...The Reconstruction IB History of the Americas HL November 10, 2014 The Reconstruction from 1865—1877 would prove to be, in many ways, more difficult than the war itself, despite the victory of the Northern States. Furthermore, many questions began to arise regarding post-war reparations. Because there were so many different views of how the Reconstruction was to be accomplished there was tremendous conflict. After four years of war, despite defeat, some of the southerners remained defiant in returning to the Union. In addition, the roles of liberated blacks were also in question. Although there was conflict, the Reconstruction fulfilled its aims to the extent of granting freedom to liberated blacks, restoring the southern states to the Union and reestablishing their political structure, and the establishment of civil rights for liberated blacks. This was executed through the Presidential, Congressional and Military Reconstructions. To begin, the Presidential Reconstruction was the beginning of defining the voice of freedom for liberated blacks after the civil war. Furthermore, the Presidential Reconstruction began the upstart of a political war as principal Reconstruction proposals and plans were beginning to be implemented in order reform the Union. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln introduces his “10 percent” Reconstruction Plan. Although it is eventually replaced by Andrew Johnson’s own Reconstruction proclamation in 1865, it proposed that a state could be readmitted into...
Words: 883 - Pages: 4
...Reconstruction: The Post War Era Lindsay Pone Professor Goldstein History 105 Strayer University 01/30/2013 Reconstruction: The Post Civil War Era Friday April 12, 1861, America embarked into war with its biggest adversary; America! The American Civil War broke out, and what was believed to be a quick battle by the North, turned out to be a long bloody four years and left the country devastated. President Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, successfully lead this country through its greatest constitutional, military and moral crisis. Everything he did was in the best interest in preserving this nation to what it is today. If President Lincoln task of preserving the union would have failed, our nation would be a split nation today. All the events of the Civil War are what truly shaped the face of America today. The President knew that if he wanted to preserve this nation as a whole, not only would he have to win the war, but he would have to have a plan in place to immediately fix the nation to help it move forward from war. During his time in the white house and towards the end of the war, when it was evident the North would prevail, he worked on a reconstruction plan to get the South up and moving. During the war, the northern armies had gone through the South destroying everything that would help the south to prevail in the war. The agricultural belt that was the strength of the was nothing more than ashes as...
Words: 1366 - Pages: 6
...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...
Words: 1268 - Pages: 6
...Tatyana Dotson Part II: Report on the Condition of the South (1865) 5. According to Schurz, the overall goal of Reconstruction is to reconstruct southern society and bring it back into American Society as a whole. He also mentions that it is also about the relationship between the constitution and the general public. 6. Schurz says the transition between the freedman and the south is so difficult to achieve because the south feels that the Union was so harsh and vengeful to them, and now they are changing their way of life so drastically. He touches on this by saying “in the midst of this critical period of transition, the power which originated the revolution is expected to turn over its whole future development to another power which from the beginning was hostile to it and has never yet entered into its spirit”. This just shows how it was already problematic. Added to this, the now freedman have to fend and protect themselves in an already angry and racist environment. Schurz explains this by saying “…leaving the class in whose favor it was made completely without power to protect itself and to take an influential part in that development.” 7. Southern soldiers also faced many problems when they came back home. Schurz states that “They found, many of them, their homesteads destroyed, their farms devastated, their families in distress”. The soldiers came back to an entire new world that was unfamiliar and stressful, which cause the embarrassment....
Words: 1210 - Pages: 5
...Reconstruction Essay By the time that the civil war came to an end the South was in shambles in just about every area imaginable. Many things were destroyed in the South, entire cities, farms and plantations were destroyed and left the South in much need of being rebuilt. The economy of the South was also very bad, inflation became such an issue that very simple items began to cost hundreds of dollars each and as a result many people died of starvation and couldn’t afford essential items. Taking all of this into account, by 1865 Washington had a pretty daunting task of rebuilding the South. Right after major victories in Gettysburg and Vicksburg in 1863 President Lincoln began putting his plan into action to reunify the North and the South. Lincoln was under belief that the South had never legally seceded from the Union so as a first act to get reconstruction under way he announced the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction in 1863. Lincoln created another plan to move reconstruction forward and this was the Ten Percent Plan. The Ten Percent Plan specified that a Southern state could be readmitted to the Union after ten percent of its voters swore an oath of allegiance to the Union. This plan effectively and efficiently ended the war quickly although radical republicans clamored for a higher percentage of people to swear an oath to the Union. It was definitely a plan that enticed the South to surrender quickly. Similar to Lincoln, President Johnson wanted to get Reconstruction...
Words: 931 - Pages: 4
...Reconstruction The time period known as the Reconstruction was a turbulent, unstable, and scary one. The Southerners believed in white supremacy at all costs while the Northerners believed that all men should be free and equal. The problems that arose during this time are many. The ones that caused the most trouble in the deliverance of peace to all involved and the rebuilding of the south were the disagreements about how the reconstruction of the south should be handled between both the Republican and Democrat parties, there was also the belief that white supremacy should be put above all else in the white Southerner’s minds, and last but not lease was the violence that the newly freedmen and women faced as they tried to take advantage of the new rights that they had been given. The ‘New South’ was new in some ways but still the same old south in many ways. The president, Andrew Johnson, was an impediment to how the south was to be rebuilt. He was a Southern gentleman and was devoutly against the black man having any rights since according to him they would “relapse into barbarism” (p.8). They didn’t know how to govern themselves and wouldn’t know where to start. He refused to offer any support to the newly freed African Americans while they tried to avail themselves of their right to vote. It was fear and pride and the white supremacy that kept Andrew Johnson from enforcing the Klan Act that was passed. The ideas of how...
Words: 1052 - Pages: 5
...Reconstruction was the time period after the Civil War, were rebuilding and equality was goal. The rebuilding part was a success while equality in the lives of blacks and whites were not. The failure of reconstruction to bring social and economic equality of opportunity for formers slaves were because of Anti-black violence groups, scandals in the government, and economic turmoil's. The most prominent founded social club for Confederate veterans formed an organization or group called The Ku Klux Klan or KKK, which started in Tennessee. The goal of the KKK was to restore white superiority and to turn the Republicans who had established the Reconstruction governments out of power. Their methods were mainly to keep blacks from using their political power which includes voting rights. The KKK was not the only organization with the same goals in mind. The KK and other secret groups killed thousands of men, women and children; they also burned down schools, churches and property's not only of blacks but whites who tried to help them. Due to scandals plagued in Grant administration attention was took away from circumstances in the South. Grant often choice friends and associates as appointees which frequently turned out to be dishonest. During 1872 long-simmering scandals took place on with a construction company that had ripped off large profits from a government railroad contract. A group angered by all the scandals, the Liberal Republican party set out to drive out Grant for the...
Words: 323 - Pages: 2
...freedmen and white refugees. Union general Oliver O. Howard led the bureau. The bureau's greatest success was teaching blacks to read. Because it was despised by the President and by Southerners, the Freedmen's Bureau expired in 1872. Johnson: The Tailor President When Andrew Johnson was in Congress, he refused to secede with his own state of Tennessee. Johnson was listed as the Vice President on Lincoln's 1864 election ticket to gain support from the War Democrats and other pro-Southern elements. Johnson was a strong supporter of state's rights and of the Constitution. He was a Southerner who did not understand the North and a Democrat who had not been accepted by the Republicans. Presidential Reconstruction In 1863, Lincoln released his "10 percent" Reconstruction plan which dictated that a state could be reintegrated into the Union when 10% of its voters in the presidential election of 1860 had taken an oath of allegiance to the United States and...
Words: 271 - Pages: 2
...As you can easily sense from this debate, the Radical Republicans worked with Congress to develop the much needed and proper form of Reconstruction. They took into account the needs of all the people and what would prove the most beneficial to the country in the long run. The Congress desired to have the planter aristocracy eliminated, to have the lands of the south be properly and justly redistributed, and to boost the southern economy by promoting industrial advancements. President Lincoln’s 10 Percent Plan was clearly too soft and forgiving toward the southerners and therefore the Radical Republicans came up with the Wade-Davis Bill that was clearly the more fair and unbiased proposition for the re-admittance into the Union. I don’t know...
Words: 436 - Pages: 2
...Forensic Facial Reconstructions Samantha McAnally CRMJ430 April 20, 2013 Abstract This paper will focus mainly on the history and the various techniques that forensic facial reconstruction has to offer. It will also go over some problems or an issue that is process has faced over the years. The Daubert Standard will discuss and how facial reconstruction was allowed as evidence thru this standard. I will go over all the periods of time that facial reconstruction was used. Computerized and Clay reconstruction will be discussed and how they have help investigators solved current and cold case crimes. Forensic Facial Reconstruction Forensic facial reconstruction is the method of restoring the appearance of a person (whose identity is frequently not recognized) from their skeletal remnants through a combination of creativity, forensic science, anthropology, osteology, and anatomy. The situation can also display what an individual would look like as an adult if they were abducted or gone missing as adolescents. In this paper, we will discuss the different approaches that can be used in facial reconstruction from computerized techniques to sketch artist techniques. The fortitude of forensic facial reconstruction is to yield an image from a skull that suggests an adequate resemblance of the thriving individual that the situation will assist in the proof of identity of the skeletal remnants while there are not any additional resources accessible. Finding skeletons used...
Words: 2024 - Pages: 9
...Unit I: Essay Exam: Reconstruction & Rise of Industry US History Since 1877 Professor Valdenia Winn February 14, 2013 According to Dictionary.com, radical means: 1. Of or going to the root or origin; fundamental: a radical difference. 2. Thoroughgoing or extreme, especially as regards change from accepted or traditional forms. Historians identified Congressional Reconstruction as “radical” because of how the South tried to elude the Thirteenth Amendment. Because of these extreme circumstances the federal government had to intervene, which at that point made it radical to most historians. The root of the problem was slavery and the problem solver was the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. The Thirteenth Amendment prohibited slavery. The Fourteenth Amendment established national citizenship for persons born or naturalized in the United States. It also prohibited the states from depriving citizens of their civil rights or equal protection under the law as well as reduced state representation in the House of Representatives by the percentage of adult male citizens denied the vote. The Fifteenth Amendment forbade states to deny citizens the right to vote on the grounds of race, color, or “previous condition of servitude”. Another problem solver was the establishment of the Freedmen’s Bureau, which was there to aid former slaves get on their feet and supervise “all relief and educational activities relating to refugees and...
Words: 963 - Pages: 4
...The Reconstruction period began during the Civil War with President Lincoln offering his plan for reunifying the Unites States with his “Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction”. As the Civil War ended, the Confederates surrendering to the Union started the real reconstruction of the South. President Lincoln established the Freedom Bureau to contribute to the reconstruction before he had been assassinated. President Johnson took over the reconstruction and the 13th Amendment was ratified later that year. In the southern states black codes were enacted giving African American hard time against the Whites until granted full citizen through the Civil Right Act. The Ku Klux Klan was founded that same year to help harm and intimated the southern states for their rights. In 1867, Congress vetoed President Johnson violating the Tenure of Office Act and the reconstruction was handed over to Congress. This period was known as the Congressional Reconstruction. The first reconstruction act divided the South in five military districts and ordered Southern states to call for a new constitutional convention. In 1868, President Johnson was impeach by the House but failed by one vote by the Senate to be convicted but stood in office losing majority of his power as president. Through the Congressional Reconstruction, the 14th and 15th Amendment was ratified, most southern states had readmitted into the Union, and a new president, Ulysses S. Grant, was elected. The struggle in the South continues...
Words: 319 - Pages: 2
...Chapter 1: Reconstruction There is controversy in the North and South because of the end of a brutal civil war. The controversy is over diversity of what the government should be and what to make of the African Americans. The disagreement was supposed to be solved by Reconstruction but it ended up being abandoned. Abandoning the Reconstruction defiantly ruled against the blacks. It meant back to the low end of the totem pole. It wasn’t quite slavery but it might as well be. They were stuck share cropping and most didn’t have land or hardly a penny to their name. Hahn tries to describe the political position held by blacks, describe the struggles to expand their rights and the value of their opinion, and expose the space between blacks and whites. Hahn talks about to political parties, Radical Republicans and the Union League. These parties were both for the voting rights of blacks and equality. Hahn mentions a reverend in a paragraph that seems to express their beliefs: “It was arduous and extremely dangerous work, for as organizers trekked out to where the mass of freedpeople resided, they fell vulnerable to swift and deadly retaliation at the hands of white landowners and vigilantes. Having organized the Mount Olive Union League Council in Nottoway County, Virginia, in July of 1867, the Reverend John Givens reported that a “colored speaker was killed three weeks ago” in neighboring Lunenberg County. But Givens determined to “go there and speak where they...
Words: 929 - Pages: 4
...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”...
Words: 1198 - Pages: 5
...Reconstruction and the West Tajah Rubiera HIS 120/U.S History 1865-1945 January 20, 2014 Nick Weeks Reconstruction and the West The South “Some historians argue that Radical Reconstruction was not radical enough” (HIS 120 syllabus). Many would argue saying that the Radical Reconstruction was not radical enough because it did not “redistribute land to freed slaves, it did not provide black people with guaranteed access to education, it did not forbid racial segregation, and it did not call for absolute racial equality for black and white people” (Shultz, 2012). However, the Radical Reconstruction made some great progress and radically forced the south into submission. It also lead to the adoption of the 14th and 15th amendments. The Radical Reconstruction began when Congress overrode President Johnson’s veto over the Civil Rights bill. This would be the start of many overriding vetos made by the men in Congress. The first order of business was to create and introduce what would be known as the Fourteenth Amendment. This amendment “barred Confederate leaders from ever holding public office in the United States, gave Congress the right to reduce the representation of any state that did not give black people the right to vote, and declared that any person born or naturalized in the United States was, by that very act, an American citizen deserving of equal protection of the law” (Shultz, 2012). After congress passed this amendment it went to the states for ratification....
Words: 1063 - Pages: 5
