Was Reconstruction A Success Or Failure Essay

536 Words3 Pages

After the Civil War, Reconstruction enabled the South to rebuild their economic system and readmit into the Union, but the processes used to get there are largely discussed issues based upon if Reconstruction was actually successful. The success of Reconstruction is based upon your definition of success. People argue that towards the conclusion of Reconstruction, the South was admitted back into the Union and blacks remained free, but is that suitable? I believe Reconstruction was a failure for the fact that it failed to disassemble racial structures and it left the South susceptible to economic poverty, segregation, and corruption. Therefore, to understand why it was predominantly a failure, it is essential to recognize the conditions that caused it. Poverty in the South was a considerable element in the failure of Reconstruction. The South’s central economic wealth came from plantation owners, and when that is taken away, the economy is impacted tremendously. Freedmen looking for job opportunities found little to none, or went into sharecropping causing them to spiral into a vicious cycle of poverty with little to no hope of getting out. On top of this, taxes were raised in order to help reconstruct the south, causing many people to barely get by or become homeless. In addition to poverty, many blacks …show more content…

The Jim Crow laws were developed to ensure that Whites retained dominance over blacks after slavery was abolished. The Black Codes were another set of laws that limited the rights of blacks by not allowing them to vote, hold office, serve on a jury, or guarantee an education. Another issue that ultimately is involved in segregation is how blacks were treated; The Ku Klux Klan as an example, lit homes of blacks on fire and lynched targets. Due to the South being divided and poor, this opened the window to