...The Success and Failures of Reconstruction In the aftermath of the Civil War an arduous task of reconstruction lay ahead for the United States. Subsequently, the North and the South faced the many changes that were instituted. Mainly, it was the friction between the North and the South that prohibited success. Furthermore, Andrew Johnson's presidency evoked havoc on the then vulnerable country. Despite all, the addition of amendments resulted in some progress to the era; yet, states showed oppositions and formed groups and acts to disregard the amendments. In all, the Reconstruction era was deemed partly successful and partial failure; yet it did nullify slavery, granted voting rights to all males and ended segregation. After Abraham Lincoln's...
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...Reconstruction is the period that follows the civil war and is known as the rebuilding of the United States. It was a time full of great pain. Even after the military conflict ended reconstruction was still a war in many different ways. The struggle was waged by radical northerners who wanted to punish the Southerners who greatly wanted to preserve their way of life. Was reconstruction a success or a failure? In many ways, it was both. Reconstruction was a success because it restored the United States. Reconstruction also settled the states’ rights vs. federalism debate that was an issue since the 1970s. (Reconstruction, UShistory.org) In other ways Reconstruction was known as a failure. Radical Republican legislation initially failed to defend former slaves from white discrimination and failed to create changes to the South. The sharecropping system, which was a legal form of slavery that kept African Americans secured to land owned by wealthy white farmers, became common in the South. With minute economic power, African Americans had to fight for their rights by themselves,...
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...The essay below was a very strong essay answering the question about Reconstruction. It was an actual essay (word for word) written by one of the students in class. It received 28.5 points out of 30. This was a great essay; about the only comment I would write was that the thesis in the introduction could have been a little more direct: As a country, America has gone though many political changes throughout her lifetime. Leaders have come and gone, all of them having different objectives and plans for the future. As history takes its course, though, most all of these “revolutionary movements” come to an end. One such movement was Reconstruction. Reconstruction was a time period in America consisting of many leaders, goals and accomplishments. Though, like all things in life, it did come to an end, 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 all respects, Reconstruction was mainly just that. It was a time period of “putting back the pieces”, as people say. 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 back in. Along with these things, now living...
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...Essay 1 The years following the Civil War were laden with political, social, and economic strife, especially in the South. While the events of Reconstruction provided political, social, and economic gains for various groups, Reconstruction can only be described as a minor success due to its many shortcomings and failures. The most notable successes of Reconstruction include reunification of the Union, passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, and establishment of the Freedmen’s Bureau. Reuniting the Union was Lincoln’s and many other Northerners’ main focus after the Civil War, although the last ex-confederate state was not readmitted until 1870. The passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments officially outlawed slavery, granted freedmen equal protection under the law, and gave black males the right to vote. While these helped equalize blacks and whites politically, the Freedmen’s Bureau was established to help provide economic and social assistance to former slaves. The bureau offered necessities like housing and food, but more importantly built schools and provided education and employment opportunities to blacks following the Civil War. With much southern resistance to the new political rights of former slaves, the...
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...THE AMERICAN DREAM THE AMERICAN DREAM Section #1 a. The impact cultures in North America have on the United States is that each region adapted the traditions and/or beliefs of those who settled in that area by maintaining dance, music, and crafts. Many English settlers did not respect the Native American cultures, and were seen as uncivilized and/or savages. Basically there was a clash of cultures, with new ideas pushing away old ways and mayor cultures oppressing others. b. Immigration and migration shape the early United States, for example: The first person to be processed at Ellis Island was Annie Moore who arrived from Ireland on January 1, 1892. As the first immigrant Annie Moore was given a $10 gold piece. She soon was married and gave birth to eleven children. While Annie Moore was the first immigrant, she was definitely not alone. Some famous immigrants who arrived through Ellis Island included Charles Chaplin, Cary Grant, Harry Houdini, Walt Disney, Albert Einstein, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. It is easy to see from this list how immigrants have changed the face of the United States. All of these famous people contributed to the United States, giving a bright future for innovative contributions to the young nation. c. The most important change in the United States ‘ involvement in foreign affairs from 1789 to 1877 was expansion of its territory. Marked by a treaty with France buying Louisiana territory doubling the United States, and other treaties...
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...Civil War Essay Prompts Reconstruction Historian Synopses: • Dunning School (Traditional): Dunning and Moore. It is a Tragic Era. The Southerners were tortured. The two underlying foundations: (1) the South should have been readmitted quickly after its defeat (2) there should have been no discussion of racial equality for the freedmen. He is accused of being racist and pro-southern. The Republicans were divided between leniency (conservatives) and punishment (scalawags and carpetbaggers – radicals). The freedmen are not to be blamed because they were pawns and were used by the Republicans. Once a freedman voted for a Republican, he was not paid back for his loyalty. Corrupt and incompetent Reconstruction governments that were eventually overthrown when Democrats regained control and the Tragic Era could come to an end. Bitterness and hatred between the races resulted. South was converted into a colonial appendage. What the Radicals were trying to do was dominate the South as though it were a colony. Moore emphasizes the punishment of North on South. This is the very negative Traditional school • Revisionist School: Simpkins & Woody. In spite of the Traditional charges of incompetence, the Reconstruction governments achieved a lot. Most wrote new constitutions that introduced long-needed laws about school, administration, civil and judicial rights, etc. They were successful. The Reconstruction governments were not controlled by blacks. In no Southern...
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...Veer Shah AP United States History DBQ Essay #3: “American period between 1860-1880” The historic period prior to the 1860s was the most underlying era in American society as it led to the bloodiest war in the American history, the Civil war. Prior to the Civil war, the American politics were sectionally divided between the Northern Republicans and the Southern Democrats. The political culture was almost saturated as both sections had realized that the numerous compromises would only provoke questions and dissimilarities between them, with the largely interfered question of slavery and suffrage. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 had been implemented as a nationwide direction towards admitting states with reference the 36° 30´ latitude line, either as a free-state (above line) or as a slave state (below the line). Despite of the temporary success of the compromise of 1820, it was repealed by the Stephen A. Douglas in 1854 in his Kansas-Nebraska Act. Likewise, the Compromise of 1850, created by the Great Compromiser, Henry Clay, was an effort to preserve the Union by settling the issue of slavery in the newly acquired territories from the Mexican-American War. Although it assured a temporary peaceful settlement between the sections, it failed to give birth to the Civil war and the rise in sectionalism. Although all these compromises had served their desired intents, politically as well as socially, in turn, they only played a catalyst role in increasing the tensions...
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...on the exam, of which you will need to address FOUR. Each will be worth 10 points, for a total of 40 points for the whole section. A good ID will be more than a sentence. It usually takes at least 4-5 sentences in order to respond to each ID, or about half a page. Be sure that you use relevant information from both the lectures and the textbook. Each ID should have two parts: a basic definition of the term including who, what, where, when, why, etc. AND the significance of the term, or how it relates to a broader historical theme, event, etc. For example, if Sharecropping were a term, you would want to both define it and also explain the consequences of sharecropping, what it meant for ex-slaves, that it was part of the failure of social reconstruction, etc. Wounded Knee The US government wanted to ban Indian Culture such as the Ghost Dance Freedmen’s Bureau Working Class Dawes Act Open Door Haymarket Emilio Aguinaldo Progressivism Espionage Act The Grange William Jennings Bryan The Great Uprising Pullman Pure Food and Drug Act Mark Twain W. E. B. DuBois Eugene Victor Debs Overproduction Populists V. I. Lenin Surplus Capital Upton Sinclair Federal Reserve Act The Lusitania Part II: From the Readings (20 points) You will be given three terms from the material from As They Said It (chapters 1-2) and American Society since 1900 (chapters 1-2, but only through the end of “Buck Versus Bell”), of which two you will need to address...
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...Timeline Part II NOTE: Before starting the Timeline project please refer to the "Example Timeline Matrix" document. Instructions: Complete the matrix by providing the Time Period/Date(s) in column B, and the Description and Significance of the People/Event(s) to American History in column C. See complete instructions in the Syllabus for the Module 3 assignment entitled. “Timeline Part II.” NOTE: The timeline project does not need to be submitted to turnitin. NOTE: Please write your answers in a clear and concise manner. Limit your submission of the Timeline Part II up to 250 words per topic/subtopic. For example, if a topic is divided into 3 subtopics, you may write a maximum of 250 per subtopic listed. Be sure to cite all sources. Major Event/Epoch in American History | Time Period/Date(s) | Description and Significance of the People/Event(s) to American History | 1) The evolution of the institution of slavery from the Colonial Period to the 1860s. | 16th Century – 19th Century | I found this excerpt from Robert Francis Engs from the Macmillan Information Now Encyclopedia: The history of African American slavery in the United States can be divided into two periods: the first coincided with the colonial years, about 1650 to 1790; the second lasted from American independence through the Civil War, 1790 to 1865. Prior to independence, slavery existed in all the American colonies and therefore was not an issue of sectional debate. With the arrival of independence...
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...African American's Journey Essay Below is a free essay on "African American's Journey" from Anti Essays, your source for free research papers, essays, and term paper examples. “African American’s Journey to Freedom” Charity Johnson HIS204: American History since 1865 Instructor: Leslie Ruff February 11, 2013 “African American’s Journey to Freedom” To some African Americans it may seem ironic that The United States of America is known as “the land of the free” considering that majority of their ancestors entered the US as slaves. African Americans were brought to North America via the middle passage which originated during the fifteenth century. They were enslaved for approximately 400 hundred years until the end of the Civil War in 1865. Although African Americans were enslaved in America, they were determine to survive and one day be freed in this great country. During The African American’s journey to freedom several significant events took place which was inclusive of but not limited to: The Civil Rights Movement of 1865-1877, Separate but Equal Legislation (Plessy vs. Ferguson court case) in 1896, The Harlem Renaissance of 1920, Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954, The March on Washington Movement of 1963, and The Black Power Movement of the late 1960s and 1970. I will discuss the significance of these events in relation to the African American journey to freedom and how they have help shape American society today. THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT OF 1865-1877 Frequently when...
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...Bibliographic Essay on African American History Introduction In the essay “On the Evolution of Scholarship in Afro- American History” the eminent historian John Hope Franklin declared “Every generation has the opportunity to write its own history, and indeed it is obliged to do so.”1 The social and political revolutions of 1960s have made fulfilling such a responsibility less daunting than ever. Invaluable references, including Darlene Clark Hine, ed. Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004); Evelyn Brooks Higgingbotham, ed., Harvard Guide to African American History (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001); Arvarh E. Strickland and Robert E. Weems, Jr., eds., The African American Experience: An Historiographical and Bibliographical Guide (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2001); and Randall M. Miller and John David Smith, eds., Dictionary of Afro- American Slavery (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1988), provide informative narratives along with expansive bibliographies. General texts covering major historical events with attention to chronology include John Hope Franklin and Alfred A. Moss, Jr., From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans (Boston: McGraw Hill, 2000), considered a classic; along with Joe William Trotter, Jr., The African American 1  Experience (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001); and, Darlene Clark Hine, William C. Hine, and Stanley Harrold, The...
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...of Equality after 1865 This was a time when America was trying to find herself. These were the years known as the Reconstruction Period from 1865-1877. During this time period, the African-American people became free from slavery but one can only imagine what free really is. While the nation search for ways to establish true meaning of equality, African-American people continued to struggle to find out just what equality means and to have the same rights and freedom as the white people in the nation. Whether as slaves or free people, the political and social status of African Americans has always been to obtain the ability to participate in the nation’s economy. While many historians believe that slavery and politics can be attributed to the Civil War, more than 600,000 Americans died and with the help of the Emancipation Proclamation to start the motion to free the slaves, America became even more a divided country in 1865 than the previous earlier years (Bowles, 2011). Although freedom in the post-Civil War years did not guarantee equality, African Americans continued to struggle from racism, segregation and discrimination for many years, but the birth of equality is beginning to grow and show that all men and women are created equal. The effort to integrate African Americans (ex-slaves) in the American society after the war, known as the Reconstruction Period, was a very difficult task and while the country was divided between the North and South, racism was still very...
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...Faculty and students will be held responsible for understanding and adhering to all policies contained within the following two documents: University policies: You must be logged into the student website to view this document. University policies are subject to change. Be sure to read the policies at the beginning of each class. Policies may be slightly different depending on the modality in which you attend class. If you have recently changed modalities, read the policies governing your current class modality. Course Materials Schultz, K. M. (2012). HIST2, volume 2 (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. All electronic materials are available on the student website. Week One: Reconstruction and the New South Details Objectives 1.1 Evaluate the outcomes of Reconstruction. 1.2 Summarize the economic, political, and social characteristics of the New South. 1.3 Explain the populist response to late 19th-century developments. Read the course description and objectives. Read the instructor’s biography and post your own. Read Ch. 16 of HIST2, Volume 2. Read pp. 318–325 in Ch. 19 of HIST2, Volume 2. Read this week’s Electronic Reserve Readings. Participate in class discussion. Respond to weekly discussion questions. 9/1 9/1 20 10 Due Points Course Preparation Reading Reading Reading Participation Discussion Questions Nongraded Activities and Preparation Freeman or Freedman Nongraded Activities and Preparation Populists: Elections of 1892 and 1896 Nongraded...
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...Discuss the reasons why the EU was awarded the Peace Nobel Prize in 2012. Did the EU deserve the award? In this essay we will be discussing on how the EU has come about since its first came about and the successes and failures it has had since then. Then we will be linking this to what the Nobel peace prize is and try and explain on the reasons the EU has been awarded the Nobel peace prize in 2012, and evaluate to discuss on if the EU deserved the award. The Nobel Prize is a conventional annual international awards given in a number of categories by Swedish and Norwegian committees in achievements and recognition of academic, peace, cultural and/or scientific advances Firstly, we can understand the background of the European union from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community made in 1951 and 1958 from these Six countries of Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. The EU is a group of liberal democratic countries that have come together in order to improve the living conditions of its members. It was created in the outcome of the second world war one of its first agendas was to improve the economy and its trade and to create an economic corporation. The idea of making a country to work together and trade therefore making them interdependent and avoid conflict with each other. This was created in order to avoid the bloody conflict European countries faced e.g. Germany, France and bring a long lasting peace. ...
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...Amendment)3 So with the new amendment came a new tide of change. Right? Not according to most Southern states that refused to collaborate with the new adjustment. The question we can pose is “why did race continue to be a fundamental social problem in the United States after the abolition of slavery in 1865?” Throughout the research paper, the answer will hopefully be uncovered along with some others pertaining to how the slaves and slave owners reacted to this new law. After the Emancipation Proclamation, which was ratified on the 13th of December in 1865, the slaves that were rebelling against the Union and were living in the Southern states were freed. The time that passed after the Emancipation Proclamation is known together as the Reconstruction.4 Even...
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