The Pros And Cons Of The Reconstruction Era

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After 4 years of a brutal war that ended in the Union's favor, the U.S. faced a new challenge rebuilding our country. Reconstruction lasted for 12 years and during that time we attempted to put our nation back together. Reconstruction's goal was for whites and blacks to live together in a non slave society. However the Southern states were not welcoming to this idea because they still believed in slavery and they believed it was the only way to live in peace. Despite the intentions of the Reconstruction era, the failure to address equality ultimately led to the idea of white supremacy and the oppression over African Americans. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were a series of laws that aimed to abolish slavery, grant citizenship to …show more content…

The Laws of Mississippi 1865, was a Law that states that if you do not have a job you will be fined and imprisoned by the 2nd Monday of January 1866. This means that the just freed slaves will have a month to find a job or else they would go back to the way of life they just left. The 13th Amendment states that slavery is abolished except as a punishment, so Mississippi made it a crime so they could enslave the just freed slaves because they believed that slavery was a just thing to do. Mississippi wanted to keep slavery, so they found a loophole to keep it that way. In the years following the Civil War throughout the south, state, city and town governments passed laws to restrict the rights of free African Americans; these laws were known as the “Black Codes”. In the Louisiana Law it states that African Americans are only allowed with permission. The saying “YOU ARE NOT WELCOME” became a very popular phrase. They were not allowing any African Americans to do anything, be anywhere without permission from a white person, this is what started the idea of segregation. The Black codes were made to be discriminating against the African American race, which encouraged white