Rise Of Reconstruction Essay

Reconstruction was a monumental era for African-Americans, and for the U.S. as a whole. The Reconstruction era was initially created to gradually abolish slavery and eliminate the racist ways of the South. Even though this was the case, towards the end of Reconstruction, the South showed that Reconstruction didn’t help them develop from their cruel ways by returning to mistreat African Americans

At the beginning of the Reconstruction era, African Americans started to have hope that they would finally have a say in the development of their nation. This was due to the fact that immediately when Reconstruction started, Congress sought to protect recently freed slaves by enforcing a civil rights bill and extending the establishment of the Freedmen’s

This power was the right to have a say in politics and the decisions that had the power to define what type of nation the U.S. would come to be. This occurrence can be shown in the Student Resource Book where it says,” For the freed slave, Reconstruction offered a miraculous window of hope. Those born into slavery could now vote and own land. In parts of the South, blacks could ride with whites on trains and eat with them in restaurants. Schools, orphanages, and public relief projects aimed at improving the lives of blacks were emerging all over the South. Perhaps most stunning of all, African-Americans were holding political office. Blacks were becoming sheriffs and judges. They were elected to school boards and city councils. Sixteen blacks sat in Congress from 1867-77. HIRAM REVELS of Mississippi became the first African-American Senator in 1870. In December 1872 P.B.S. PINCHBACK of Louisiana became the first African-American Governor. All in all, about 600 blacks served as legislators on the local level." (Student Resource Book, 294). From this evidence one can conclude that the Reconstruction era opened up a lot of opportunities for black people that they had once had been excluded

as a result. Although Reconstruction did immediately fill black people with faith that they would get to have a say that the U.S. would become, in the end, the Reconstruction led to segregation between African Americans and white people and the mistreatment of those who had hoped that they would finally be viewed as real people. The events occurring at the end of the Reconstruction era would lead to an increase in racism in the South, and eventually lead to lack of development in the South. This reveals that even though the Reconstruction era was used to help the U.S. thrive away from racism, it would just cause the next generations of African Americans to be once again mistreated and terrorized by