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Reconstruction Dbq Essay

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In the years 1861-1865, the United States had a Civil War between the North and South. As a result, the North won, and the period after the war was called Reconstruction. It was called Reconstruction because the North’s goal was to Reconstruct the South, but there were many issues in this era. Slavery, and giving Social, Political, and Economic rights to African Americans were one of the most debated issues in this period though. Between the Radical Republicans, who wanted to give full citizenship and rights to African Americans, and Andrew Johnson, who did not want to give African Americans, there were a lot of issues that came about during this time. With all of the issues that occurred during this time, Reconstruction was not successful …show more content…

The first document that shows this is Document H, this document shows Black Codes in Louisiana. Black Codes are restrictive laws created by southern states to restrict African Americans’ freedom. There were many of these laws, such as not being able to own a house or live in a town without permission from a white owner, or that African Americans have to be in the service of a white person or former owner. This shows the failure of Reconstruction because people were finding ways to restrict African Americans’ rights, which violates the 14th Amendment, which states that all citizens born or naturalized have full rights and citizenship. Another document that shows this is Document I. This document shows what the Ku Klux Klan is. The Ku Klux Klan (or KKK) was a white supremacy group, that used violent steps to undermine the republican party and prevent equality for African Americans. This shows how Reconstruction failed because African Americans were still treated very unfairly, even when they were not …show more content…

This is first shown in Document D, which was the Freedman Bureau, an organization that provided food, housing, and more for African Americans’. This was a good idea and would’ve helped out African Americans a lot, but it didn’t work out exactly as planned. Some of the issues with this were lack of funding for all of it and persistent racism in the South. So even though people made attempts to help out African Americans’, it didn’t work out completely in their favor, proving that Reconstruction did not protect African Americans’ economic rights. Furthermore, Document F explains “The Sharecropper Cycle of Poverty.” Sharecropping was a loophole in that southern plantation owners found out how to basically have slaves again, even when it was illegal. The owners would provide food and land to the sharecropper (African American) but when it was the end of the year, the owner would tell the sharecropper that he owed more than the sharecropper could pay. And since the sharecropper had to pay his debt back, he would have to come back another year and do it all over again. This clearly breaks the 13th Amendment, which doesn’t allow people to work for free other than for punishment for a crime. This proves that Reconstruction was a failure because slavery essentially came back, just in a different

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Although, there African Americans were technically free the former white slaveowners in the South did not agree with this and attempted to contain the Freedmen in the South. They had been successful with the practice of sharecropping. Sharecropping was where the freedman would come to an agreement with the former white slave owners, where both sides benefited; the freedman would get paid for their labor while the white former slave owner were able to continue their business. Sharecropping was corrupted and the white former slave owner would cheat the freedman and not pay them. The white former slave owners would keep track of the payments and would alter the data because they were educated, and the freedman population had no knowledge, and were illiterate because of this they were not able to keep track.

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For one, Abraham Lincoln was killed, second, the Klu Klux Klan made lots of conflict during this time, and third all of the trouble brought about by the South. First of all, reconstruction was a time right after the Civil War, beginning in 1877. Essentially, the purpose of reconstruction was to rebuild the North and the South’s peace after the Civil War created conflict. On the bright side, slavery died with the war.

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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.

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During reconstruction in the south the African American community was an afterthought for some, democrats, and a main priority to others,republicans. After the North's victory in the Civil war they tried to integrate the south, fix the labor system, and create a future for the African Americans in the south. During the 1900’s the conditions that the Black community faced was racially challenging. Reconstruction viewed by the white elite in the south was perceived to fail.

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Reconstruction was a time period when congress created the Amendments 13 and 14 which granted African Americans access to be protected from slavery and to give African Americans the right to have equal protection of the law. The point of this was

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When the Civil War had finally met its end in the year 1865, an “era of reconstruction” came about——all with one singular purpose: give African Americans the rights we have and see them as citizens, not as property. However, although the plans for reconstruction had good intentions, not everything went as smoothly during the “reconstruction era,” not only for America but for the very people “reconstruction” was intended for, the recently freed, freedmen and freedwomen of America. And though many parts of reconstruction were to blame for the “disastrous effects” that reconstruction had on African Americans, some of the most notable topics include Radical Reconstruction, poverty, segregation, and racially based voting laws. Firstly, during the

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In the aftermath, the US began an era of “reconstruction” in which the conflicts from the Civil War were resolved. Former confederate states were admitted into the Union and services were provided to newly freed African Americans. Although these events came after the establishment of the US, the American Civil War and early Reconstruction period, between 1861-1870, was akin to a second American Revolution because of the ideological and political changes caused by the inception and aftermath of the war. These changes included the

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Fortunately for the US, President Lincoln had a plan for Reconstruction. The country was unstable as a result of the flourishing North and their functioning industry, economy, and pretty much all aspects of life were going better than those in the South. The emancipation of African Americans mostly just destroyed the Southern economy and generated even more chaos as the plantation system collapsed without the cheap labor. The very broke southerners were not content with the new conditions, to say the least, and their visceral fear of change had made them unwilling to compromise. The main issue with the Reconstruction process was that it did not catalyze America’s journey to equality at the speed one might have hoped.

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Reconstruction caused prejudice and inequality. To elaborate, the creation of the Ku Klux Klan and the Black Codes were both in the time period of reconstruction, which caused chaos and violence throughout the Union. One of the goals of reconstruction was to repair the economy in the South, because it depended on slavery, which was now illegal, due to the thirteenth amendment. The South’s economic system now depended on Sharecropping, which caused former slaves to be in constant debt and was unjust to the black society. The reconstruction time period, was a time of dispute between the Union.

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