Reconstruction Dbq Essay

Reconstruction is during which the United States began to rebuild the Southern society after they lost to the civil war. It lasted from 1865 to 1877, and it was initiated by President Lincoln until his assassination in 1865. President Johnson continued Lincoln’s agenda to continue the Reconstruction. Throughout the process of Reconstruction, one of its main purpose was to guarantees for equal rights for all people, especially for the African Americans. Even though slavery was abolished after the civil war, many Southerners were still against the idea of equal rights for all black people, such as the Republicans.

Even though whites still held a majority in office, “out of a total of 127 members in the first legislative, eighty-seven were blacks” (211). Two of those men were Alonzo J. Ransier, 1870, and Richard Gleaves, 182. Times were beginning to look up since the blacks were finding ways to get around the white restrictions and to vote for the important decisions that every male citizen of the United States was meant to make. Yet two terrible things happen once they got into office.

The 15th amendment granted universal male suffrage in the United States. This was the last of the amendments passed of the reconstruction era, but it created a lasting impact, both socially and politically. African Americans now had the right to vote and involve themselves in the matters of the nation, but they were met with great adversity. As stated in the textbook, “...Southern whites found black political involvement intolerable; they were shocked and outraged that their world had been turned upside down.

Jourdan Anderson had previously received a letter from his old master requesting that he return to living with him. In Anderson’s letter, he tells his older master about his new life in Ohio, how he has a good thing going for him. Anderson also tells his old master that he was proud to have called him that. I believe that is an interesting take on limited freedom. Anderson, being a freed man now and having his own life, still feels that he should respect his old master and be grateful for his previous life.

The language of the law in a handful of states even specifically mentioned that a qualification to vote was to be white and a land owner. It wasn’t until the Emancipation Proclamation that black men had hopes of having the same rights as their white counterparts and it was not until after the war where black suffrage laws were passed. Post-civil war America took leaps and bounds forward for African Americans. Three important documents for the recently freed slaves were the 13th (1865), 14th (1868), and 15th amendment (1870). These were the first amendments added to the U.S. constitution in 60 years and were known as the Civil War Amendments (Landmark).

Unlike today, where the United States is a consolidated empire with an all-powerful central government and the States are merely subjugated provinces, the United States were originally established as a federation of sovereign republican States and remained so until Lincoln’s War. Although “these people” preach equality, they do not practice it. They believe that some people are more equal than others. Blacks are more equal than Whites.

The stark contrast between the fight for freedom abroad and the realities of racial discrimination at home sparked a renewed determination among African Americans and their allies to dismantle segregation and secure their voting rights. In addition, the tragic murder of Emmett Till also propels the progress of the Voting Rights Act by addressing the pervasive issue of

The American civil war led to the reunion of the South and the North. But, its consequences led the Republicans to take the lead of reconstructing what the war had destroyed especially in the South because it contained larger numbers of newly freed slaves. Just after the civil war, America entered into what was called as the reconstruction era. Reconstruction refers to when “the federal government established the terms on which rebellious Southern states would be integrated back into the Union” (Watts 246). As a further matter, it also meant “the process of helping the 4 million freed slaves after the civil war [to] make the transition to freedom” (DeFord and Schwarz 96).

The American Civil War that was started due to the controversy over slavery in 1861, was won by The Union supported by President Lincoln against the Confederate states. President Lincoln’s original goal during the civil war was to reunify the nation as quickly as possible and help both sides come to an understanding. After the Civil War ended in 1865, the newly formed United States’ reconstruction era began. The Reconstruction era was put into effect by the Congress in 1866 and lasted until 1877. The Union’s victory in the Civil War had given African Americans a new sense of hope, devastated the southern economy, and eased the history of disunity in American political life.

White Supremacist Groups such as The White League, Ku Klux Klan, The Knights of Camelia and many more other groups attempted to prevent the 15th amendment by the use of violence. These white supremacy groups were successful in the act of keeping republican voters and freed slaves from voting or turning them into democrats. “We nail all, radicals up in Boxes and send them away to K K K - there is. 200 000 ded men retured to this country to make you and all the rest of the radicals good Democrats and vote right with the white people you have got it to do or leave this country no nigger is safe unless he Joins the Democratic Club then you will be safe and have friends (Onion, Rebecca)”. Even though the establishment of the 15th amendment especifically mentioned that no voting rights shall not be denied by any race, color, or previous condition of work.

Reconstruction caused prejudice and inequality. To elaborate, the creation of the Ku Klux Klan and the Black Codes were both in the time period of reconstruction, which caused chaos and violence throughout the Union. One of the goals of reconstruction was to repair the economy in the South, because it depended on slavery, which was now illegal, due to the thirteenth amendment. The South’s economic system now depended on Sharecropping, which caused former slaves to be in constant debt and was unjust to the black society. The reconstruction time period, was a time of dispute between the Union.

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.

Finally, with the ratification of the 24th Amendment in 1964, the right to vote could not be determined by the ability to pay poll taxes. This was a major advancement for Black voters, as taxes were often used to deny them the right to vote, despite it being a right outlined in the Fifthteenth Amendment. Historically, African Americans were not taught to read and write, and slave children were denied access to education. In a similar manner, women were not well educated as it wasn’t needed to carry out their duties at home. As a result, tests were used to deny Blacks and women from voting at polls.

According to the Constitution, every man is created equally. This statement has been hard to define, yet it has been the driving vision behind America’s main goal: equality. The goal has been elusive mainly because it is very difficult, if not impossible, to change a whole nation’s perception. The African American community has faced many injustices but have come a long way in terms of being treated equally. The biggest accomplishment, among many, was the abolishment of slavery.

Throughout the initial half of the 20th century, segregation was a social norm in the United States of America, mostly but limited to the southern region of the United States, it became a social norm that would enable hateful acts of violence to be carried out towards the communities that African Americans belonged to, African Americans themselves, and various other aspects of black life and culture. Within Jim Crow and slavery alike, the dehumanization of the black race was precisely the goal of those who enforced and supported its regulations. Between enforcing that African Americans utilize separate facilities that were clearly inferior to that of the white population, not permitting them to enter and use certain services based on the fact that they were black, and not limited to cases of extreme violence. In the cases of extreme violence is where the stories of lynching relay a chilling and disturbing look at the history of Jim Crow. Jim Crow was a normality found in the United States less that a century ago, because of this the civil unrest in response to the injustice in the treatment of African Americans in the 1950’s began to fight the strenuous but honorable