Reconstruction:Reconstruction IN U.S.A
The U.S has experienced numerous events in history. A notable event is Reconstruction following the American civil war. The following essay uses terminologies such as carpetbaggers, scalawags, out West, culture, and freedman to explain the context of the Reconstruction. Reconstruction aimed at unifying the society after the civil war, but it failed because it faced a lot of resistance.
External Influences on the Reconstruction
The escalated tensions on slavery and culture in the South and the North emanating from the Civil war are some of the external factors that influenced the Reconstruction. The North broadly opposed slavery and some of the Northerners were involved in the abolitionism movement. In contrast, the South upheld slavery and majority of the Southerners were slave owners. Concerning culture, the North society was much more urban, less religious, and more educated. In the South, people lived further apart; they were less educated and made a living through agriculture. Thus, the two differences made each side think it was better than the other keeping them from trying to understand each other. Therefore while the North supported the Reconstruction, the South opposed it.
How the Reconstruction Proceeded
President Lincoln considered welcoming the devastated South back into the Union and suggested that freedmen be allowed to vote, but instead, he was assassinated. Then, Johnson became president and declared that the South could not be reunited and that the freedmen did not deserve to vote. As a result, many Southern states enacted the black codes, which ensured the availability of black people as a labor force. The repressive laws enraged many in the North, resulting in Johnson’s impeachment. Radical republicans representing a coalition of blacks and white republicans from the South, and the North who were referred to as the scalawags and the carpetbaggers respectively took hold of the Reconstruction in the South.Consequently, they ratified the 14th amendment advocating equal treatment under the law. Later, the 15th amendment was approved, guaranteeing all citizens a right to vote. The former confederate states were also admitted to the Union
Why the Reconstruction Was Needed
The U.S administration sought to reunite the society that had previously been broken by the American civil war and by the effects of slavery. Thus, the Reconstruction aimed at bringing the Southern states back into Union, guaranteeing rights to the freedmen, and establishing new relationships between the whites and the African Americans. The reason is that, when Southern states seceded from the Union, they removed their representatives from Congress, which left both the House and the Senate under control of the North. Still, most of the white Americans held views that they were superior to the freedmen, and so they were not willing to integrate them into society. On the political front, Republicans wanted to give the freedmen the right to vote because they would support them at the polls.
Historical Significance of the Reconstruction
The Reconstruction shook the Sothern’s society foundations forever. The reason is that the Reconstruction led to the passing of the 14th and the 15th amendments. The 14th amendment required that all citizens’ poses equal rights and the 15th amendment mandated all people vote regardless of their race. It is because of Reconstruction that the first statewide hospitals, public schools, and asylums were established in the South. Equally important, the Reconstruction laid the foundation of the modern black community because, for the first time, there developed independent black landowners, churches, teachers, clergymen, and business people.
Why the Reconstruction Failed
Despite the achievements of the Reconstruction, it encountered many challenges due to white resistance, and so, it failed to unite society. First, the U.S still committed to an agricultural economy that utilized sharecropping as the means to keep black people working in the farms that the whites owned. This was especially the case in the out west region of Washington. Second, few carpetbaggers were motivated by corruption and greed, while vigilante groups intimated most scalawags like the Ku Klux Klan. Third, former confederates did not accept defeat. Instead, they waged secret violence that was extremely racists. As a result, freedmen continued to suffer from the impacts of racism and forced labor as well as other injustices.
Bibliographies
“The Constitution of the United States: A transcription.” Accessed April 19, 2020. https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript.
Barber, Stephen P. “In his own words: Houston H. Holloways slavery, emancipation, and ministry in Georgia by Houston Hartsfield Holloway.” Journal of Southern History 83, no. 2 (2017): 420–22. https://doi.org/10.1353/soh.2017.0106.
Block, Kristen. “Science and slavery in historiographical evolution.” Slavery & Abolition 39, no. 4 (2018): 756–65. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144039x.2018.1475121.
Walcott, Courtney. “Freedmen in context: Reconsidering the role of the Freedmen’s Bureau in reconstruction histories.” Mount Royal Undergraduate Humanities Review (MRUHR) 3 (2017). https://doi.org/10.29173/mruhr197.