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The Reconstruction Era Essay

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The Reconstruction era was a period after the Civil War put in place by Abraham Lincoln. This plan was his attempt to bring the nation together as quickly as possible, by requiring the States new constitution prohibit slavery. On January 1865 congress proposed an amendment to the constitution, which would abolish slavery in the United States. On December 18, 1865 congress changed the Thirteenth Amendment completely abolishing slavery. Such a radically change brought an unbalance to the way of life for many people. Southern whites did not fully embrace citizenship for newly freed blacks, which made for very hostile situations. After the assignation of president Lincoln, president Andrew Johnson announced his agenda for the Reconstruction …show more content…

slaves wherever they were, this new change brought great difficulty to the Southern black population. The Purpose of the Reconstruction Era was to create a society where blacks and whites could co-exist with slavery. Blacks did not know how to be free and whites did not know how to have freed slaves around them. The south saw the Reconstruction Plan as a humiliating, even vengeful imposition and did not welcome it. After the war, many teachers from the south and north worked to educate the newly emancipated population. Grandfathers and grandchildren sat together in classrooms seeking to obtain the tools of freedom. With the protection of The Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1866 African Americans enjoyed many freedoms. They could vote, actively participate in the political process, acquire the land of former owners, seek their own employment, and use public accommodations. Eventually the opponents of all these freedoms would rally together and find ways to erode this progress. Such hate gave birth to the Ku Klux Klan a hate group whose goal was to destroy Reconstruction by murdering blacks, and any whites in the Republican politics or helped educate. The Klan burned churches, schools and drove thousands from their homes. The lack of police involvement made Congress passed the Force Bill in 1871, giving the federal government the power to prosecute the Klan. Dedicated officials could convict Klan Members and break up the Klan’s

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