Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The Failure of Reconstruction
Reconstruction in America
Reconstruction in America
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Reconstruction was not a success. Although it was a short solution when soldiers were there to enforce the laws, it was not a permanent fix like it was meant to be. Some main reasons reconstruction was a failure are sharecropping and circle of debt rose, the Ku Klux Klan, white capping, black codes, and racism was still prominent in the government. One large cause of reconstruction’s failure was sharecropping, and the circle of debt that formed and created a legal form of slavery, known as sharecropping.
Next, the Presidential Reconstruction plan did not support Blacks, even with slavery abolished, they were believed to
Abraham Lincoln’s vs Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan Lincoln shared the uncommon belief that the confederate states could still be part of the union and that the cause of the rebellion was only a few within the states which lead him to begin the reconstruction in December of 1863. This resulted in plans with lenient guidelines and although they were challenged by Wade-Davis Bill, Lincoln still rejected his ideas and kept his policies in place. Lincoln also allowed land to be given the newly freed slave or homeless white by distributing the land that had been confiscated from former land owners however this fell through once Johnson took office. After Lincoln’s death when Johnson was elected many things started to turn away from giving blacks equal rights and resulted in many things such a black codes which kept newly freed slaves from having the same rights as whites. When Lincoln first acted after the civil war, he offered policies that would allow the confederate slaves to become part of the union again and would allow a pardon for those states.
The Reconstruction was unsuccessfull because of some important reasons. First, the South was still aracist part of the United States because they created the Jim Crow Laws, what means that the people who lived and administratedthe South were not intelligent. The second example is that Abraham Lincoln, who started and incentivated the Reconstruction, was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, so it made the Reconstruction process to be less efective. Finally, the last problem was the Solid South, it is a name that the South recieved because it was a solid white, solid racist and solid Democrat, what means that they were not able to support black people. Concluding, all of these examples shows why the Reconstruction was unsuccessfull
The traditional view on Reconstruction labeled it as a terrible point in the democracy of America. According to this view, Andrew Johnson, like Abraham Lincoln, wished to pardon the Confederates and reunite them with the Union. Radical Republicans, who wished to dominate the South, disposed of Johnson’s plan and gave power to former slaves, carpetbaggers, and southern whites who cooperated with the Republican Party of the North, all of which were unfit to lead southern governments. In the end, this angered many in the South, including the Ku Klux Klan, who claimed patriotism to restore white supremacy. With this take on the Reconstruction in mind, it is hard to see how Lincoln would have made a difference in the events that occurred.
Lincoln saw reconstruction as a time of healing for the South while radical Republicans saw it as a time to punish the South and teach them a lesson. Lincoln thought that the country should maintain a unity with its states. He also believed in having a strong governed country. After the Civil War, the radical Republicans controlled congress and if Lincoln had lived he would have been able to control their actions. The Radical Republicans whipped up public anger and demanded that president Johnson allow reprisals against former rebels.
Before Abraham Lincoln was shot and killed by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, he had a plan for the Reconstruction of the South. Lincoln called his plan the Ten Percent Plan. Under the Ten Percent Plan, when ten percent of the voters of a state took an oath of loyalty to the Union, the state could form a government and create a new constitution that made slavery illegal. Under Lincoln’s plan, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee set up governments. If Lincoln had lived, I believe that there would have been different changes in America.
After the civil war both Lincoln and the South had differing ideas for reconstruction. Although the North had won the war, tensions were still high between the two sides of the country. Lincoln wanted no persecutions, no bloody work, and to let prisoners of war go; he had no interest in continuing the killing that the civil war had brought upon the nation. Lincoln also wanted them to draft a new constitution, he did not want to punish the south, he wanted to amalgamate them with the union as fast as possible. Radical republicans however did not want to the country to reunify, they also did not agree with Lincoln’s peaceful solution to end slavery.
The Reconstruction era, which followed the American Civil War, was a time of significant social, political, and economic change in the United States. After years of slavery and armed conflict, the country was faced with the challenge of rebuilding and reconciling a deeply divided society. The period saw remarkable progress in integrating freed slaves into society and politics, with the ratification of constitutional amendments, granting citizenship and voting rights to African Americans. However, despite these achievements, the Reconstruction era ultimately failed to create racial equality and healing divisions caused by the Civil War due to ongoing racism, political opposition, and economic struggles in the South. This DBQ will explore the reasons behind the failure of the Reconstruction era and the impact on this failure.
After the Union won the major battles that is when Lincoln had put the ten percent plan on the table, this plan was when ten percent of the state’s eligible voters pledge oath to US then they could join the Union. To begin with, there are a few reasons why one would say that reconstruction in the south was a failure. One of these reasons being that, even after the civil war in the South’s government passed laws to limit the rights of the free African Americans. In document C we can see this is evident where it states “No negro or freedmen shall be allowed to come within the limits of the town of Opelousas without special permission of his employers. Whoever breaks this law will go to jail and work for two days on the public streets, or pay a fine of five dollars.”
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.
Reconstruction was a period of time dedicated to rebuilding the nation after the Civil War. The war ended with the South being defeated and their economy being devastated. Many Southerners struggled after the war with rebuilding their land and lives. The President and Congress had to decide the terms for which the former Confederate states would be permitted to join the Union. President Lincoln’s plan for reuniting the country was found in the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction.
The Reconstruction period lasted from 1865 to 1877. The thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendment were created during the twelve years of rebuilding the country. All of the amendments were made to protect former slaves and their rights but on paper they did not have any rights. The reconstruction period had its successes and failures.
Reconstruction is during which the United States began to rebuild the Southern society after they lost to the civil war. It lasted from 1865 to 1877, and it was initiated by President Lincoln until his assassination in 1865. President Johnson continued Lincoln’s agenda to continue the Reconstruction. Throughout the process of Reconstruction, one of its main purpose was to guarantees for equal rights for all people, especially for the African Americans. Even though slavery was abolished after the civil war, many Southerners were still against the idea of equal rights for all black people, such as the Republicans.
Although many attempts were made to prioritize freedom and equality for all, these values were undermined by racist Southerners who wouldn’t accept equality. In the end, Reconstruction had failed and former slaves endured another hardship akin to slavery. However, Reconstruction still could have prospered. There are multiple events that, if they had occurred, Reconstruction would not have failed. For example, had the government continued to fund the Freedmen’s Bureau, then the South would have legislated their discriminatory laws much later, if not at all.