1. American’s have a strange view of the past. Unlike many countries, the United States has, comparably, a short past. Moreover, what history there is can be hard to connect to. One of the few events that seem to capture the hearts and minds of (some) americans, is the civil war. However, like all wars, it is more important what comes after. This is referred to as the Reconstruction Era, and is one of the more interesting periods in american history. The Reconstruction was an attempt to put the broken south back together again, with many differing ideas on how this might be accomplished. The Radical Republicans attempted to forge a new vision for america, a vision in which the world would be a little better. They wanted African-Americans to have the right to vote, the right to an equal pay, and the right to better themselves and their position in the world. The latter two of these were referred to as free labor. Diametrically opposed to the Radical Republicans were the White supremacists, namely Democrats. They seeked to rechain the …show more content…
The reconstruction was a time of great change and this is reflected by the changes in our constitution. The first was the Thirteenth Amendment, ratified on December 6, 1865. This, the one that caused the others to be necessary, abolished slavery, except as a sentence imposed by court order. While this did free the African-Americans from slavery, per se, it created a bustling market for involuntary servitude. It gave the southern legal system an incentive to convict, it’s enforcement an incentive to arrest and it’s judiciary and incentive to illegalize the African-American people. The private businesses that they were sold to were often worse than their former masters. These people had no incentive to keep them healthy or safe, as they wouldn’t own them forever. Indeed, many died horrible deaths of beating and starvation. In retrospect, it only ended slavery to make room for the south to make slavery worse than it already