...Radical Reconstruction in the South was a failure on many levels. Not only did it lead to an absence of capital in the South, but it also never achieved its primary goal of protecting the rights of the newly freedmen. Also, reconstruction never was able to fully enforce laws in the South. This being said, however, Radical Reconstruction did have some positive achievements. Most importantly, it led to the ratification of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments, which was a step in the right direction in regard to freedom for the blacks. Additionally, Radical Reconstruction led to political offices being elected and not appointed, and finally, it lead to the connecting of the South back into the Union through railroads. The Civil war was fought heavily on the idea of eradicating slavery. Thus, Radical Reconstruction was designed to ensure that slavery was to be stopped in the South. It never achieved that goal because of a lack of capital. With no capital, plantation owners couldn’t pay the black men and women that worked on their farms. They...
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...However, Reconstruction also failed in other areas, for instance Radical Reconstruction. This legislation was set up to protect former slaves from being persecuted by whites, and failed to produce rudimentary changes to the social fabric of the south. In 1877 president Rutherford B. Hayes removed troops from the south. Which resulted in former confederate officials and slave owners immediately regaining power. The newly empowered white politicians passed black codes with the help of a conservative Supreme Court. These anti-progressive legislations were to reverse the rights that blacks had gained during reconstruction. Sharecropping one of the many unfair civil rights against blacks after reconstruction , lead to them fighting for their...
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...great leaders have come and gone, all of them bring different objectives and plan for our future. As we move on, though, so does all of their “Radical Movements”. One such movement was reconstruction. Reconstruction was a period in our nations time some of us would like to forget. Can it really be said, though, that reconstruction was a complete failure? That all it did was make times hard for freed slaves in the U.S. I for one think that Reconstruction was both a success and a failure. When reconstruction first began in 1865, the people of America had just gotten over the brutal and destructive Civil War. In actually, reconstruction...
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... History 125 Being a radical republican makes it a necessity that we remain in control with complete power over both the north and the south. In order to achieve this we must implement a reconstruction of the United States. Restoring the south to the way it was prior to the war is an important issue that we must address and it should take president over the other issues that will arise on the path to reconstruction. In order to rebuild the South to its pre war stature we will need to establish new states, establish new governments, and rejuvenate the economy of the south. The affect of the civil war on the south has been total devastation that includes economic devastation, land devastation and personal devastation. There has been a complete shutdown of all transportation of goods which means that the goods and materials can not be moved from one place to another. For example, the steel that was created in Alabama can not get to Georgia where it is needed to build factories. The main points of my reconstruction plan are that we need to punish the South for their acts of treason in not supporting the Union and we need to ensure that we protect the rights of the freed slaves. If we do not impose stricter polices the South will revert back to the same social and political way of thinking that started this war in the first place (Allard, 2006). What are the consequences of the reconstruction plan that I am proposing? One consequence is stricter...
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...Assuming the role of a Radical Republican Senator including arguing the Radical Republicans position of Reconstruction requires examining the highlights of Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction views for the Union, which include developing an oath under which Caucasian southerners would have to accept upon regaining personal civil including political rights furthermore all property excluding slaves would be given back to the owners. Confederate hierarchies including individuals whose property was worth a specific amount of money were discounted from taking the oath in which these individuals had to apply for an independent pardon. Under Johnson’s plan states had draft new congress including the election of state officials including congress for recognition of new state government and martial law retracted from the state. Ex-confederates influenced Andrew Johnson by methods of threatening his life, which made Johnson conform to ex-confederate influences by writing pardon after pardon while in the public spotlight Andrew Johnson’s proclaim to Reconstruction was complete. Deriving from Johnson’s absurd claim were few followers representing Moderate Republicans who conformed to Johnson while possessing some views similar to Radical Republicans who openly opposed Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction methods. Radical Republicans idea of Reconstruction centralized on making a mirror copy of the North out of the South while Moderate Republicans hold no regard for social revolution or equality...
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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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...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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...Reconstruction And The New South Sandra Michelli HIS 125 June 23, 2013 Paul Sunderman Reconstruction and The New South 1. Columbian historian Eric Foner (1983) quotes W. E. B. DuBois in calling Reconstruction a “splendid failure (p. 16).” After studying the events of the late 19th century, defend whether or not you agree with his position. What are the long-term implication? “A Splendid Failure”, a statement made by the African American Historian. W.E.B. Du Bois has been used to describe what some see as the best way to describe the results of the Reconstruction Era. So the question one has to ask is if this remark is actually true. Was Reconstruction a 100% failure or where there some success that came out of this time period in American History? I would say that it was neither, that in fact there were some success and there were some failures. The best way to describe my point is to use what the Military calls and After Action Report and see what these success and failures were. In looking at success of the Radical Reconstruction period the first one that stands out is in fact some say the reason the United States split and ended up in the bloody Civil War. That being the fact that Slavery was abolished. It was now once and for all illegal for a person to own another person as property. Schools for blacks were being created that had not existed before. Schools such as Salem University which was founded in Mississippi in 1872 would not have existed had access...
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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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...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 amongst the population were almost four million former slaves, who had no idea how to make a living on their own. They 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 had to be done. So, as usually happens, political leaders appeared on the stage, each holding their own plan of Reconstruction, each certain their ideas were the correct ones. One of the first people who came up with a blueprint for Reconstruction was the president at the time, Abraham Lincoln. The “Lincoln Plan”...
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...(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 between the Northerners and Southerners. Thereafter, the period of Reconstruction was booming, as the Republicans were given a tough job of readmitting the forfeited South. The Republicans in the Congress were determined to grant civil liberties to the blacks, and were least interested in any sort of compromise with the South. Although the aftermath of Civil war had monopolized the...
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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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...“fought” Congress, critics, and many others. President Andrew Johnson faced numerous problems post-Civil War Era including reconstructing the Southern states to combine peacefully with the Union, his battles with Congress, and his career ending impeachment. Following Lincoln’s tragic assassination, President Andrew Johnson took on the accountability of making Reconstruction a reality. Andrew Johnson wanted to use Lincoln’s ideas of reconstruction but in a modified form. Since Congress would be in recess for eight more months Johnson decided to go ahead with his plan. Johnson was initially left to devise a Reconstruction policy without legislative intervention, as Congress was not due to meet again until December 1865. Radical Republicans told the President that the Southern states were economically in a state of chaos and urged him to use his leverage to insist on rights for freedmen as a condition of restoration to the Union. But Johnson, with the support of other officials including Seward, insisted that the franchise was a state, not a federal matter. The Cabinet was divided on the issue. Johnson's first Reconstruction actions were...
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...nation over issues including states rights and federal authority, westward expansion and slavery, the nation evolved into a Civil War. The election of Republican Abraham Lincoln as president in 1860 had caused southern states to secede from the Union to form the Confederate States of America. The south felt out-numbered from partisan radical politics. The war between the South and North was a four-year awful and destructive war. After the war had ended in 1865, there were 750,000 soldiers dead from both sides. Slavery was abolished by the thirteenth amendment, the union had won, but the nation was still divided economically, politically and socially. The people, land and property of the South were devastated. Besides the challenge of readmitting the southern states into the union, there were plans made to reconstruct the defeated south. Reconstruction hinged on resolving the political, economic and social issues. The terms that the South had agreed to in order or rejoin the Union had an important impact on both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. The Republican Party took advantage of the south’s absence from Congress. The Radical Republicans from the north divided the Democratic Party after the victories in the elections of 1860 and 1864. Latter on the south was removed from the Electoral College. Both the Republicans and democratic leaders were fearful that readmitting the South would reunite the Democratic south and weaken the newly established stronger Republican...
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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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