Pros And Cons Of Reconstruction Era

899 Words4 Pages

The period between the end of the Civil War and the Great Depression had many notable achievements such as western expansion and the Reconstruction Era. However it was also a time period in which many minority groups were fairly disappointed in the American government. The Reconstruction Amendments had many holes not making it effective enough, and with more expansion to the West came more extreme racism towards Native Americans. It is clear that there were attempts to change America for all the people’s freedom, but there are still many flaws those changes possess. Because of that, I find myself in the middle of the debate about who benefited most from this time period. I think the best way to look at history is to try understanding both sides of an issue. Of course doing this isn 't a way to justify truly sickening behavior, and it shouldn 't be. However staying in the middle of this debate is the most reasonable stance because it is fairly easy to see the pros and cons on each side. There is no side that is one hundred percent correct rather they both have plausible answers to an open ended question. …show more content…

One of our most famous, or infamous, wars was centered around the enslavement of a whole race because white people in the South needed cheap labor and saw themselves as racially superior. However, after the war I have to admit that the Government at least tried with the Reconstruction Amendments. The 15th amendment gave the right to vote to African-American males which was a huge step in the right direction for change. This new amendment definitely benefited the black community considering there was a rise of African-American officeholders during the Reconstruction Era (Foner,

Open Document