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Positive And Negative Effects Of Reconstruction

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The Reconstruction Era, sparked by the conclusion of the devastating Civil War, was a crucial period in American history that aimed to transition the divided nation to a more unified one. However, reformers and political figures faced significant political, social, and economic changes which they were unable to adapt to. President Lincoln’s role was replaced, after his assassination, by corrupted officers that didn’t prioritize Reconstruction. The United States government was faced with challenging dilemmas in this period that they only overcame with controversial policies. Lastly, white Southerners enforcing racist policies unforeseeably succeeded in preventing African Americans from gaining Civil Rights. Reconstruction, deeply characterized …show more content…

Andrew Johnson proved his leniency in Reconstruction through the passage of the Amnesty Act, which removed punishments and restrictions of ex-Confederate leaders to hold government positions. This only doomed the nation further because it put the nation in danger of the South’s ideas being resurfaced and causing more division. Johnson and Congress clearly didn’t put enough thought into the passage of this act, because if they did, they would have realized the lasting negative effects it had on the nation. The final plan for readmittance was extremely indulgent with very few far reaching effects. It had no punishments towards the rebellious South and could not prove the Union’s point. It didn’t show the general population that their ways were wrong and did not make sure that the new constitutions would be a definite end to discrimination in the South beyond slavery. There was no mental rehabilitation of southerners thoughts, and therefore no effective change. The North had an unpowerful plan for rebuilding the Union, and it caused more problems in the future that could have been prevented, had they taken more initiative and been more unforgiving by taking extra steps to prevent racism and …show more content…

States were readmitted after ratifying the 14th amendment which demonstrated progress to unification, but the nation was still very divided amongst ideals as Southerners were still resistant to Northern control. More action could have been taken by the government to fund the Freedmen’s Bureau, which provided great welfare to many newly free Blacks and poor whites. Reconstruction could have gone for longer, if not for the selfish decision to accept the Compromise of 1877 by Hayes in order to become president. Old confederates could have been permanently prevented from becoming officials, and therefore stopped racist requirements and policies that infringed on African American rights. Many actions could have been taken that the government didn’t take advantage of, meaning that a better outcome could have happened despite these

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The Reconstruction of many Southern states from the year 1865 to 1877 is a failure, although reconstruction plans are set up, African Americans still face the same poor treatment they are given prior to the Civil War. The president at the time, Abraham Lincoln, puts in place a reconstruction plan to help rebuild the South in a way it has never been before, without slaves. Lincoln also puts the thirteenth amendment in place, which abolishes slavery. However, after Lincoln’s death, his Vice President, Andrew Johnson takes over and overrules his reconstruction plan, and puts in place his own, which favors the former Confederate states. Johnson fights with congress over the passing of the fourteenth amendemnet, but Congress overrules his vetoes,

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The book “Redemption; The Last Battle of The Civil War,” written by Nicholas Lemann focuses on one major politician during the reconstruction time period. Lemann illustrates the life of people in the south and the trials that the “Negros” faced. The conclusion of the civil war was supposed to be the end of racism and slavery, but white southerners continued to find ways to get around the new laws that were put into place. They created and passed “black codes” which, as the author says, “…legislated the freed slaves into a condition as close to their former one as it was possible to get without actually reinstituting slavery. ”(34)

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They had the idea of “forty acres and a mule”, which gave new freed slave families forty acres of land and a mule so they had property under their name, but their biggest success was education, creating public school systems for all children. The Freedmen’s Bureau’s lasting impact on Reconstruction was the educational rights to blacks. Presidential Reconstruction: The Lincoln plan and Johnson plan dealt with how to readmit Confederate states that seceded from the Union. Lincoln’s plan called for ten percent of a southern states population to vote loyalty to the Union to be readmitted. Johnson adopted some of the same ideas as Lincoln, but when he was president, Radical Republicans in Congress wanted to pass the Wade-Davis Bill, saying fifty percent of a southern states population had to vote loyalty to the Union before being readmitted.

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Without congress controlling reconstruction President Johnson would have been able to do whatever he wanted and this could be a bad thing considering some of his

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The Reconstruction era of 1865 was an attempted unify the states of the United States of America after the Civil War. This proved to be terribly difficult and contentious process. The three main issues the federal government had to deal with included how to deal with states as they re-joined the Union, how Southern whites should be treated, and how to deal with the freed slaves. Furthermore, President Lincoln’s reconstruction plan included that states never truly seceded from the Union as this was not legally possible, and therefore they should not necessarily be punished. The plan had two major provisions: Pardons of Southerners who participated in the war if the took an oath of allegiance to the United States and Readmission of a state if 10% of white voters in that state took

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The final agreement stated that if the Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, “became president, he would recognize Democratic control of the entire South and refrain from further intervention in southern affairs” (Foner 198). Unfortunately, without the northern intervention, the Democrats governed the South with the idea that African Americans were not equal to them, causing negative effects while leaving the Reconstruction Era. Therefore, these arising issues began to nullify the work completed in the earlier part of the

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he Reconstruction Era was the process of reunifying the country and reconstructing the South after the ruins the Civil War had left it in. This era was substantial in history because it encouraged to protect the rights of former slaves and African Americans as citizens of America. However, it was ineffective in settling the nation’s social, monetary, physical, and political dilemmas. The inadequacy of political focus, decline to bring about long-term racial integration, and authorizing the passing of black codes, voter qualifications, and other anti-progressive legislation to repeal the rights that blacks had gained, emphasizes the disappointment of what the focus of the Reconstruction Era was all about but the infrastructure it had established

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Since the end of the Reconstruction era, scholarship over the question of why Reconstruction was considered a failed experiment for social change has been argued and debated. From the arguments by William Dunning, who argued that Radical Republicans in the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination enacted a plan of Reconstruction that was full of scorn and humiliation for those southern states that had to be reincorporated back into the Union, to a revisionist school that argued Reconstruction was progressive in enacting social change for African American freedman, the arguments for why Reconstruction failed are endless. However, with this plethora of scholarship that has emerged, it can be argued that the primary reason in the failure of

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Congress eventually passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867, this act temporarily divided the South into five military districts and this outlined how governments that were based on universal male sufferage were to be organized. This law also required the southern states to ratify the 14th Amendment, this expanded the definition of citizenship and initially granted “equal protection” to former slaves, before they could join the Union. This was apart of the Radical Reconstruction or some call it Congressional Reconstruction. This plan was to punish the South for causing the Civil

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His plans for a relatively easy peace between the split United States were shattered. The next president, Andrew Johnson was not a fan of freed slaves and was unwilling to support any plans that guaranteed them civil equality. He once stated, “White men alone must manage the South.” Another success was the approval of the 14th Amendment, stating

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You can see that all these deals and compromises just make matters worse. One of the most pivotal events during this time was the Dred Scott case. He was born a slave and his master moved to a free state and once his master died, he bought his freedom. He went to court and won but it went to federal court where they overruled the state court because he cannot be an American citizen. This showed the North that the South had too much power in the federal government with the reversal of the

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Groups such as the Ku Klux Klan became prominent in the south. however, this was no longer something reconstruction could help former slaves with. Eventually, Hayes was elected after Johnsons’ impeachment and the Reconstruction era ended. The reconstruction ended in 1877 due to the Compromise of 1877 and the pulling of republicans alongside union troops out of the deep south. though the reconstruction attempted to unify the country back together as one by allowing confederate states into the union under strict conditions, and to help former slaves by granting basic human rights there were still many issues present throughout the

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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.

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The period of time known as Reconstruction was successful in unifying and rebuilding the United States of America after the Civil War. However there were many struggles brought about and faced during this important time. With the end of the war came the end of slavery in practical terms, but the South was desperate to preserve their way of life. Thus violence erupted and drew a dark cloud over the Reconstruction Period. Out of the Civil war came three constitutional amendments; the Thirteenth, the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments were positive steps towards racial equality in the United States.

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President Johnson’s plan for reconstruction was lenient to the Southerners as he admitted the southern states back into the union. The only losers in this case were the former slave owners, as Johnson punished them by taking away their land. This plan outraged the republicans in congress as the republicans planned to admit sates back into the union on account that fifty percent of the state needed to pledge loyalty to the union with the Wade-Davis Bill. The republicans also made it clear that states would not be admitted back into the union unless the former slaves were treated equally. Since Johnson was a Democrat, he ignored his republican congress and enacted his lenient plan.

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