Reconstruction Dbq

The Reconstruction Era was an extremely impactful period in American history that followed the after the Civil War. It was a time of great action and transformation as the country struggled to rebuild itself following the events of the Civil War. The Reconstruction Era saw the end of slavery and the beginning of a long struggle for civil rights and equal opportunities for all Americans. When America first established itself as a Country, separate from Britain, large sums of the economy relied on the work of enslaved people. The institution of slavery was always a very opinionated topic with the Northern states wishing for its abolishment and Southern states wish for expansion of the system. This argument and many other events and factors collied

An example of this limiting are the Black codes, rules set in place in the south that limited the newfound freedoms that black people gained. Showing that even though freed African American were supposed to gain rights, the south already tried to limit their freedoms, showing the struggles of newly freed African Americans. The north, seeing the effects of the Black codes wished to rebuttal. As result, The Civil Rights Act of 1866 was a rebuttal to the Black codes, which was created to instill the rights of the freed slaves and try to prevent the prior events of slavery. Showing that there was still back and forth between the north and south as they tried to rebuild the relations that were broken in the war. Later on, lawmakers, trying to be more forceful, started to approach law making by amending the constitution. On of these amendments was the 13th amendment, which created the constitutional right that no person in the United States will be forced into slavery. It shows that the Amendments that started the Reforms after the civil

The 14th amendment creating the constitutional right that the government at the state or federal level may infringe upon the rights of any American citizens, not limited too but including Life, Liberty and Property. It is one of the first written forms of law that is in support of the reforms after the 13th amendment and helped further support mending down the line. The 15th amendment is the constitutional right that an African American man has the right to vote, in local and national elections. This sets further groundwork for freed slaves to be integrated into society and further makes them citizens as they are a part of the political landscape. The Enforcement Act was ultimately created as a way that the president could back up the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. This is important as it is a last resort that the government took as a way to protect the rights created in the