The First Reconstruction A Revolution
Many people will argue that the social and political changes in the period between 1860 and 1877 culminated in a revolution. This time period, known as the First Reconstruction, made many advances in equality for Blacks in voting, politics, and the use of public facilities. The lawmakers of the time were however unable to make adequate progress in advancing economic equality; therefore Blacks didn't completely escape their original plight. This should not be considered a revolution because its results were quickly reversed when former confederate leaders and other bigots reclaimed the power of legislation in the South. The First Reconstruction was a result of the Civil War and lasted until 1977. The political, social, and economic conditions after the war helped define the goals of lawmakers during the Reconstruction. Congress now had to decide on how they were going to address such topics as; Black equality, rebuilding of the South, admission of southern state to the Union, and deciding who would control the government. In the south the newly freed slaves wandered the countryside and the white population was devastated due to their loss in the recent war. The south was also devastated economically; plantations were de
stroyed, railroads torn up, their labor force gone, and cities were burned. Southern Society has more the features of aristocracy then a democracy... It is impossible that any practical equality of rights can exist where a few thousand men monopolize the whole landed property. How can Republican institutions, free school, free churches, free social intercourse exist in a mingled community of nabobs and serfs, of owners of twenty-thousand-acre manors, with the lordly palaces, and the occupants of narrow huts inhabited low white trash? Although the extension of suffrage to the Black man worked fairly well it did not give the Black man any real power. The number of offices held by Blacks was far from proportional to the number of Black voters. And those Blacks who did manage to get into a political office usually owed it to an alliance that hindered their effectiveness as an office holder. The plan was eventually shot down, being called, "brash and unfair." The Government did not yet understand the importance of economic equality in the freeing of a people.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1005
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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