Reconstruction: The Second American Revolution

Reconstruction is during which the United States began to rebuild the Southern society after they lost to the civil war. It lasted from 1865 to 1877, and it was initiated by President Lincoln until his assassination in 1865. President Johnson continued Lincoln’s agenda to continue the Reconstruction. Throughout the process of Reconstruction, one of its main purpose was to guarantees for equal rights for all people, especially for the African Americans. Even though slavery was abolished after the civil war, many Southerners were still against the idea of equal rights for all black people, such as the Republicans.

Introduction: With the Emancipation Proclamation being declared in 1863 by Lincoln and the 13th Amendment being enacted later in 1865 all the slaves were emancipated. Due to the large number of freed slaves many of whom were non educated the equality that became immediately present had to be solved. Unlike other social gaps present in America at the time blacks were not only subjected to the ongoing philosophy of white supremacy but were also the targets of state laws which prohibited blacks from rights guaranteed by the constitution.

Reconstruction brought healing to the nation and the newly freed slaves through Congressional Reconstruction; however, it also brought destruction to them as well through Presidential Reconstruction. Reconstruction dealt with the issues of slavery and a divided Union. After the North’s victory of the Civil War, the United States issued a “reconstruction” to help amalgamate the country back to one nation, like it was before. While reconstruction was all encompassing and had many sections to it; the ex- slaves were the most influenced and impacted by it.

During the Colonial times in America, people from all over Europe migrated to the new American Continent. They came for many reasons such as religious freedom, escape a destitute life, laws or taxes, and most to escape King George III of Britain. Yet the miles of ocean separating them from Britain did not save them from the oppression of Britain’s King or his tax demands. This caused a major unrest among the colonies and eventually led to the Revolutionary War.

When the Civil War was finishing, the South was at a place where everything was a social disorder, and a horrible economic place. The Union had a war destroyed the southern crops, plantations, the cities, and many slaves were going to the Union while their chiefs to be in the Union army. The inflation became so horrible that when the war was finishing, just by buying a piece of bread cost so much money for the South. Thousands of Southern people suffered so much because they would either starve to death, lose their clothes, homes, lands, and even slaves. That is why, by 1865, Washington had a really difficult task of the Southern Reconstruction.

Sources Analysis Freedom During the Reconstruction era, the idea of freedom could have many different meanings. Everyday factors that we don't often think about today such as the color of our skin, where we were born, and whether or not we own land determined what limitations were placed on the ability to live our life to the fullest. To dig deeper into what freedom meant for different individuals during this time period, I analyzed three primary sources written by those who experienced this first hand. These included “Excerpts from The Black Codes of Mississippi” (1865), “Jourdan Anderson to his old master” (1865), and “Testimony on the Ku Klux Klan in Congressional Hearing” (1872).

Rebuilding the south won’t be easy when it comes to reconstruction after the Civil War I will do the following things. The three things are as follows: my first reconstruction assignment as Northern General is to rebuild hospitals for the sick and needy that was bombed during the war. This is important because hospitals are needed. The second thing is to fix on the churches that were damaged and the ones that were used as headquarters during the war for opposing sides. This is important because everyone need God on their especially during this trying time.

The years after the Civil War, the extent of the freedom of former slaves and their descendants were extremely limited. The Reconstruction era came after the Civil War, and it had admirable goals of change through out the country. The triumphs during this era were: more women entered the work force, blacks got into politics, and blacks were able to vote. Unfortunately, the admirable goals and triumphs of the Reconstruction era failed. It failed because the era restricted the lives of blacks by inflicting black codes and convicting leasing.

The Reconstruction did not happen all at one time. It went through phases, starting out in 1863 with President Lincoln’s Ten-Percent Plan,which kicked off the Presidential Reconstruction phase (Schultz, 2013). This plan stated that if just ten percent of a state’s population would take an oath to support the newly freed slaves, that state would be allowed back into the Union with no repercussions. The Presidential Reconstruction continues until 1867 and included events such as the appointment of Andrew Johnson as president, after the assassination of President Lincoln.

Reconstruction has passed away now. It has been destroyed, killed and the process has stopped. This was thought to be a great, long lasting process but it was stopped because of one region. The process of reconstruction truly began with the 13th Amendment. This freed all slaves in all parts of America.

24 November 2015 The Real Death of Reconstruction There is no easy way to decide who can be held accountable for the end of the Reconstruction Era. Attempts to rebuild the South ceased to exist in 1877, just over ten years after the Confederacy surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant in Appomattox Court House, Virginia. It seemed as though everything was on the right track in 1876, the one hundred year anniversary of The United States. That was, however, until the South waged conflict against black and white citizens of The United States.

The American civil war led to the reunion of the South and the North. But, its consequences led the Republicans to take the lead of reconstructing what the war had destroyed especially in the South because it contained larger numbers of newly freed slaves. Just after the civil war, America entered into what was called as the reconstruction era. Reconstruction refers to when “the federal government established the terms on which rebellious Southern states would be integrated back into the Union” (Watts 246). As a further matter, it also meant “the process of helping the 4 million freed slaves after the civil war [to] make the transition to freedom” (DeFord and Schwarz 96).

Reconstruction is the time period after the Civil War, where the country attempted to improve the Union. There were many successes, but what also comes along with success is failure. During the reconstruction many failures were present; such as the lack of racial equality and blatant racism towards blacks, a failing economy in the South, and tense relations between the North and the South. This created a very intense and challenging period of time for the Union.

The Reconstruction period lasted from 1865 to 1877. The thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendment were created during the twelve years of rebuilding the country. All of the amendments were made to protect former slaves and their rights but on paper they did not have any rights. The reconstruction period had its successes and failures.

The Reconstruction (1865-1877) was a period during which the life of the defeated South was to be returned to normal; it was also a time when the Black Americans attained some rights thanks to Lincoln and the Republican part of the Congress and despite Johnson’s intentions. An extremely violent time, it is sometimes called “the darkest period of American history”; still, it brought many important progressive changes to the US. Abraham Lincoln is known for proclaiming the black slaves Emancipation in 1863; he was convinced that it was necessary for the North to win the war. Lincoln believed that the Confederate states needed to be reintegrated back into the US while preserving the abolition of slavery; however, the 16th President wasn’t planning