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Reconstruction and the West

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Reconstruction and the West

Anthony Webb

College of Humanities His/120 Version 5

U.S. History 1865 to 1945 Resolution/Sociology 110

February 16, 2013
Elizabeth Jewell

Reconstruction of the South

According to Eric Foner (2008), “even though Reconstruction failed to meet the goals of Radical Republicans, painlessly rebuild the South, and give the freed blacks complete rights, Reconstruction did give African Americans some new chances and a brief taste of a free society ("Was Reconstruction a," 2008). Public schools were instituted; blacks became citizens, and some whites even offered support with the civil rights movement. However, every opportunity that was given to the free blacks was met with much opposition. As a result, more could have been done. The late 19th century was a troubling time, and although freed slaves were negatively impacted, Whites, and Indians were also affected by the economical hardships. Several events occurred which gave me cause to agree with Eric Foner’s description of the Reconstruction as a “splendid failure”. Blacks did not receive all their rights until 100 years after the war. Furthermore, Northern-born white men who moved south after the Confederacy defeat were called carpetbaggers by Southerners, and Southern-born white Republicans were given the name scalawag; Blacks held fewer governmental positions and was smaller than their proportion in the population; Indians suffered from the white Americans’ racism, paternalism, and belief that the U.S. had a “manifest destiny” to control all the land between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans (Schultz 2012). However, out of all of the ethnic groups mentioned, former slaves were the only group still considered intellectually inferior to whites and not able to run a government. In 1863, President Lincoln was more interested in putting together his

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...and Efficient Maintenance of Low Cost Rural Roads. London: Department for International Development. German Technical Cooperation, (1991). Financing Road Maintenance in West Africa. Eschborn: German Technical Cooperation. International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, (1991). Intermediate Means of Transport in - Sub-Saharan Africa Its Potential for Improving Rural Travel and Transport. Washington, DC.: The World Bank. Kodero, K. (2005). PRO-POOR TRANSPORT POLICY Meeting the Challenge in Zimbabwe. Transpolicy, 1. Metschies, G. and Rausch, E. (2000). Financing road maintenance in West Africa. 1st ed. Eschborn: GTZ. Okoko, E. (2011). RURAL TRANSPORTATION AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT: THE INSTANCE OF AKWAPIM SOUTH DISTRICT IN GHANA. International Journal of Economic Development Research and Investment, 2(3), pp.10-24. Oruonye, E. (2014). An Assessment of the Impact of Road Construction on Land Use Pattern in Urban Centres in Nigeria, A Case Study of Jalingo LGA, Taraba State Nigeria. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 5(10), p.82. Porter, G. (2012). Reflections on a century of road transport developments in West Africa and their (gendered) impacts on the rural poor. EchoGeo, (20). STRATEGIC REVIEW SSATP. (2001). Annex Report. NETHERLANDS ECONOMIC INSTITUTE. The International Bank for Reconstruction and...

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