Positive And Negative Effects Of Reconstruction

The book “Redemption; The Last Battle of The Civil War,” written by Nicholas Lemann focuses on one major politician during the reconstruction time period. Lemann illustrates the life of people in the south and the trials that the “Negros” faced. The conclusion of the civil war was supposed to be the end of racism and slavery, but white southerners continued to find ways to get around the new laws that were put into place. They created and passed “black codes” which, as the author says, “…legislated the freed slaves into a condition as close to their former one as it was possible to get without actually reinstituting slavery. ”(34)

They had the idea of “forty acres and a mule”, which gave new freed slave families forty acres of land and a mule so they had property under their name, but their biggest success was education, creating public school systems for all children. The Freedmen’s Bureau’s lasting impact on Reconstruction was the educational rights to blacks. Presidential Reconstruction: The Lincoln plan and Johnson plan dealt with how to readmit Confederate states that seceded from the Union. Lincoln’s plan called for ten percent of a southern states population to vote loyalty to the Union to be readmitted. Johnson adopted some of the same ideas as Lincoln, but when he was president, Radical Republicans in Congress wanted to pass the Wade-Davis Bill, saying fifty percent of a southern states population had to vote loyalty to the Union before being readmitted.

Johnson preferred a stronger state government and believed in the doctrine of laissez-faire, which stated that the federal government should stay out of the economic and social affairs of its people. President Johnson disliked the southern planter elite but his actions suggested otherwise because he pardoned more people than any president before him and most of those pardoned were wealthy southern landowners. Just like Lincoln, Johnson wanted to restore the union in as little time as possible, his plan offered general amnesty to all who would take an oath to future loyalty. The plan also called for high-ranking confederate officials or any wealthy white southerner to petition the president personally for individual pardons. In order to be readmitted, a state would have to ratify the 13th amendment, which abolished slavery, and repudiate confederate war debts.

The final agreement stated that if the Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, “became president, he would recognize Democratic control of the entire South and refrain from further intervention in southern affairs” (Foner 198). Unfortunately, without the northern intervention, the Democrats governed the South with the idea that African Americans were not equal to them, causing negative effects while leaving the Reconstruction Era. Therefore, these arising issues began to nullify the work completed in the earlier part of the

The Effects Of Reconstruction Reconstruction was the period that closed the rift between the North and South after the Civil War. Many attempts were made to redress the inequities of slavery and its political, social, and economic legacy and to solve the problems arising from the readmission to the Union of the eleven states that had seceded during the war. Many changes were made, to both lifestyle, and The Constitution. Reconstruction began with President Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan. Under it, when one-tenth of a state’s voters took an oath of loyalty, they could establish a new state government.

His plans for a relatively easy peace between the split United States were shattered. The next president, Andrew Johnson was not a fan of freed slaves and was unwilling to support any plans that guaranteed them civil equality. He once stated, “White men alone must manage the South.” Another success was the approval of the 14th Amendment, stating

You can see that all these deals and compromises just make matters worse. One of the most pivotal events during this time was the Dred Scott case. He was born a slave and his master moved to a free state and once his master died, he bought his freedom. He went to court and won but it went to federal court where they overruled the state court because he cannot be an American citizen. This showed the North that the South had too much power in the federal government with the reversal of the

After the Civil war, former slaves had a glimpse of a future filled with prosperity, but Reconstruction failed due to faulty leadership in the Union and continuous outlash from the Confederacy. Lincoln planned to offer the South a pardon for their crimes against the country, and that Southern states would be reimbursed into the union if 10% its citizens voted to do so; Abraham Lincoln didn’t want to punish the South, but Congress wasn’t very pleased with Lincoln’s forgiveness. President Johnson picked up where Lincoln left off; however, instead of showing immediate mercy to the South, Andrew Johnson confiscated land from wealthy Southerners. Johnson was compliant enough to pardon ex-confederates, but if someone were worth more than 20,000 dollars

Spencer Fox Aspen Smith History 8-2 June 2, 2023 Reconstruction: Positives and Negatives Before I begin, it’s best I explain what reconstruction is. Reconstruction, in this context, is the process of rebuilding a country, that country is America after the Civil War. Reconstruction caused many things that may have been either positive or negative, depending on how you view certain topics.

The period of time known as Reconstruction was successful in unifying and rebuilding the United States of America after the Civil War. However there were many struggles brought about and faced during this important time. With the end of the war came the end of slavery in practical terms, but the South was desperate to preserve their way of life. Thus violence erupted and drew a dark cloud over the Reconstruction Period. Out of the Civil war came three constitutional amendments; the Thirteenth, the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments were positive steps towards racial equality in the United States.

The Reconstruction period stands in sharp contrast. Although the destructive power of the war was frightful, its ultimate achievement was eliminated the plague that divided America. That plague is the moral question of slavery. Francis G. Couvares, a professor at the Amherst College and the author of Interpretations of American History Vol. I: Patterns and Perspectives argued, “The federal government had to bring the South back into the union on terms that permitted reconciliation, protect the newly freed slaves from the wrath of angry whites, and construct a biracial society of free people” One can clearly notice the difference in the tone from the previous book.

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.

The Compromise of 1877 was a corrupt agreement between three powerful southern states and Rutherford B. Hayes that led to him being elected President and the stripping away from African American rights. After the Civil War, “Lives of black slaves had improved greatly and there was hope for emancipation of slaves in those states. However, The Compromise of 1877 took away all hope for slaves.” (Source 8) This “compromise” made slaves’ lives even more difficult than it was before.

Congress eventually passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867, this act temporarily divided the South into five military districts and this outlined how governments that were based on universal male sufferage were to be organized. This law also required the southern states to ratify the 14th Amendment, this expanded the definition of citizenship and initially granted “equal protection” to former slaves, before they could join the Union. This was apart of the Radical Reconstruction or some call it Congressional Reconstruction. This plan was to punish the South for causing the Civil

As the Era of Reconstruction began in the latter half of the 1860s, the Union was forced to confront the following question: Who is an American? Would Southerners be rewarded for their treason, or would African Americans finally be able to bask in the glory of freedom? Following the war, the Radical Republican government made its post-war intentions clear: to reunite the country and to bestow full rights to blacks. “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as G-d gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation 's wounds” (Lincoln). Reconstruction culminated in 1877 due to economic crisis and a lack of Northern will.