The Success and Failures of Reconstruction

“A house divided against itself cannot stand. ” - Abraham Lincoln. After the Civil War, America was in the era of Reconstruction, which was to bring the eleven seceding states back to a self-government and to be reseated in Congress, civil status of the former leaders of the Confederacy, and the Constitutional and legal status of freedmen. As people focused to attack on these issues, there was also people who thought the opposite was better for America such as, the South did not like some of the ideas that was to come with Reconstruction of America, and also the Klu Klux Klan who was established by white men who supported Reconstruction but not towards legal status of freedmen. The Reconstruction era was not easy to finish and it had it’s up and downs, such as The Compromise of 1877 and the Enforcement Act of 1870 were up but the downs of Blackcodes and Jim Crow Laws. Getting though our trials and tribulations isn’t easy but getting though them makes us stronger then ever. The start of reuniting the Union and the South together was started by Lincoln’s Ten percent plan, which proposed to the South that if 10 percent of the 1860 vote count from that state had taken an oath of allegiance to the U. S. and pledged to abide by emancipation, then that state can be reintegrated into the Union. People in the North began to move down South to support the Union over there, such as northerns called carpetbaggers and southerns who were already there that supported Union known as scalawags, they organized to create constitutional conventions. They created new state constitutions to set new directions for southern states. Also educated blacks moved down to support the uneducated slaved blacks, and the natural leaders that stepped up, white or black, were elected to represent them in constitutional conventions. There was a lot of success during the Reconstruction era such as The reunification of the Union, this separation lasted 4 years, and Reconstruction had brought them together and restored what we know as the United States. Expansion of the South and North’s economy, the Reconstruction brought many offer to the South as well as the North since it proposed to collaborate in order to make a better place. More laws that protected the rights of the newly freedmen, and accepted them as men, having the right to vote and speak. Freedmen’s Bureau was formed to prevent people from becoming homeless and poor and education was provided to everyone, and it was forced in the South. The Compromise of 1877 and the Enforcement Act of 1870 which “banned the use of terror, force, or bribery to prevent people from voting because of their race”. Failures of the Reconstructions were the formation of the Klu Klux Klan who were people who wore robes and masks and pretended to be ghost of the Confederate soldiers, they were scared of change and the rising rights of the African Americans. Poverty struck the South bad because many white southerns lost their land and the blacks were newly freed, but there was little jobs offered to African Americans. The industrialization in the South was too slow and sharecropping and tenant farming brought more complications because it was unfair to the laborers on the land. Corruption of taxes because little percent would be used to help and the rest would go in the government’s pockets. Taxes were raised in order to rebuild the South and Jim Crow Laws which supported discrimination and racial segregation. The Reconstruction went though a lot of battles on issues to get through of the aftermath of the Civil War, but getting though our trials and tribulations isn’t easy but getting though them makes us stronger then ever. And after the Reconstruction, all we could do is move forward as a stronger country. The Reconstruction united the North and South making it one, as it was before the Civil War. A lot of laws and freedom to freedmen was established which gave more freedom rights to individual of America. It brought a lot of people more together, creating a new America, because as President Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand. ” Through the Reconstruction and settling of difference is the reason why we are still standing. The Success and Failures of Reconstruction

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