...and come back together as a country. One question about Reconstruction still lingers today: Did this period of time help African Americans with having the American Dream? According to my research, Reconstruction (mostly) did not help African Americans, but some laws made during this time would benefit them. African Americans were looked down upon when Jim Crow Laws were enacted and during the forming of the Klu Klux Klan. To begin with, Jim Crow Laws were laws that enforced segregation on African Americans and other people of color. Based on the “Separate but Equal” policy from Plessy vs. Ferguson, there were two different facilities, even water fountains, for each race: Colored and White. African Americans could not go into any white facility. There was no change in how they were treated between the Civil War and Reconstruction; they just were not slaves anymore. These laws were made from loopholes in the Constitution and other laws, basically giving African Americans the same rights that they...
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...The idea of reconstruction was to put the nation back together and readmit the states. Reconstruction as a thought had great intentions but was an overall failure. William A. Dunning claimed that the main cause of Reconstruction was “ignorant, illiterate blacks were thrust into positions of power for which they were entirely unfit.” However, there were numerous failures that had nothing to do with how educated blacks were. Contrary to what William A. Dunning thought; Reconstruction failed due to depression, laws were not enforced in order to cause change, and the weaknesses of the individuals who directed Reconstruction. Depression hit Reconstruction in many different forms. The depression of 1873 faced the supreme court with Slaughterhouse...
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...the major ones being the period of reconstruction, Civil Rights Movement, the great depression and the World wars I and II. The aim of this paper is to compare the views of America a Narrative History 9th edition by George Brown Tindall and those of America Compared 2nd edition by Carl J. Guarneri. According to the two authors the history of United States since 1965 somehow differs. According to (Tindall, George Brown, and David, 196), the period of reconstruction, lasting from 1865 to 1876 was a period when the nation tried to restructure itself and incorporate the southern states which became part of the union. The freed men from the South had found themselves with no system to control them in their lives. So they had to look for a way to incorporate them in a still society that was biased against them. The reconstruction dealt with the transformation of southern states. During this period, a little social or political agreement was available on issues such as who was supposed to vote and how the southern states were going to rebuild themselves after the destruction of their centers and losing slave labor. The reconstruction was enabled by presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson who tried to make the south come back to normal. Even though the reconstruction was seen as a significant chapter in History, it is also considered as a failure because became poor (Tindall, George Brown, and David, 200). The reconstruction process was made...
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...she found a way to work through them and accomplish extraordinary achievements. As an African American equal rights activist in 1892, she spoke through her pen to send a strong message of egalitarianism to the world. During the post reconstructions era racial tensions reached their peak as lynching became more prominent. Lynching is a form of brutal capital punishment, usually as result of mob violence without the benefit of due process resulting in a hanging. Ida was a monumentally dominant figure in the anti-lynching campaign, as well as committees for anti-lynching that were formed to raise awareness of lynching not only as a problem in the United States but as a national issue. After the emancipation of the slaves, the whites felt as if they lost control over what was theirs and as a result used extreme force to express their dissatisfaction. In turn, the African Americans’ situation did not improve after the emancipation due to the fact that the whites no longer had a stake in their survival and still had a fierce hatred towards their race. Massive amounts of African Americans were lynched for little to no reason at all. Ida made a valiant effort to better the world through facts, reason, and logic; the power of one unlikely person was able to act as the voice of reason in a nation that was under the influence of racial injustice. In the South, it was unheard of for an African American woman to speak out against racial injustices. Ida was a woman of great bravery, she spoke...
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...The American Civil War, simply know as the Civil War throughout the United States was fought from 1861 to 1865. It was a fight between the north and the south, formally referred to as the Confederacy and the Union. The origin of the war revolved around the pressing issue of slavery, especially the expansion of slavery into the western territories. In 1865, after four 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...
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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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...lives of African Americans had developed drastically. The Civil War, Reconstruction, and Great Migration happened during this time period. The development of civil rights did not come along easily. New laws were created for the improvement of civil rights such as the 13th and 14th Amendment. Unfortunately Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws were also apparent during this time period. This restricted many African Americans from gaining more equality and they had many struggles in their lives because White Americans generally did not accept them as equal and on the same level. These changes were seen through the perspectives of characters in the play, “The Piano Lesson”, written by August Wilson. Although there was...
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...He dedicates each chapter to the origin, development, organization, and work of the Bureau. He attempts at indicating the role it played in the reconstruction and the activities it had on the south in later centuries. The author also considers the letter he serviced from experts on the topic. He acknowledges the power and responsibilities the bureau had and its limitations. We see and understand the relationship of the Bureau and civil authorities. He addresses the role the Bureau played in land, Labor and Justice for the Freedman. The Bureau was given responsibilities of taking care of confiscated property from southern land owners after the war . Along these responsibilities, the Bureau was given funds to open schools and church for the...
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...The Civil War and Reconstruction period, Gilded Age, Imperialism, and World War I all brought challenges, expansion, and transformation to this nation and it’s people. These periods would change the nation, “In the years following the Civil War, formed and their white allies, North and South, would seek to redefine the meaning and boundaries of American freedom” (Give Me Liberty 555). The Civil War split apart the nation due to slavery difference between the North and South. The historical narrative from 1865 through World War I involves the challenges faced by inequality and violence resulting in the transformation of geographical space, cultural landscape, and political institutions. The Civil War exacerbated existing racial discrimination...
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...African American History Since 1865 Alishia Colella HIS 204 American History Since 1865 Instructor Thomas Roka March 11, 2013 African American History Since 1865 Most individuals are probably familiar with the well-documented information regarding African American history, such as the Civil Rights Movement and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., but there are also many little known facts about their history that are of equal importance. African Americans have been present in the United States ever since the early 1600s and their presents plays an important role in American history not only because of the Civil Rights Movement, but because of the strength and courage that they had struggling to try and live a good life in America. History is rife with records of decades of untold torture and harrowing experiences that African American slaves suffered from at the hands of their captors and masters; they were even denied all natural rights as human beings and forced to live like animals. In all actuality, a slave was viewed as one-third of a person and the property of their owner(s), treated as an object instead of a person. Therefore, one could assume that after their emancipation, life would have become significantly better because the slavers were free to move away from the torturous hands of their masters. However, most of them faced incredible opposition and discrimination even after emancipation. Thus by and large, did not truly free them nor did it directly lead...
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...Throughout history there has been different forms of discrimination. Women and African Americans have both faced discrimination. There are different forms of discrimination such as voting and segregation. Federal and state governments have taken action but not all the time. Some actions have protected rights while others have limited rights. Women and African Americans are just two groups of many that have been discriminated. Discrimination to African Americans and Women has changed through history in different ways. Voting rights for African Americans have been denied. Most African Americans came to the U.S. as slaves and for many years were slaves. After the Civil War (during Reconstruction) African Americans could vote but that did...
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...Laird A.P. U.S. History 21 January 2010 Reconstruction: A Post-Civil War Failure Viewed as an era as a whole, Reconstruction takes place between the years 1865-1877 or between the Civil War’s end and the Union army’s withdrawal from the South. Reconstruction’s main goals were to integrate newly freed slaves into society, readmitting Southern states whom had seceded from the Union, and recreating Southern property as to better its conditions. At war’s end, the process of reconstruction sought out to solve the challenge that the disembodied Union now faced: what the status would be of postwar freedmen. While the North continued occupying Southern territories, Reconstruction shared very few successes. However, Reconstruction failed to meet its greater purpose. The process of Reconstruction was incompetent in integrating freedmen into American society because of its unstable and strained economy, its political disadvantages and its desire to redesign Southern social structure completely. Financial matters played a key role in Reconstruction’s failure, leading way to public hostility and corruption. Government industrialization plans helped rebuild the Southern economy however; the plans cost a lot of money to the government who financed such plans using tax revenue. Unable to keep up with the ever-growing investments, tax rates skyrocketed resulting in an antagonistic public opinion on Reconstruction. Conditions during this period were bad enough; the Civil War had greatly...
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...Remember that this guide only gives you a chronology of important events. It is not sufficient for the exam - you must fill in the details from your lecture notes and readings. All the reading is compulsory, do not leave out any portion of the texts or articles. Slavery and the Slave Trade African Slave Trade: Conventional Dates – 1450 – 1867 Early controllers of the Trade: 1494 the Spanish turned to the Portuguese to supply slaves for their colonies. By the 17th C Northern European countries began to dominate the trade. 1621 Dutch West Indies Trading Company 1672 British Royal African Company (by the end of the 17th England dominated the trade.) The Scale of the Trade: Between 1492 and the end of the trade in 1867 Europeans transported a minimum of 10 million people in some 27,000 slaving expeditions – or some 170 slave ships per year. 50% mortality rate (rough estimate) About 95% of the captives were sent to the brutal tropical sugar growing regions of Brazil and the Caribbean. 40% Brazil 5-6% North America Before the trade picked up (1700) 2.2 million Africans had already been shipped to the Americas. The trade climaxed in the 1780s, when 80,000 Africans were shipped a year. 5/4 of all those shipped came in the 18th and 19th centuries. Three major areas in Africa supplied the bulk of the people transported to the US: Upper Guinea (Senegambia to Sierra Leone), Lower Guinea (the Gold Coast to the Bight of Benin), and Kongo-Angola (West...
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...many growing pains during the time period of 1865 to 1900 but I’d like to focus on two major historical points that impacted my family and certain Asian friends. African-Americans were not the only ones to experience prejudice as I brought out above, however, they were the main ones targeted when it comes to slavery. Slavery and prejudice was rampant during this time period. An old family friend Jonathan, a Chinese-American, was a victim of racial prejudice as a child. As he grew up, he searched for a place where people would not prejudge him based on his facial features or racial background. He became a medical doctor in a town in northern Alaska, where his appearance was similar to that of many of his patients. He hoped that perhaps there, amid the cold winds of the Arctic Circle, he had finally escaped the even colder winds of prejudice that he experienced in California. Any such hope was shattered when he provided medical assistance to a young woman. As the patient came out of a coma, she looked at Jonathan’s face and uttered a taunt with an expletive, revealing her deep-seated disdain for Chinese. For Jonathan, the incident was a painful reminder that all his efforts to move and to blend in could not provide him with an escape from prejudice. Jonathan’s experience highlights a grim reality. Prejudice is found in every corner of the world. It appears that wherever there are people, there is prejudice. Despite the prevalence of prejudice during that time...
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...African Americans Journey to attain Equality and Civil Rights African Americans Journey to attain Equality and Civil Rights African-Americans have been fighting to end segregation and discrimination ever since slavery began. The “isolation” on which they endured to attain civil rights and equality was crucial at this point in time. In relationship to their work to end slavery, the technology, politics, military, culture, and society played a huge role. This role was persistent when African Americans were slaves and when they began to break free from being known as property. At times, the ending of isolation had resulted of periods of tension and struggle. African Americans have worked hard to end segregation through the non-violent strategies of sit-ins, boycotting, and their massive resistance to give in to their freedom (Bowles, 2011). The enduring fight and struggles to end racial discrimination plus attain equality and civil rights have, and will continue to be an ongoing battle for existing and future African-Americans. The strategies that African Americans used to end this discrimination have been influential and will be forever known in history as strong individuals because they endured beatings, were thought of as property, and had to fight for any type of rights but they still fought for freedom and against the injustice of slavery. The fight for slavery started many years before the first slaves came to the United States. The history of slavery in the United States...
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