Reconstruction Essay Research Paper Victoria Hubble February

Reconstruction Essay, Research Paper

Victoria Hubble February 8, 2000

Reconstruction

The Reconstruction, a time most people would call a rebirth, succeeded in

few of the goals that it had set out to achieve within the 12 years it was in progress. It was

the reconstruction.s failure in its objectives, that brought forth the inevitable success in

changing the South, as well as the countless African Americans living in it as well as the

countless African Americans living in it at the time. There were three goals the

reconstruction set, and failed to achieve, as well as emphasizing the profound effect it

had on the south, and an entire race.

In the South the Reconstruction period was a time of readjustment

accompanied by disorder. Southern whites wished to keep blacks in a condition of

quasi-servitude, extending few civil rights and firmly rejecting social equality. Blacks, on

the other hand, wanted full freedom and, above all, land of their own. Inevitably, there

were frequent clashes. Some erupted into race riots, but acts of terrorism against

individual black leaders were more common.

During this turmoil, Southern whites and blacks began to work out ways of

getting their farms back into operation and of making a living. Indeed, the most

important developments of the Reconstruction era were not the highly publicized

political contests but the slow, almost imperceptible changes that occurred in southern

society. Blacks could now legally marry, and they set up conventional and usually stable

family units; they quietly seceded from the white churches and formed their own

religious organizations, which became a central point for the black community. Without

land or money, most freedmen had to continue working for white masters; but they were

now unwilling to labor in gangs or to live in the old slave quarters under the eye of the

plantation owner.

The governments set up in the Southern states under the congressional

program of Reconstruction were, contrary to traditional cliches, fairly honest and

effective. Though the period has sometimes been labeled .Black Reconstruction,. the

Radical governments in the south were never dominated by blacks. There were no black

governors, only two black senators and a handful of congressmen, and only one

legislature controlled by blacks. Those black who did hold office appear to have been

about equal in competence and honesty to the whites. it is true that these Radical

governments were expensive, but large state expenditures were necessary to rebuild after

the war and to establish–for the first time on most southern states–a system of common

schools. Corruption there certainly was, though nowhere on the scale of the Tweed Ring,

which at that time was busily looting New York City; but it is not possible to show that

Republicans were more guilty than Democrats, or blacks than whites, in the scandals that

did occur.

If the Civil War was fought to set black slaves free, then Reconstruction

proved to be a fight to limit their freedom. Political power was gained by former slaves

during the late 1860s, but any power gained was all but gone by the end of the 1880s.

Blacks were given liberty in name only for the most part. They were not allowed to

develop nor use the skills necessary to take advantage of that liberty in America.s unique

system of democracy and capitalism.

For most African Americans living in the south during the

Reconstruction era, life changed dramatically from enslavement, to a life of limited

rights. Even though the reconstruction offered them a few unreliable rights, it failed to

offer them the equal amount of social, economic, and political freedoms. It was these

three contributing factors that participated in changing the south. The Reconstruction was

started by the freed slaves who rallied and protested for civil rights as well as justice. In

addition to this, Radical Republicans from 1865 to 1877 temporarily wiped out each state

in the South.s system of government. All of the .black codes., a series of laws that

forced blacks to sign labor contracts requiring them to work at a job for a full year, laws

that permitted employers to whip black workers, and laws that allowed states to jail

unemployed blacks and hire out their children, that violated or contradicted the equality

of any man were overwritten by civil rights bills pushed by the Radical Republicans.

The first goal of the 12 year reconstruction was to build a lifestyle of

social equality for all the African Americans living in the south. This was the first time

the South had been forced to put the equality of all persons before the law.

One of the first changes to South under went due to the Reconstruction

was the rights given to them stating that they could establish an educational system for

their children as well as for themselves. And gradually, towards the end of the

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