The Ordeal of Reconstruction
Reconstruction was based on rebuilding the South after the American Civil War (1861-1865); it impacted social economic, and political issues. The main reason for reconstruction was to put the union back together and free the slaves once and for all. Reconstruction took three periods to be completed. The first was Lincoln, the second was Andrew Johnson, and the third was Congressional Reconstruction. After the civil war, South cities were seriously destroyed in 1865, and North cities were not affected. In economic aspect, economic life had come to a stop. Andrew Johnson became president after Lincoln’s assassination in 1864. Johnson was Lincoln’s vice-president and the only chief executive to be impeached by the House until 1998. He was a Southerner who did not understand the North and a Democrat who had never been accepted by the Republicans. Republicans feared Southerners might join hands with Democratics in the North and win control of Congress. If the South ran Congress, blacks might be enslaved once again. To protest blacks, Congress passed the Civil Rights Bill, but Johnson vetoed the Bill. Now the South was faced with freedman that were unskilled, could not read or write. They had no property or mone
Now, after the war ended, the 13th Amendment was passed to freed the slaves. Black Codes was established to provide economic assistance to get former slaves started as sharecroppers. They were aimed to ensure a stable labor supply and they sought to restore the pre-freedom system of racial relations. They recognize freedom but prohibited the right to serve on a jury and rent or lease land. No blacks were allowed to vote. They mocked the ideal of freedom and created horrible burdens on the free blacks, who were desperately struggling to make it. The North viewed it as re-enslaving the freed slaves. It made the North believe that the war was fought in vain. These laws caused Radical Republicans to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1866. This act was created to grant citizenship to blacks and it was an attempt to prohibit the black codes. It also prohibited racial discrimination on jury selection. The Civil Rights Act was not really enforced and was used to attract more votes. It led to the creation and passing of the Fourteenth Amendment. First called the Civil Rights Bill, then turned into the Fourteenth Amendment proposed by Congress and sent to the states in June of 1866. It provided national citizenship. This meant permanent disfranchisement of all Confederate officials. However, it did not grant the right to vote and all Republicans agreed that a state could not be part of the Union again without ratifying the amendment. Blacks and carpetbaggers gained control of some Southern legislatures. Scalawags were Southerners, former Unionist and Whigs who helped the radical Republicans in the South because they accepted the consequences of the war. Carpetbaggers were Northerners who had packed all their goods into a carpetbag suitcase at war’s end and headed South to seek personal power and profit. Fifteenth Amendment was passed in congress in 1869 and ratified by the required number of states in 1870. It provided voting rights for former slaves.
Some topics in this essay:
Black Codes,
Andrew Johnson,
Reconstruction Act,
Radical Republicans,
Civil War,
Rights Act,
Fourteenth Amendment,
Abraham Lincoln,
Fifteenth Amendment,
Jefferson Davis,
radical republicans,
civil rights,
civil war,
rights act,
andrew johnson,
civil rights act,
congress passed,
civil rights bill,
federal power,
fourteenth amendment,
restored union,
president johnson,
tenure office act,
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Approximate Word count = 1376
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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