Was Reconstruction A Failure?

Improved Essays
Reconstruction in the South is a very controversial topic. It was intended to reunite the North with the Southern states that had seceded. Some say that Reconstruction was a success, while others believe it to be a failure. No matter what people believe, there were most definitely both positive and negative changes brought about by reconstruction. Many racist white men were going against the changes that were made to aid the newly freed slaves.

First, reconstruction succeeded in bringing new opportunities and rights to freed slaves and poor whites. For example, educational opportunity became an option as reconstruction was happening. School and institutions for African Americans were created. According to the ‘American Anthem’ textbook on

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Intro Every major civil rights, political, and social movement that was involved in the growth of America had its adversities, prosperities, and oppositions. One of which was the reconstruction period of 1865 to 1877 which was a result of the Civil War and the separation of the union. The reconstruction period mainly focused on the rights and social acceptance of the blacks in the south while also focusing on the unity of America. Union Reconstruction After the Civil War, the south was in ruins, they had invaluable currency, lack of labor, and no reputable source of income. The Union later pitched in helping the south regain and boost their nearly-diminished economy.…

    • 367 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    After the civil war was over, the North and the South started to execute a plan called the reconstruction. The goal of this was to reconcile the North and South, and to give freedmen (ex-slaves) rights and education. Everything was going really well, and the 13th and 15th amendments to the constitution were ratified, abolishing slavery and giving black men the right to vote. However, the reconstruction started to fall apart in the early 1870’s, and died in 1877.…

    • 448 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The Reconstruction was a success at the beginning by adding the three new amendments, but it failed after that because the rules weren't strong enough to protect the former slaves from the white farmers. It didn't help the slaves to get equal rights like everyone including education, jobs and economic equality. At this point slaves were already free, but they weren't accepted in the society. The Reconstruction wasn't strong enough to deliver how important and big the problem was and that's why it failed. After a lot of tries African americans had to fight for their own rights until later on they got more accepted in the…

    • 108 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    2003 Apush Dbq Analysis

    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Ku Klux Klan resented the progress that was being made and began to target both the scalawags and carpetbaggers. These different events made the Reconstruction a success both socially and economically. Reconstruction successfully put blacks on leveled ground with whites, but didn’t change southern racist sentiment. Biggest change of all was slavery being abolished. Economically blacks were building their own businesses and limited land reform ideas had been pursued, however, no widespread land reform happened.…

    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Reconstruction was a time period after the Civil War when the North intended to reinforce or rebuild the economy of the South and bring back the South into the Union once again. During this time, they managed to accomplish quite a few things. For example, the 13th, 14th, and the 15th amendments were passed by Congress. While the 13th amendment abolished slavery, the 14th amendment allowed African Americans to have citizenship and have protection under the law. On top of that, the 15th amendment allowed every male to possess the right to vote despite their race or having been a slave before.…

    • 870 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sabeena Jagdeo Reconstruction in the South has Failed “The slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery” -W.E.B. Dubois. Reconstruction of the south seemed to help the southern society greatly in creating a equal environment for slaves, but in reality, all it did was make the world believe that slaves were free from their landowners. The reconstruction freed slaves from the obligation of working under the whites, but they were still forced to do so, in order to survive. The reconstruction failed because it only made slaves free from slavery, but did not make them entirely free of oppression from the whites, as Dubois suggested. They were still inferior to whites, and only gained freedom for a short period.…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 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

    Reconstruction Dbq

    • 442 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Reconstruction era was the North’s attempt to bring the South back into the Union. The Union placed troops in the South to enforce the laws regarding equal treatment of African Americans. The Reconstruction failed because after the troops left, the South went back to the way it was before, if not worse. After the Civil War, the South was being brought back into the Union.…

    • 442 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Reconstruction Dbq

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Abolishing slavery in the beginning led to many complicated issues, which caused social and economic issues for many African Americans and some poor whites as well in the South. Although there were some aspects that can be proved that it was successful, but the overriding evidence of discrimination, inequality and hatred led to Reconstruction being a…

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Was Reconstruction a Success or a Failure? After the Civil War ended in 1865, America was left divided, and needed a solution to solve the problems that were present before the war. There were problems like Southern Democrats wanting their power back, discrimination against blacks, and many more problems. The solution to this problem was Reconstruction which lasted from 1865 to 1877.…

    • 1402 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Reconstruction is a very strong debatable topic on its success or failure for us African Americans as a whole. Unknowingly after we had fought beside those who encouraged better social and moral standards among the nation for blacks, we were now apart of the new found Reconstruction cause. As a congressman during this time period many may believe that I have succeeded within society just because of my status alone. Coming from a low level status of a slave and having completely no moral or civil rights, to where I am now can support this statement of success as true. I nor my peers could have imagined that just ten years earlier as slaves, could truly advance in society and establish higher respect amongst the white men who once thought less of our race.…

    • 1109 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Civil War had left many cities and people in ruins and they needed time to rebuild momentum in their country. During this time, the government had scurried to solve problems in the south after major laws had been put into action. Promises were made and lost, leaving certain individuals in major conflicts. With so many situations to take care of, issues had started to occur for the poor and the African Americans. Overall, Reconstruction was a failure because it was difficult for people to gain money and had set up segregation between blacks and whites.…

    • 365 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    One of the main goals of the Civil War was to abolish slavery and create equality for all citizens. Reconstruction was supposed to help Southerners accomplish this goal. However, African Americans didn 't end up with perfect equality in 1865 and they still don 't have it in the year 2015. The racism after Reconstruction took away African Americans ' voting rights, they segregated colored and white people, and they even threatened them. Reconstruction was able to give African Americans many rights, but none of these rights lasted.…

    • 1273 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    With reconstruction slavery was abolished and African Americans had freedom to theirs rights reconstruction did equal amount for blacks and whites southerners…

    • 1060 Words
    • 4 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