Reconstruction Failure

Improved Essays
The reconstruction of America was a failure because the goals were too idealistic and broad with no plan as to how the government would achieve them. Though the southern states were readmitted the government admitted the states under three separate plans, while overall achieving the goal, the smaller details of what the government required of the newly admitted states ultimately failed leaving room for the states to return with little fuss. Possible reason for this is how war ravaged the south was from the war and how little money they had to pay for it considering their work force leaving, no government there to help the citizens, and no funds sent to help rebuild the fundamental infrastructure, showing that the government’s goal of rebuilding …show more content…
The lack of work force that contributed to the little improvement of the reconstruction of the infrastructure, also led to the failure of a new social status for former slaves, because of the need for the older work for and how the former masters wanted control and stability from what was constantly leaving them. This showing that the overall reconstruction was a failure because of the methods the government used to readmit, and re-build the southern states, and create a new social status for the former slaves. Though the government created amendments and laws to help reconstruction the achievement of the goals was not successful because of the broadness, and because of the United State’s government lack of involvement to enforce measure to achieve the goals. As the Civil War came to a close the northern states wanted the government to readmit the southern states with as little fuss as possible. In order to do this three plans were devised, and …show more content…
This allowed for the failure to continue, and for sharecropping contracts that would leave the former slaves at a disadvantage, such as the sharecropping contract that a North Carolinian family approved which severely limited the former slaves freedom, as well as where they could go and how they would make their crops, and their money off of their crops. The United States government also failed to address the Louisiana Black Codes, which severely limited where and when the former slaves could go without permission which they did not need. The failure to address these codes demonstrate is a reason that lead for this goal to be unachieved. The black codes led into the statement that Henry Adams gave that showed the Black Codes’ impact on the former slaves’ lives and how the freedom that the United States promised them was more similar to a prison sentence because of the consequences explained in the black codes and how the men who encountered Henry Adams detailed. This division was not only geographical but political as well. The cartoon “Mr. Solid South” demonstrates how the former slave was thought to be as an animal, as seen through the posture demonstrated in the cartoon, and as though they cannot read clearly

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In order to rebuild America, a country torn apart by the Civil War, we must combine portions of Lincoln’s 10% Plan, Johnson’s Plan, and the Congressional Reconstruction so that we may rebuild a thriving country that is inclusive and provides a place the next generation to grow. From Lincoln’s Plan, “If at least 10% of citizens in a state who voted in 1860 elections swore an oath of allegiance to the Union and accepted the terms of the Emancipation Proclamation, citizens could vote in elections that would create new state governments and new state constitutions. After that the state would once again be eligible for representation in Congress and readmitted to the Union” (PIIP15). No former military and civil officers of the Confederacy will…

    • 351 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    However, with the change in regimes from the Radical Republican party to the Democratic party, the freedmen had lost that source of nourishment. They had to protect themselves from the Democrats who regarded the freedmen very poorly. Consequently thousands of freedmen migrated to Western territories to look for more opportunities with limited restrictions. If the Radical Reconstruction did remake the South, then its effects should have remained long after the end of the reconstruction, yet a majority of its works were replaced by other enactments within a very short time. Its unsustainability is one of the most significant reasons why Radical Reconstruction failed in its objective to remake the…

    • 1088 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    After the Civil War, Congress issued a plan to restore the South. During this time period, also known as Reconstruction, many people questioned how the South should be dealt with. Should the Southern states that seceded be readmitted into the Union, or should they be treated as conquered territories? Since the South had lost their main source of profit, the labor slaves, after the Civil War, there was also the question of how to repair the Southern economy. Not everyone shared the same views on these questions, and these ideas would compete against each other during Reconstruction.…

    • 333 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The era of Reconstruction was a massive failure when it came to fixing the nations three major problems, with only a few exceptions. The three challenges being: integrating freed slaves into American society, re-incorporating the rebellious states back into America and rebuilding the south's economy. Attempting to integrate freed slaves back into society, was a failure. Andrew Johnson attempted his best to veto all laws having to do with giving black people any sort of rights. This was due to the fact that Johnson believed passing laws containing civil rights for African Americans was beyond what the founding fathers intended for the constitution.…

    • 1021 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    After the civil war in 1865, the Reconstruction Era emerged. The south was in great tragedy as the war had a significant impact towards the economy, leading to recession. To resolve this problem, the Union came up with resolutions in order to reconstruct the south and let them re-enter the Union. They also had to think about how to retrieve self-reliance of the slaves and provide them citizenship. Some people abruptly contend that the reconstruction had led to a great success; however, it was actually an immense failure.…

    • 1195 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The effort placed towards Reconstruction lacked the cohesion necessary to reconstruct the South. Southern elitist desperately clung to illusions of their sovereignity to the Union and viewed Reconstruction as a perversion of the natural order of life. The Radical Republicans of the North set out disconcert and impoverish rebellious Confederates and African Americans wanted the freedoms and equality entitled to them under the newly amended constitution. These conflicting visions for the ideal America produced a period marked by violence and failure.…

    • 1297 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Reconstruction Dbq

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Also, when the “Redeemers” or “Bourbons” won public office, they wanted to undo the social and economic reforms in the South and bring back the old South, where blacks had no rights of any kind and were just slaves with no freedom. And during the first years of the 20th century, Jim Crow Laws were passed and it allowed legal segregation. With this law, “Blacks and whites could not ride together in the same railroad cars, sit in the same waiting rooms, use the same washrooms, eat in the same restaurants, or sit in the same theaters” (Brinkley, 397). All in all, “…the Jim Crow laws also stripped blacks of many of the modest social, economic, and political gains they had made in the late nineteenth century” (Brinkley, 397). Reconstruction generally speaking was a failure.…

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Commissioner of South Carolina, John Smith Preston, believes that “the South cannot exist without slavery…” (Page 72) which is why South Carolina was the first to succeed from the Union. Southerners did not want to put and end to slavery, therefore creating this uprising that influenced many factors such as states rights, the economy, and the state as a whole. With the many states succeeding in effort to dissolve the Union, politics played a big role between the North and the South. Dew realized that time and time again, in all the commissioners’ speeches and letters, slavery was always the main topic brought up along with other brief topics discussed in this book.…

    • 882 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    With the Civil War ending, the American South begun entering a new era called Reconstruction. Reconstruction plan was for the benefit of the suffering residents in the Southern States. During reconstruction there were several successes and few fiascos that affected the southern population. The main legacy of reconstruction became the freedom of the black population that had been wrongfully punished in the South.…

    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Eric Foner’s “A Short History of Reconstruction” is an updated, abridged edition of “Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution.” This book redefines how the Reconstruction Era is viewed, in ways historians have not done before. Foner chronologically starts with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 to validate his statement that “Reconstruction was not only a specific time period, but also the beginning of an extended historical process: the adjustment of American society to the end of slavery.” Starting his novel with this allows him to stress “the Proclamation’s importance in uniting…grass-roots black activity and the newly empowered national state” and state that this period is the beginning of “the adjustment of American society to…

    • 1499 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that this time period should not be labeled as a “failure” or a “success” because these are just arbitrary terms to define whether the conflict was good or bad which is solely a matter of opinion. Some of the intentions of Reconstruction were fulfilled, while other conditions of the Union remained the same. Many aspects of Reconstruction contributed to the success of the United States, but leaning towards the dissenting argument would be more legitimate. Reconstruction failed because blacks were not given complete equality when the Union troops retreated from the southern states. Many acts and tactics passed during this time show the…

    • 1781 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Process Of Reconstruction

    • 732 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Reconstruction simply means to rebuild something that had already been. So the term reconstruction, when referring to American history, means rebuilding the Union, or bringing southern states back into the Union. Changes in the constitution, Freedman 's bureau, and more power being given to the federal government are three changes that resulted from this process of bringing southern states back into the Union. Immediately following the surrender of Robert E Lee, the idea of freeing slaves became priority in bringing the southern states back into the Union.…

    • 732 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Following the end of the Civil War, the Union came out the victor and the Confederacy the loser. Because the Confederacy lost the war, though, the Union was presented with the problem of reincorporating the southern states back into the Union, a process known to historians as Reconstruction. With the goal in mind of creating a Republican presence in the south based on a Free Labor ideology, the Republican Party was only moderately successful, and their eventual failure resulted in a Democratic south as well as southern traditions, such as white supremacy, being retained. Nearing Union victory, President Abraham Lincoln proposed a solution to reincorporate the southern states back into the Union.…

    • 1263 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Reconstruction was one of the biggest failures in United States History. It was supposed to be one of the most important things to happen to the country after the Civil War, but due to the lack of good leadership, and difficulty of a good compromise between the Democrats and the Republicans, it became a lost cause. The failure of Reconstruction definitely did affect the recently freed African Americans and Republicans. The Civil War was one of the most important events in United States History.…

    • 831 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Such plans were very difficult and makes it more difficult for restoration. One have to take into consider that during a war every aspect is impacted, the condition of the economy, politic, and social condition. (Edsitement, 2015) Southern states suffers deeply as they relied heavily on free labor from slaves to build their economy that was suddenly pulled from under their feet. They had to try to come up with some alternative to replace the free labor that would allow them to gain capital to keep them afloat.…

    • 1152 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays