Dbq Essay On Reconstruction

Felipe Ferla US History 1: Lesson 7 The Reconstruction plan proposed by President Lincoln was a failure due to some factors regarding mainly the different mind-sets of the North and South. First, both in the North and South there were radicals that recurred to violent and extreme acts to impose their will. In addition, because, especially in the north they were a political party, they created laws that greatly affected the South and consequently the Reconstruction. Second, even though there were a number of laws declaring equality of black and white people, the population in the South still treated former slaves and colored people as inferior beings, limiting their work opportunities and preventing them from voting. Finally, and probably

Johnson and the Radical Republicans fought fiercely over Reconstruction. The main source of conflict between President Johnson and the Radical Republicans in Congress was caused by their belief that Johnson was a Southern sympathizer who would undermine Congress' plans for Reconstruction. Johnson wanted to let the Confederate states back into the Union if a certain number of them would swear allegiance to the U.S. He was for allowing states’ rights and did not want to give any rights or citizenship to African-Americans. Johnson seemed to move slowly on Reconstruction efforts.

Congress took control over the southern states, congress denied The Confederate states their Congressional seats. They made equal rights for African Americans and granted them protection under the law. Presidential Reconstruction Plan: President Johnson gave a plan of Reconstruction that gave the south the choice of the transition to make slaves freemen and women. It also offered that African American had no role in the politics of the south.

The Congress on the other hand wanted to end slavery and allow them the vote right

The reconstruction focused on abolishing slavery for good in order not to move war again, but this really did not happen. As soon as Reconstruction ended and the Southern states were allowed to do what they wanted, they imposed segregation on blacks and did all sorts of things to prevent them from voting. In addition, reconstructions failed to help blacks economically. They did not get the land acres that they hoped for. Therefore, they continued to be poor farm workers who pretty much had to work for the rich landowners.

This question truly depends on how one interprets the entire obstacles that took place during the Reconstruction. Case in point, blacks were not equal although, they were free officially, blacks remained fighting for their equal rights. The Jim Crow laws were put into place, black codes were developed and blacks were unable to exercise their voting rights. The Carpetbaggers came from the North only to gain economically from the South’s loss during the Civil War, leaving many southerners homeless. In addition the South angry and bitter, they felt there way of life no longer existed and rebelled against free slavery, forming white supremacy the Klu Klux Klan.

After the Civil War, African Americans went from bondage into gaining liberty. Twentieth President James A. Garfield stated, “The elevation of the Negro race from slavery to the full rights of citizenship is the most important political change we have known since the adoption of the constitution.” However, the centuries of racism, prejudice, and devaluation took its toll on Southern society, and they would take another century before all Blacks could vote unhindered. The ratification of civil rights legislation created only a beginning of a change because the Emancipation Proclamation failed to free all slaves, Whites did not view Blacks as social equals, and most Southern Whites would not cooperate with the new laws. The Emancipation

President Johnson was clearly unable to work with them, as his vetoes were constantly overruled. However, he did the best he could with a Congress that disagreed with him on all accounts. Rather than the federal government working together, the circumstance revealed that they were fighting against each other when the main ideas of Reconstruction weren’t being tended to like they could have if the branches of the government were working together to establish a more perfect Union. Yet, even with all of this fighting, the Freedmen’s Bureau was a great part of Reconstruction that went on for several years. It helped integrate former black slaves into society by giving them education and training them for potential jobs.

President Johnson’s plan for reconstruction was lenient to the Southerners as he admitted the southern states back into the union. The only losers in this case were the former slave owners, as Johnson punished them by taking away their land. This plan outraged the republicans in congress as the republicans planned to admit sates back into the union on account that fifty percent of the state needed to pledge loyalty to the union with the Wade-Davis Bill. The republicans also made it clear that states would not be admitted back into the union unless the former slaves were treated equally. Since Johnson was a Democrat, he ignored his republican congress and enacted his lenient plan.

But, when these officials were elected to Congress, they passed the “black codes” and thus the relations between the president and legislators became worst (Schriefer, Sivell and Arch R1). These so called “Black Codes” were “a series of laws to deprive blacks of their constitutional rights” that they were enacted mainly by Deep South legislatures. Black Codes differ from a state to another but they were stricter in the Deep South as they were sometimes irrationally austere. (Hazen 30) Furthermore, with the emergence of organizations such as the Red Shirts and the White League with the rise of the Conservative White Democrats’ power, efforts to prevent Black Americans from voting were escalating (Watts 247), even if the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S constitution that gave the Blacks the right to vote had been ratified in 1870.

The Civil War has just ended and the South had just lost to the North. Because the battle was mainly fought in the Southern territory the South was in a very unpleasant condition. Many homes were destroyed which meant families had no homes, business were wrecked which made many people jobless, a majority of the animals were dying or dead which caused the people to go into starvation. The South was in major need of help from the North to gain back its status.

Disputes were caused by disagreements between the North’s and the South’s way of life. The Reconstruction’s purpose was supposed to be a time period of forgiveness for the Union. Consequently, it led to many disagreements between the North and South. Overall, reconstruction was a time period of challenges, which led to failures, rather than a period of

In 1821, the New York state constitutional convention elevated the requisite for blacks to $250, effectively depriving virtually all New York blacks of the capability to vote. By 1860, blacks could now vote on the same foundation as whites in just five New England states alone. The downside to this good news was that this region only held 4 percent of the entire nation's free black population. Before, blacks were considered potential members of the political nation, but now being a part of the body politic was progressively being separated by race. Now, no blacks had full equality in front of the law, and they were denied from schools, militia, and other public institutions.

5. According to Boutwell, freedmen should have voting rights and citizenship for two main reasons. The first reason is that the country was founded upon the principle that “all men are created equal.” If the country does not

Founding father, Thomas Jefferson, writes in his book, “Notes on the State of Virginia,” that blacks “are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind” (qtd in Kendi). This ideology was not unpopular at the time, and remained that way, hence the laws that formed a rift between whites and those of color, even after slavery was abolished. For example, the Fifteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution mentions, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude” (Amendment XV, Section 1). Therefore, having this amendment ratified not only allowed blacks the right to vote, but also exposes the fact that blacks were still viewed as the inferior race, taking about five years after the abolishment of slavery, with the Thirteenth Amendment, to finally be permitted to vote during elections. The oppression of African Americans further progressed with the passing of the Jim Crow Laws, after the American Civil War.