Some believe it is safe to say that the Reconstruction era was a complete failure. It fell short of achieving it’s goals and was counterproductive. In many ways it created a worse environment for the African American society, they were better of in way prior to the civil war. Many people argue that the Reconstruction era was successful because of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments. The thirteenth amendment “ended” slavery but only in name. Nearly 300 years of servitude created a mindset that African Americans were less than people. In the minds of white men they were property. Slavery continued in America for years after the amendment passed. The fourteenth and fifteenth amendment supposedly secured the rights of slaves …show more content…
They were a lower class with separate schools, water fountains, restaurants, and seating on public transportation. They faced varies forms of oppression and race-inspired violence. Could you imagine the fear they felt being beaten for the color of their skin and origin. A trait they cannot control. In 1954 the United States Supreme Court passed the “separate but equal” doctrine. That was the basis of state sanctioned discrimination and segregation. Civil rights activists started non-violent protest because they wanted to be treated equal not just have the title. Reconstruction made political authority unclear, what they said they were doing and what they were doing were not equivalent. It confused the issue of equality. The authority of the federal government was frequently called into question by southern states who manipulated, challenged and side-stepped as well as violently resisting the capitol and United States Constitution. The reconstruction era adopted political confusion and fighting. Carpetbaggers and scalawags reaped the spoils of corrupt office holding and cooperated with new governments often for personal gain. Freedmen were not able to properly exercise the political power they had been thrown …show more content…
In the decades after the Civil War the government did little to none to rebuild the southern infrastructure. The south remained embedded in it’s traditional agricultural economy. This was anything but progressive. The region was locked into a pattern of economic backwardness and failure. Reconstruction failed to bring any land reform of importance to the South this left African Americans in an inherently unequal state with no opportunities to meet their basic human needs. They were unable to get ahead in life or move on from their enslaved past. African Americans had to remain dependent on their former owners. Sharecropping became the legal form of slavery. It kept African Americans tied to the land they worked which was owned by rich white
The Reconstruction Era brought many revolutions in the South, the American legislation and former slaves ' rights, making it a real rupture in American history. The Reconstruction had also to be literal and start with the South, whose lands are devastated, and with its resulting fallen economy. After the war, the Confederacy was ravaged, its cities looted, its railroads gone and its farm fields destroyed.
Reconstruction failed because freedman became their own group somewhere between slave and full citizen. They no longer had to serve their master for the rest of their life however they had nothing going for them: no land, no investments, no specialized skills, and no education. Freedman could not leave the plantation they grew up on because they had nowhere to go and no way of getting there. Planters could then take advantage of the situation and the freedman would then end up living in the same quarters and not able to make a profit due to the steep prices the planters sold grain and cheap prices they bought from the freedman, leaving freedman always in the debt of their former masters, just as their ancestors had been when they were indentured
Reconstruction was socially unsuccessful because of the Ku Klux Klan, Jim Crow Laws, and Segregation. The Ku Klux Klan would threaten, beat, and murder blacks and republicans. They would burn crosses on their raids, and would throw little wooden caskets in the home of the Republican or African American who was being raided. Jim Crow Laws separated the population because, it make it so white people would always have the better out of black people such as, seats on a train, or there American rights would be discriminated on. Jim Crow Laws also made it so blacks would have to go to different schools, different public transportation areas, different schools, and different restaurants.
The Reconstruction era ended separation between the North and the South, as previously, the South had wanted to be separate from the North. The economy in the South became devastated because there were less people to work on plantations. A large racist group, which was very popular back then known as the KKK became more involved in the South, being fueled with hatred towards blacks and whites who supported civil
Question: How effective or ineffective was Reconstruction, and what part if any did conflict in government play this? When analyzing the Reconstruction period, it is evident that there are two perspectives that can be deduced. Firstly, it is vital to review the issue of slavery. It is during the reconstruction that slaves received new rights and opportunities as citizens of America.
Therefore, to understand why it was predominantly a failure, it is essential to recognize the conditions that caused it. Poverty in the South was a considerable element in the failure of Reconstruction. The South’s central economic wealth came from plantation owners, and when that is taken away, the economy is impacted tremendously. Freedmen looking for job opportunities found little to none, or went into sharecropping causing them to spiral into a vicious cycle of poverty with little to no hope of getting out. On top of this, taxes were raised in order to help reconstruct the south, causing many people to barely get by or become homeless.
The Civil War ended slavery and three Constitutional Amendments altered African American rights. The 13th Amendment abolished/discontinued slavery in all territories and states. The 14th Amendment gave equal protection to all males regardless of race and prohibited states from depriving them of this right. The 15th Amendment allowed for African Americans males to vote. With these amendments being ratified, it became a requirement for southern states to be readmitted into the Union.
There are different perspectives on the history of Reconstruction; some people believe that rebuilding the South during the period of 1865 to 1877 was a very important stage in the United States history because it was the start of American Society as a home of freedom. However, others view Reconstruction as a negative impact on African Americans. Ronald E. Butchart sees Reconstruction as the main reason for educational discrimination against African Americans. Reconstruction in the South helped African Americans in good ways, such as giving them the freedom they deserved. Like anything else, Reconstruction in the South had purposes, achievements, and failures.
The reconstruction era was a wonderful and horrible time for African Americans. Because the former slaves were free in all states, most were uneducated, jobless, and had no opportunity in the south. With the president to distracted with fraud rings, and the North getting tiered of the south political problems, its no wonder the reconstruction era came to an
The Reconstruction, in my opinion, was a failure for it did not freed every man of color even though the Thirteen amendment formally abolished slavery; in the antebellum years and with the assassination of President Lincoln, the road to Reconstruction took a different road. Moreover, the Southern states were required to take a bow of loyalty to the Nation and abolish slavery before being readmitted to the Union. However, in the mid-west states black codes were stablished to regulate the migration of free African-Americans, while the black codes established in Southern States were an attempt to suppress the freedmen and force them into labor for low to no wages. Also, African- Americans were restricted on property ownership, business management
Reconstruction was a failure because it caused violence towards white republicans and former slaves. The divide between north and south shifted from the battlefield to politics, and Jim Crow Laws kept African Americans enslaved with the only added bonus being US citizenship and the right for men to vote regardless of race. Reconstruction was meant to help people of all races unite as a country, as well as bring the north and south together after the Civil War. However, the tension between the races only became stronger and brought violence as well as death to former slaves. The KKK killed, harmed, and threatened African Americans all over the United States.
The slaves were technically no longer slaves, but their minimal opportunity held them back from becoming successful and functional members of US society. Sharecropping prevented them from ever actually moving up in economically and socially. As for the big picture, the Reconstruction was a solid attempt in healing the divisiveness, yet it never brought America the justice it deserved, and
Reconstruction was intended to unify the states once more and allowing for the United States to stabilize its economy in a post war era. The Union may have felt minimal impact under its industrial institution, but the south was in shambles and its agricultural institution that was its pre-war economy was not nonexistent under Reconstruction. In the south the lives of planters, non-slave holding whites, and even former slaves was directly affected by reconstruction. The farmers no longer had guaranteed labor to work their fields, which meant a decline in agriculture production and the export of raw materials. Freed slaves who remained in the south did not have a means to support their family due to the lack of support and work for freed slaves and if any support was coming it was slowed down by the divide of the Union on Reconstruction.
Reconstruction caused prejudice and inequality. To elaborate, the creation of the Ku Klux Klan and the Black Codes were both in the time period of reconstruction, which caused chaos and violence throughout the Union. One of the goals of reconstruction was to repair the economy in the South, because it depended on slavery, which was now illegal, due to the thirteenth amendment. The South’s economic system now depended on Sharecropping, which caused former slaves to be in constant debt and was unjust to the black society. The reconstruction time period, was a time of dispute between the Union.
The reconstruction period was a failure because African Americans, mainly males, were not treated with equality although the constitution said that the they were free and had the right to vote, be educated and had the right to liberty, life and the pursuit to happiness. Organizations, like the KKK, were created to harm freed slaves and their families. Laws were created such as the Black Codes restricting former slaves from their rights. African Americans endured a lot of violence over the years. “In Grayson, Texas, a white man and two friends murdered three former slaves because the wanted to ‘ thin the niggers out and drive them to their hole’”.