Consequences Of Reconstruction Essay

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Reconstruction began throughout the nation but mostly in the South following the civil war in 1865. It had many widely positive and negative consequences within the period that were felt both short term and long term for the North and the South which would ultimately lead to the ending of Reconstruction period. In this essay I will compare and contrast the many sides of the Reconstruction period from Presidential changes, corruption of government, freedoms of blacks, rebuilding of a nation and the end results of the Reconstruction period. President Abraham Lincoln wanted to help bring together the Union as peacefully as possible with little waves in the South. The South was in much need of a rebuilt as most of it was destroyed in the war. …show more content…
He also intended long term to end slavery throughout the Union in order for the South to become part of the Union again. Although it was expected the South would have a hard time adjusting to the newly given free rights of many blacks. The financial gain and rebuilding their towns was expected planned and intended to help the south overcome this negativity. The long term consequence was successful and all the South did return to the Union upholding the freedom of Slaves some with more twists and turns around it then others. A much unexpected result was the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Leading to a new predecessor who would have to take over the lead to joining the two into one union. The next president was Andrew Johnson who was from the south and now wanted to be even lenient towards the South. Again following to much of what Abraham Lincoln had intended because of this Andrew Johnson found himself facing impeachment from a disagreeing house. This was an unexpected consequence for the president. Much of the Reconstruction lead to poor plans and corruption that tried to create a new form of Government that often mishandled the rights to uphold blacks newly found freedoms within the south and parts of the north. This mishandling of rights lead the South to create a much separated and segregated hatred view point that had lasting effects well into the 1960’s. It also lead to …show more content…
This radical group reigned terror into many southern blacks and installed fear as many tried to practice their newly found freedoms. Killing many innocent lives in the most gruesome of ways in order to stop the blacks from practicing their freedoms. The bigger problem became to the members of the KKK itself were upheld by many leading officials, judges and main people within the Southern government. Who in return long term found themselves above the law of the land. So there was not many to stop its trend in its tracks and uphold the law. This matter became even worse when the depression of 1873 hit due to a scandal within the government that was unexpected and lead to many corrupt officials resigning that short term effected both the north and the south with credit problems. The creation of dummy companies who banked in on the Reconstruction like that created by the Pacific Railroad. The north because of these issues felt they could care less about freedoms or stopping the KKK and now focused on finding jobs with a high unemployment rate and their rights to survive. Which long term lead to the south further taking advantage of the blacks.
Long term this did not all together stop the Black freedoms. They did manage to use the freedom to vote and set up many churches and schools to educate its population.

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