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Is Reconstruction A Success Or Failure Essay

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Within the history of the United States, the term “Reconstruction Era” has two different meanings: the first meaning is the entire coverage of the history of the Reconstruction era from 1865 to 1877; the second meaning focuses on the the transformation of the Southern states that goes from 1863 to 1877. In between 1863 and 1865, President Abraham Lincoln and Vice President Andrew Johnson took fairly moderate positions that were mainly designed to bring the Southern states back to normal as quickly as possible. For the Radical Republicans, they used Congress to block the President and Vice Presidents moderate stance, impose harsher punishments and provide better rights for the freedmen. Johnson’s interpretations of the policies Lincoln created …show more content…

I do disagree with this quote because of the main argument the author of this quote is trying to get across, which is that African Americans are incapable of doing anything that a Anglo-American can do, just because he or she is black. In Eric Foner’s book A Short History of Reconstruction, he discusses throughout his book how African Americans are more than capable in being politically active. For example, Foner mentions that “The meteoric rise of the Union League reflected and channeled this political mobilization...By the end of 1867, it seemed, virtually every black voter in the South had enrolled in the Union League or some equivalent local political organization” (Foner, pg. 125). Although all, if not the majority of African Americans wanted to continue being politically active, the Reconstruction era did not prove itself …show more content…

In Eric Foner’s book A Short History of Reconstruction, the author goes on to describe that “...all the loyal slave states, slaveholders had dominated antebellum politics...its political leaders dominated the state, thanks to an archaic system of legislative appointment” (Foner, pgs. 17-18) Their own declaration of the Civil rights act of 1875 as deemed unconstitutional and then removed added tools that were made in an effort to guard the rights of

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How far was the Reconstruction 1865-1877 a failure? The American Reconstruction was a failure right from the beginning, when Andrew Johnson was elected states were given a choice as to who they let vote. This was a terrible idea as no southern states granted blacks the vote. This unravelled all the work President Lincoln had done previously by outlawing slavery to help start to give blacks equal rights. The new legislatures passed ‘black codes’ from 1865-66, which basically made slavery legal again but didn’t call it slavery.

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Although reconstruction brought essential changes for African American slaves it ultimately failed its purpose of unifying the nation. However, in order to comprehend why reconstruction failed it is important to understand the two phases it underwent. In addition, it is also crucial to look at the different plans that were propose in order to reunify the nation and if they were successful or not. First, phase one the presidential reconstruction was very complex due to the fact that it was carried out by two very divergent presidents and lacked unification. On one hand we had Abraham Lincoln 's plan which consisted of reconstructing and unifying the nation again.

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After the Civil War the era of the Reconstruction began with the 13th Amendment which President Abraham Lincoln's announced as the Emancipation Proclamation in 1883. The 13th Amendment was a huge deal because it eliminated slavery and obligatory servitude. After Lincoln's assassination in April 1865 his successor Andrew Johnson became the 17th president. He also was the first president to be impeached, but he was not removed from office he only served one term from 1808-1875. Despite the initiation of the reconstruction president Andrew Johnson was not a supporter of the Republican Party which most of them come from the northern states.

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Many historians claimed that Reconstruction was a failure. Despite the efforts of American Americans many Radical Republicans, Reconstruction ended without any real progress in the battle against racial discrimination. Federal and state governments failed to secure the rights guaranteed to former slaves by constitutional amendments. Although radical republicans wanted to help the former slaves, they made several serious mistakes. First, they assumed that extending certain civil rights to freed persons would enable them to protect themselves through participation in government, especially in lawmaking.

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1500 Words | 6 Pages

Another major scholar concerning slavery and the Civil War, Foner, in his book, argues that Reconstruction constituted a major period in American history, a time period that was the “beginning of an extended historical process: the adjustment of American society to the end of slavery.” This adjustment varied on a number of levels, most notably seen in the south, but Foner argues that it was the northern ideals found in the United States government, specifically Radical Republicans, that deserve the blame for the failure in Reconstruction. One of the strongest ideologies that Foner recognizes as present among congressmen was the free labor ideology, and Foner argues that free labor ideology after the Civil War failed on account of political action to empower African Americans was largely ignored. Foner argues that it was this failure and “erosion” of free labor ideology that had previously united Republicans “to remake Southern society in accordance with the principles of free labor and legal and political equality… made possible a resurgence of overt racism that undermined support for Reconstruction.” It was this empowerment taken on by the federal government that led to the growth and expansion of radical movements in the south who took more autonomy and favored less government involvement.

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After the Civil War The Reconstruction had been a failure in bringing the south back into the Union in the way it had used to be before the Civil War. However, the Reconstruction had also successfully been able to restore the unified nation and its acknowledgment to the thirteenth amendment, Fourteenth amendment, and the Fifteenth amendment. Therefore, the Reconstruction's failure wasn’t a very fair assessment, but it had been successful in restoring the United States and the bringing of freedom to the African American slaves.

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What were the goals of Reconstruction? Why weren 't all of these goals achieved? Was Reconstruction a failure? Support your answers with details and examples. Reconstruction - the federal government plan to solve the issues formed from the end of the Civil War – can be divided into 2 parts: physically rebuilding the South and reconstructing the Southern Society.

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The post civil war era was an extremely complicated time for the United States: the Radical Republicans, Democrats, and newly freed blacks were all influential groups at the time, and the Southern states were attempting to recover both socially and governmentally after their defeat in the civil war. Due to the complex nature of the period, historians have long debated what Reconstruction truly incorporated. In the Article ‘New View of Reconstruction,’ the author Eric Foner evaluates historians ever-changing view on the topic of Reconstruction; criticizing the traditional interpretation and questioning its scholarly legitimacy. Foner instead asserts that Reconstruction was a failure: not due to black political dominance thrust upon the southern

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Reconstruction a Failure or Success? Throughout the years, America has gone through many different political changes. Many presidents selected with different plans for our future. Sadly, many of those objectives have failed or came to an end.

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The Reconstruction Era occurred in 1865, it was was a period after the Civil War in which America was focused on rebuilding the broken South. In 1867, the Radical reconstruction gave former slaves a voice in government. During this era, formers slaves gained a platform in the government, with some blacks as Congressmen. However, not everyone supported the idea of Reconstruction. Less than a decade after the Reconstruction period, a small group composed of democratic ex-confederate veterans, white farmers and white southerners sympathetic to white supremacy joined forces together to form the Ku Klux Klan.

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They found each others company comforting a new way rather than the idea of fear bring them together. African Americans also, “enthusiastically participated in politics”. Black happily voted and became equal, by law, to whites because their voices were heard when it came to the

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Racism’s Impact on Reconstruction While the issue of slavery evidently contributed to the divide that resulted in the American Civil War, it is debated whether prevailing ideals of racism caused the failure of the era following the war known as Reconstruction. With the abolishment of slavery, many of the southern states had to reassemble the social, economic, and political systems instilled in their societies. The Reconstruction Era was originally led by a radical republican government that pushed to raise taxes, establish coalition governments, and deprive former confederates of superiority they might have once held. However, during this time common views were obtained that the South could recover independently and that African Americans

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The American civil war led to the reunion of the South and the North. But, its consequences led the Republicans to take the lead of reconstructing what the war had destroyed especially in the South because it contained larger numbers of newly freed slaves. Just after the civil war, America entered into what was called as the reconstruction era. Reconstruction refers to when “the federal government established the terms on which rebellious Southern states would be integrated back into the Union” (Watts 246). As a further matter, it also meant “the process of helping the 4 million freed slaves after the civil war [to] make the transition to freedom” (DeFord and Schwarz 96).

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The Reconstruction failed to bring social and economic equality to former slaves for many reasons. The primary reason was because people said they wanted the blacks to have equality, but the laws enacted to give them equality were poorly enforced. White southerners heavily oppressed the black population and caused the failure of the Reconstruction. During the Reconstruction many white southerners were very angry about their slaves being freed.

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Reconstruction is the time period after the Civil War, where the country attempted to improve the Union. There were many successes, but what also comes along with success is failure. During the reconstruction many failures were present; such as the lack of racial equality and blatant racism towards blacks, a failing economy in the South, and tense relations between the North and the South. This created a very intense and challenging period of time for the Union.

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