Spencer Fox Aspen Smith History 8-2 June 2, 2023 Reconstruction: Positives and Negatives Before I begin, it’s best I explain what reconstruction is. Reconstruction, in this context, is the process of rebuilding a country, that country is America after the Civil War. Reconstruction caused many things that may have been either positive or negative, depending on how you view certain topics. For example, if you were an abolitionist, then you’ll think that the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were good, but if you were a plantation owner, then you’d think that they were bad. This essay will be written from the perspective of someone with a modern-day education, with modern-day sources. Firstly, the positives of the reconstruction of the U.S. after the Civil War. The first few positives that I will be talking about are the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery. The 14th gave anyone born in the U.S. rights …show more content…
Some of the negatives that evolved were groups like the kkk who hated anyone who wasn’t a white man. They are, unfortunately, still around today, however, they aren’t as bad as they were then. Another negative was that the African Americans were very poor, due to not being able to make any money, so the South did something called “sharecropping”. Sharecropping is basically legalized slavery, where the person worked for a farm owner, and in return, they got a small plot of land where they had to pay rent, but because they were so poor, they couldn’t pay so they had to give up their crops. A few more things that the South did to loophole through the new amendments were the grandfather clause and the black codes. The grandfather clause simply stated that if your grandfather couldn’t vote, neither can you. This was a problem because, at the time, every African American’s grandfather was a slave, and couldn’t vote. The black codes basically took rights away from African Americans