Elements Of Expansion Of Freedom And Equality During The Reconstruction Era

The Civil War and the period of Reconstruction brought significant political, social, and economic changes to American society, and these effects continued into the 20th century. Post Civil War (After the Civil War – The period after the Civil War) - President Abraham Lincoln and Congress were determined to rebuild the nation. Lincoln wanted to restore the Union by readmitting the southern states that had seceded, as well as provide African Americans with more rights. Period of Conflict -

During his presidency, Congress ratified the 13th-Amendment that abolished slavery in 1865. In addition, President Johnson made contributions to the black people by vetoing bills that increased protection offered by Freedman Bureau. His vetoes also nullified the Black Codes and guaranteed full citizenship and equal rights to black people. This brought up the Civil Rights Act of 1866, an act that granted citizenships and same rights that both black and white enjoyed. As a result, the Civil Rights Act set up the basis for the 14th amendments that was also later ratified in 1866.

Election of 1876 was the end of reconstruction. Rutherford B. Hayes, republican, was running for president against Samuel J. Tilden, democrat. According to document K, Hayes won the election of 1876 because of three southern states didn't give him the electoral votes. South Democrats made a deal with Hayes to take away the military troops and Republicans from the south from then they would vote for Hayes this then lead to Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow laws were Laws made to enforce segregation of blacks from whites.

A main issue stemming from the results of the Civil War was the formation of white terrorist and supremacist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan. They resorted to ferocity and harassment to try to prevent the freed people from living the rights they deserved. For instance, “black political leaders faced the constant threat of violence, an endemic feature of post-Civil War southern society” confirmed the white supremacists’ goal of turning away African Americans (Foner 134). Simultaneously, the Compromise of 1877 brought the overall end to the Reconstruction efforts. In an attempt to reunite the government, a compromise was made to satisfy both sides of the government.

Which, was due to the veto from President Jonson against Freedmen’s Bureau bill and the Civil Rights bill the radical republicans retaliated by passing through congress the Reconstruction Acts. These Acts were set up in two part fist the 14th Amendment and second the 15th Amendment. The 14th Amendment was written by Senator Jacob M. Howard of Michigan on July 9, 1868. The 14th Amendment gave equal rights and protect to all citizens and to all who were born in the United States along with all the slaves who emancipated after the Civil War. The 15th Amendment was passed 1870 this assured any person of color or from previous condition of servitude the right to vote.

Congress aimed for the Bureau to include protection for all the black population and they override Johnson’s veto. The Civil Rights Bill granted American citizenship to blacks and denied the states the power to limit their right to obtain property, testify in court, and make contract for their labor. Furthermore, congress wanted to make sure the states were following the ideas of the Civil Rights Act by adding the fourteenth amendment. This amendment granted state and federal citizenship for all people born or naturalized in the United States, forbade any state to deny anyone equal protection of the law, and disqualified former Confederates from holding federal and state office. Additionally, Congress aimed to remove all Black Codes and ensure that all states follow the 13th amendment, that legally emancipated slaves.

After the defeat in the Civil War, Arkansas and the other Confederate states had no choice but to accept the idea of “reconstruction” and defeat. Arkansas had mainly been ran by the Democratic Party, but the Republican Party was on the rise after the Civil War. Both parties had different and distinct goals for the reconstruction of Arkansas. The Democratic Party was interested in rebuilding Arkansas while the Republican Party was interested in changing the state’s government all together. Throughout the Reconstruction period, the Democrats and Republicans held different goals for the “reconstruction” of Arkansas.

Despite these efforts, the white Southerners resisted strongly by trying to control the black population in the South. They were able to maintain economic dominance on the freed slaves by the sharecropping system. As times went by, Northerners become exhausted from the Southern resistance and they had their own growing concerns such as economic Panic of 1873; they had increasingly become disinterested in the freed black populations in the South. The South was also able to regain political control back in the region through violence and intimidation. As a result, they were able to regain some political power in the congress.

After the Civil War was over and the Union had won the war, four million enslaved workers had gained their freedom (p511). The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, also known as the Reconstruction amendments, were passed to abolish slavery, give citizenship to all persons born in the United States, equal protection of the laws and suffrage to all men. The nation succeeded in restoring the South after having lost many lives and property (p512). After the war, former slaves were able to establish their own African American churches and schools, where they learned to read and write. Immediately after President Hayes withdrew federal troops from Louisiana and South Carolina, Republican governments collapsed and Radical Republican legislation

The fifteenth amendment granted voting rights for all which was important to the social structure of modern society without voting there wouldn 't be any tranquility or any sign of fairness/impartial. According to the 15th amendment “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.” This statement impacts and is still used to this day showing that the right vote shouldn 't be taken away from your racial ethnicity or color. This shows that the social structure of the reconstruction era was successful because congress passed an impartial law which implemented both colored and the

While racial attitudes and “Reconstruction weariness” contributed to the collapse of Reconstruction efforts, the use of violence against whites and blacks combined with the belief in white supremacy played the

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.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a large portion of Americans were restricted from civil and political rights. In American government in Black and White (Second ed.), Paula D. McClain and Steven C. Tauber and Vanna Gonzales’s power point slides, the politics of race and ethnicity is described by explaining the history of discrimination and civil rights progress for selective groups. Civil rights were retracted from African Americans and Asian Americans due to group designation, forms of inequality, and segregation. These restrictions were combatted by reforms such as the Thirteenth Amendment, the Fourteenth Amendment, the Fifteenth amendment, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, etc. Although civil and political

Reconstruction era, which was followed by post-civil war, was meant to unite the states back together, reconstruct properties, and most importantly, abolish slavery in the South. Although the factors such as amendments legally freed former slaves, yet WRITE THESIS After the end of civil war in 1865, Reconstruction era, which was controlled by President Abraham Lincoln, appeared to quickly coalesce the Northern and Southern states. reconstruction amendments, which were approved between 1865 and 1870, played a huge role on giving legal rights to blacks and former slaves. 13th amendment constitutionally abolished slavery in 1865 and followed up by that, 14th and 15th amendment admitted equal citizenship, protection, and rights of suffrage despite the one’s race or skin color. Former slaves were no longer belongings of their owners.

The Civil War allowed the United States to make the changes necessary to unify the country. In addition, it began one of the most transitional periods in the United States’ history. This period, the Reconstruction, brought about many political, social, and economic changes, which were both beneficial and disagreeable. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, the Panic of 1873, and the formation of the Ku Klux Klan are just a few examples of heavily impacting events for the United States. During the Reconstruction period there were numerous political transformations in the country.