Reconstruction was a time period that lasted from 1865 to 1905 and served the purpose of piecing together the United States in the time following the Civil War. The Civil War was fought between the North and the South solely over the issue of the expansion of slavery which happened to be an immediate result of Manifest Destiny. The war impacted the lives of many, however, it held a significant impact on the African American population whose freedom lay in the outcome of the war. Aside from the war itself, the lives of millions of African Americans, specifically in the South, drastically changed during Reconstruction. With the dawn of the Reconstruction period came many new opportunities for the African American population, with the most important …show more content…
This crucial point was seen in document 1: Thaddeus Steven's speech before the House of Representatives in 1865. The purpose of the said speech was to signify the importance of Reconstruction and the 13th amendment. Stevens felt that it was the legal right of Congress to look after and protect all African Americans seeing as they were legal American citizens, as a result, he stood in front of the House of Representatives to enlighten them of these circumstances. Although many of these changes, like the 13th amendment, were thought to be positive many had negative effects due to the anger some people still felt toward the rights of African Americans. Many people in the South specifically still felt as though African Americans were less than everyone else so as a result of this they resisted the new rights as much as possible. Document 2 illustrated a perfect example of the cruelty African Americans faced during Reconstruction. This source stated parts of the laws for the St. Landry Parish in Louisiana in 1865. The document served as a way of warning African Americans that they were still seen as inferior to the parish