “understand everyday life, not through personal circumstances but through the broader historical forces that

How to minimize the hurts of non-white children once their belief on the theory of a society is fair and equality is completely collapsed when the reality is happening in the opposite. In the reading “Why the Myth of Meritocracy Hurts Kids of Color” Mildred Boveda, an assistant education professor at Arizona State University, said: “I will admit that it sometimes felt risky to tackle these difficult conversations, but this [research] underscores why we cannot equivocate when it comes to preparing our children to face injustices.” I agree with her opinion. Because finding the proper solutions to fully empower and equipping the best knowledge that can help children cope better is not easy, but it is the responsibility of the family, the school, and society. The three elements need to act and work together in an effort to dare to speak about the truths mentioned above.