Reconstruction: A Doomed Idea From the Beginning

A detailed Summary of Reconstruction: A Doomed Idea From the Beginning

After the defeat of the Confederate forces in the Civil War, and their "acceptance" back into America, something needed to be done to help the newly abolished slaves, and to rebuild and reconstruct the remains of the South. This period after the war was deemed Reconstruction. The main focus of it was to help the ex-slaves establish a life and for the South to accept them as free citizens. But, since the originator of this idea was assassinated, Lincoln, the job was left in the hands of a variety of new people which had their own ideals which often times did not go well with or contradicted the original idea. Most Southerners or Northerners did not accept Reconstruction from the start, and very few supported it; this is what caused it to fail.

The Civil War's original goal was to preserve the "Union." As the war progressed though, the intentions of the war turned to destroying the South. Since it was strongly dependent on its agricultural economy, the new goal was to destroy their economy so they could no longer afford to continue the war. Destroying their source of labor, slaves, did this. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery at the end of the war, and many of the slaves became free by joining the Union army even before

Abraham Lincoln was the pioneer for Reconstruction. He started it, but was unable to continue it because of his assassination. When Andrew Johnson became president, he just about destroyed what Lincoln had begun. He vetoed the Freedman's Bureau which supported the ex-slaves by providing schools, hospitals, oversaw contracts signed between ex-slave laborers and their employers, and generally were helping the ex-slaves to start their lives. He militarily took back the land which was given to the slaves, but originally confiscated from the plantation owners. Johnson himself was pro-slavery, which did not help at a time when ex-slaves needed the government's help. After the attempted impeachment of Johnson, Congress saw fit to take it over. Congress became the main power behind Reconstruction after Lincoln. Since the Radical Republicans had managed to get a majority of their supporters in Congress, this enabled them to almost do as they please. The 14th and 15th Amendment became the most significant part of Reconstruction, giving the ex-slaves basic rights to equality and voting privileges. Because these new policies were only effective if enforced, they became almost ineffective in the south because of lack of support for them. Much of the population in the north did not support them either. In addition, the Radical Republicans were continually losing support, especially after the Panic of 1873, which was the largest economic depression up to the time. The Republicans were blamed for it, and they lost many votes. With the Radical Republicans being the source of Reconstruction, that means it began to lose support along with the Radicals. Also, many of the laborers of the north didn't want their jobs to be taken over by the blacks coming up looking for jobs, even though they were getting paid minimally. There was almost as much racial tension in the north as the south, but it was shown in different ways. In the court case Plessy vs. Fergusson, racial segregation was declared legal, via interpretation of the 14th Amendment. This further distanced the relationship between the whites and blacks, which was the opposite effect, which was being attempted with Reconstruction.

In the end, Reconstruction just didn't seem to have the backing it needed to survive. Those who didn't want Reconstruction to work halted many of the attempts by the Radical Republicans to help Reconstruction. The racial hatred was one of the largest contributors, as well as the fear of how the black man might affect peoples' ways of life. Many of the presidents of the time

Some common words found in the essay are:
Radical Republicans, Labor Uprising, Civil War's, Ultimately Reconstruction, Black Codes, Party United, Civil War, Freedman's Bureau, Reconstruction Reconstruction, Reconstruction Partly, radical republicans, help ex-slaves, labor uprising, 14th amendment, lincoln radical republicans, railroad industries, war destroying, society lack, black codes, lincoln radical, 15th amendment,

Approximate Word count = 1736
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History