...The Reconstruction Era The Reconstruction Era was a rebuilding period in American history following the Civil War. After winning the war in 1865, the Union states began the exhausting process of reconstructing the United States, as well as each side's belief system. The two main goals of this era in American history was to ensure basic civil rights to former slaves, as well as reunite the North and the South to form one Union again. However, with each side having it's own agenda, accomplishing those goals proved to be quite a task. During the Reconstruction Era, several factions of American politics formed within the Republican and Democratic parties. The most noted include the Radical Republicans, Southern Conservatives, and the Southern Freedmen. Radical Republicans demanded extreme policies be put in place for Confederate states, and stressed the civil rights and liberties of former slaves. Although their agenda compared well to Lincoln's, the Radicals wanted to make re-entry into the Union a difficult one for the Confederate states. Another faction formed, the Southern Conservatives, believed the south would rise again to its former economic status, and wanted little to no rights for African-Americans. The last faction, the Southern Freedmen, saw the greatest success for ensuring the basic civil rights to former slaves. Made up of former slaves and supported by whites who believed African-Americans should have equal rights and civil liberties, the Freedman's Bureau, initiated...
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...The Reconstruction Era As a country, America has gone though many political changes throughout its lifetime. Leaders have come and gone, and all of them have had their own objectives and plans for the future. As history has taken its course, though, almost all of these “revolutionary movements” have come to an end. One such movement was Reconstruction. Reconstruction was a violent period that defined the defeated South’s status in the Union and the meaning of freedom for ex-slaves. Though, like many things in life, it did come to an end, and the resulting outcome has been labeled both a success and a failure. When Reconstruction began in 1865, a broken America had just finished fighting the Civil War . In many respects, Reconstruction was a time period of attempted healing and building. It was the point where America attempted to become a full running country once more. This, though, was not an easy task. The memory of massive death was still in the front of everyone’s mind, hardening into resentment and sometimes even hatred. The south was virtually non-existent politically or economically, and searching desperately for a way into the political scene. Along with these things, now living amongst the population were almost four million former slaves, who had no idea how to make a living on their own. The former slaves had been freed by the 13th amendment in 1865, and in the future became a great concern to many political leaders. Still, it was no secret that something...
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...The Reconstruction Era was during the time of 1865-1877 lasting 12 years. Previously before the reconstruction era Abraham Lincoln was re-elected President of the United States with Andrew Johnson as his Vice- President. After Lincoln and Johnson were inaugurated the Confederacy later collapsed. During this time the Civil War had just ended, in result approximately 4 million slaves were allowed their freedom.(Source) However, after the Civil War ended no reconstruction plan was put into effect causing Lincoln to come up with proposals to rebuild America. Lincoln did not live to put his proposals to test; John Wilkes Booth assassinated him on April 14, 1865 allowing Andrew Johnson in May to take over his Presidency. Moreover, Johnson started...
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...The reconstruction era was from 1865 to 1877. The reconstruction era was exactly what it sounds like; a time a reconstruction. This was a time where rebuilding the United States was vital for the success of letting the south become a part of the Union again. Temporary governors that were army generals were placed in the South. In the end of 1863 Lincoln formulated a plan to re-establish governments in states liberated from Confederate rule (583). Lincolns plan, at the end of 1863, consisted of Amnesty and Reconstruction. Any confederate state could achieve this if there is a number equal to 10 percent of those who scored allegiance to construction and the union in 1860. Pardons were denied for the following; Confederate government officials,...
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...The Reconstruction era was an era that started after the civil war. During the era 3 more amendment was created to give african american more civil rights. 13 was created to abolish slavery; 14 was to give them voting right and 15 was created to give people who were born here citizenship, but not people agreed with these now law. The Trail of James Byrd was about a white man dragged a black man to his death attached to the car. The white man thought that the laws were going to be as the 18s about slavery and were not going to search him for the death crime that he committed. The man got arrested, the judge found him guilty and the KKK member was sent to death penalty. Beside that some racial issue we experience today is that police officers...
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...The reconstruction era was a time of change, and growth for all parts of the country. Following the civil war, the US was in need of healing, and major social as well as constitutional improvements. In the time period from 1860 to 1877, social and legal developments contributed to sustaining continuity as well as promoting change within the US. These changes and continuities were vital to the continuation of our country and would shape the US for decades to come. State’s rights and the different opinions of the nation on this topic caused most of the tension during this time. The north believed a union of the country, abolition of slavery, and had a more industrial economy. Meanwhile, the south believed in slavery, had an agricultural based...
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...“Unfinished revolution” Reconstruction for the United States has been constantly changing American for future generations. The “Reconstruction Era” lasted from 1865-1877 changing the north, south, and policies that shaped the American culture. With these changes, there is always unfinished business. We see to this day the legacies that uphold from reconstruction. These legacies include southern freedom, the nation money hunger, and the new amendments. We are still fighting for what President Abraham Lincoln once started. This promising revolution provided legacies for the upcoming generations that pushes towards reconstruction still to this day. “I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated states, and parts...
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...years of bloodshed that left over 600,000 Confederate and Union soldiers dead, the Confederacy collapsed and much of the south’s infrastructure had been destroyed. The Civil War had come to an end. Slavery was abolished and the difficult process of restoring national unity and guaranteeing civil rights to the freed slaves began. This period is noted in history as the Reconstruction Era. Working towards a progressive tomorrow, the American Civil War marked the start of a dramatic shift in America’s thinking. At the start of the Reconstruction Era (post Civil War), the South was left torn apart. Roads and houses needed to be rebuilt and the people needed assistance. From 1863 to 1865, presidents Andrew Johnson and Abraham Lincoln took adequate steps designed solely for the purpose of bringing the South back to a level of economic stability. Radical Republicans consisted of American politicians within the Republican Party. They supported the rights of African Americans to vote, hold political office, and have the same economic and legal freedoms and opportunities as the whites. During the whole of the Reconstruction Period two ideas were constantly agitating the minds of the coloured people, or at least, the minds of a large part of the race. One of these was the craze for Greek and Latin learning, and the other was a desire to hold office. (38) booker t This quote comes from Booker T. Washington’s, Up From Slavery. It shows that the ideas that blacks had for themselves...
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...THE GROWING PAINS OF RECONSTRUCTION AND INDUSTRIALIZATION IN THE POST-CIVIL WAR ERA AUGUST 5, 2012 The Civil War marked a critical time in American history which left behind deep wounds of a divided nation which took years of healing. Although we have come a long way, the infected idealology that existed then still manifest itself in the form of overt and covert racism. One major turning point during the period immediately after the war was termed Reconstruction. In 1865, many Confederate soldiers returned to a devastated South whose farms, factories, railroads, bridges, and entire infrastructure had been destroyed. Immediate rebuilding started with the physical rebuilding progressing quickly. Yet, the rebuilding of southern society proved to be a harder task. Rebel states had to be integrated back into the nation and four million newly freed black slaves had to be integrated into southern society (Schultz, 2012). Reconstruction in the South is considered to be the time period from 1865 to 1877 following the war. In 1863, shortly after issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, Abraham Lincoln issued the Ten Percent Plan. This plan allowed southern states the right to establish a new government if one-tenth of its’ prewar voters took an oath of loyalty and supported the emancipation of the slaves. This was needed to abolish slavery and allow the state back into the union with full privileges. Lincoln was attempting to drain the Confederacy and shorten the war...
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...The Civil War was the bloodiest war the Americans had ever experienced up to that period. After the four year long fight to preserve the union over six hundred thousand lives were lost. In an attempt to recover from the damage of the war the Unites States entered The Reconstruction Era. The Reconstruction Era was the period after the Civil War when Northern political leaders created plans for the governance of the South and a procedure for former Southern states to reenter the Union. As the United States recovered, the Reconstruction Era faded away and industrialization took hold in the healing nation. Industrialization brought about the Gilded Age, a time period of rapid economic growth and corrupt politics. People responded differently to...
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...To be free means that you are enjoying your personal rights and enjoying life to the fullest. During the Reconstruction Era people were debating if slaves were free or not. A slave is a person who is legal property to another; slaves have to do what their owner says. Being free and being a slave are two completely different things and during the Reconstruction Era slaves were not free, in my opinion. We live in a cruel world and during the Reconstruction Era it was even worse. “Where was the boss?’ She said, ‘You should say 'master'. You all are not free… and you shall call every white lady 'missus' and every white man 'master.’” (Henry Adams) This quote from document c means that an ordinary Black Man nicely asked where his boss was and...
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...History is an imperative, open-ended subject with a multitude of perspectives to view with every topic and time frame it consists of. One such topic and period of time is the Reconstruction Era and the following decades leading up to the Industrialization of America. As with any other period in history, there are different ways to view this specific span of time. Interpreting this period of one as social unjust and injustice is one option. Conversely, it can be distinguished for significant progress in various aspects and the overall prosperity that came as a result of industrialization. Focusing on one method or the other may better guide in understanding this period. For starters, both of these components were clearly present in this duration...
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...nation’s slaves, yet the legacy of slaves still continued in the South. The so-called Black Codes were passed all around in the South, limiting the freedom of the freed slaves, which meant they weren’t allowed to vote or have other political rights. They were also forced to work at the plantations against their will. The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1866 that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. It ended the Jim Crow laws, the racial segregation in schools and the Black Codes. The Reconstruction Era A new era, called the Reconstruction Era (1865-77), began after the Civil War. Towns, buildings, transportation infrastructure, farms, etc. where reconstructed and they were trying to make the economy better. Because the Republican Rutherford Hayes won the presidential election in 1876 and he tried to satisfy the Southern white Democrats by taking the Federal army out of the Southern states, the Reconstruction Era is considered not successful. When the army withdrew from the Southern states, it meant that there wasn’t anyone to secure, that the Blacks’ right was enforced. Ku Klux Klan...
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...1864 ushered in the end of the Civil War after five long years. And while the Civil War brought many needed changes, such as abolishing slavery and restoring the Union, it also brought along many hardships such as the South being in shambles. This introduced us into the era referred to as the Reconstruction Era, in which the South’s railroads, houses, it’s’ economy, and it’s social and political structures. This reconstruction of the South was assisted by Abraham Lincoln when he issued the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, also known as his Ten-Percent plan, outlined the rules and guidelines, such as re-writing their constitution and at least ten percent of their voters giving a pledge to the U.S, that needed to be followed and met...
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...Chapter 16, The Era of Reconstruction. Chapter 16 covers Reconstruction over Time, Views of Reconstruction, and The Significance of Reconstruction. Congressional Reconstruction responded by stipulating that former Confederate states had to ratify the Fourteenth (1868) and Fifteenth Amendments (1870) to the U.S. Constitution to protect the rights of African Americans. Congress also passed the Military Reconstruction Act, which used federal troops to enforce the voting and civil rights of African Americans. After the war, land ownership reverted to the old white elite, reducing newly freed blacks to sharecropping. White southern Republicans (scalawags) and northern carpetbaggers, worked to rebuild the southern economy. Many white Southerns, during...
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