70 thoughts on “Blog #71 – Reconstruction – Success or Failure?”

1. Emily Lulkin January 12, 2015 at 10:44 pm

   I believe that reconstruction was a failure. I think there were many small successes, but the failures outweigh these successes. Furthermore, the fact that racism is still such a huge problem in America just proves that reconstruction did not leave the lasting effect it had intended, and may not even be finished today. People didn’t finish what they started and this unfinished business was either addressed later in the 1960s during the Civil Rights Movement, or just pushed off until now when these problems have arose again.
   During the Reconstruction period, congress passed the 14th and 15th amendments, but they did not follow through with the enforcement. They took the first step by passing these laws, which is a success, but they did not fully enforce them during the reconstruction period, which is a huge failure. It seems as if they were “talking the talk” but not “walking the walk”.
   Foner’s view of reconstruction is that it was not just a 12-year period, but an ongoing process of accepting the Freedmen into our society. When you look at reconstruction from this point of view, then it is obvious how much of a failure reconstruction was. In the 12 years of reconstruction, Americans may have accomplished the short-term goals they had in mind, which makes it seem like a success. However, when you look at the big picture, there is still racism in America today which means Americans only temporarily solved their problems and just handed off the left overs to the next generation. Maybe by not fully solving the problems, Americans never truly ended reconstruction and it is up to us to finish what they started. Although it may be naïve to say that racism could completely disappear, I think it is realistic to say that this generation can finally complete reconstruction. By accepting all people, no matter their race, gender, sexual orientation, we can finish reconstruction and finally make it a success.
2. Vickie L. January 13, 2015 at 10:52 am

   Reconstruction was a success because even though it had many negative effects, enough for people to prove was a failure by playing a game of pros and cons, its impact on the future centuries made it worth it. Reconstruction freed slaves and gave them rights that centuries before Southern Plantation Owners would go awry for such a thing. It was an era of attempts of new changes in the “white-man’s land” of the U.S. For example, the KKK or the Ku Klux Klan was a negative effect of Reconstruction but it was something we should have expected to occur. From the time our nation was first created till the time before reconstruction, the U.S. were predominately slave owners that were all for cheap labor for their profit. The collision of a sudden change in social class and the strong view that whites would always be superior to blacks would set up a scene that won’t be so pretty. These white southerners loved having cheap labor, being higher than people just like bullies today, and they were usually conservative because of the agrarian lifestyle. Every change has its effects. The end of Reconstruction showed the unfair treatment of former slaves like segregation. However, this treatment of blacks isn’t as bad as it was when they were slaves. The blacks have a strong political party on their side now (the Radical Republicans) and they are now free. They might not have anywhere to settle and not have much money to invest in land but they are now free and are given rights to vote. This is a step to the end of unfair treatment of colored individuals. As you can see today, we have gone a long way to finally stop the segregation of colored individuals and whites in the U.S. Without Reconstruction, it probably would’ve taken longer to finally set the equilibrium between the color of our skin and our social classes. And because it is a longer period of time, this will add to the anger to the slave owners because they are more used to their slave-owning lifestyle.
3. Eric "Leviathan" January 13, 2015 at 11:27 am

   The Reconstruction Era (1865-1876) had it’s fair share of successes and failures. The establishment of the Freedmen’s Bureau and the ratification of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were a huge success for steps towards equal rights in the nation, however, the 14th and 15th were only effective at their original purpose for a short time until put on hiatus to guarantee rights again in the 1960’s under the 1964 Civil Rights act. For a while, former slaves were integrated into the Southern government and could vote. However, failures arose when federal soldiers were removed from the South, causing the racists in the South to go attack black voters and keep them from voting or serving in government. Some carpetbaggars and scalawags were not interested in helping freedmen, and were just present to exploit the weak and unorganized Southern government, and rampant corruption arose. Freedmen were also taken of their rights by black codes and organizations like the Klan which attacked and terrorized blacks, killing many. Freedmen were supposed to be given large amounts of land, but the land was poor and due to Johnson’s policies, the Freedmen tending their land were evicted and old southern aristocrats were put back into power, and became sharecropping masters. Sharecropping was blacks and poor whites being forced to tend to the crops and field hand work, but would never be able to pay back the debt that they had for using the land. Sharecropping was similar to slavery, but a success did lie that the people could no longer be sold, and could be taught to read and write. The Southern states were filled with insurgency but a great success of Reconstruction though did include the inability of the South to stay seceded, and the re-integration of the states back into the Union.
4. Jayde A January 13, 2015 at 4:15 pm

   Reconstruction had two main goals; to give freedmen their rights and reunite the Union. The first goal was initially a success as freedmen were given many rights with the 14th and 15th amendments and they were thrust into political power. Though they had little to no experience in politics, most State governments in the South were run by freedmen because any Southerners involved with the Confederacy were stripped of voting rights and political power. However this progress didn’t last as President Johnson pardoned most of the former confederates so they began to return to political power, and terrorist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan were formed to take away any of the rights given to freedman and promote white supremacy. This was only made worse by the federal government leaving all enforcement of the new amendments and the rights of blacks in the hands of Southern state governments who made no moves to enforce any laws protecting blacks. In reuniting the Union reconstruction started out poorly. Congress did their best to take away political power from all former confederates and impose other punishments onto the States such as forcing them to pay off their own debt. However President Johnson began to hand out pardons to all ex confederates and the white Southerners used groups like the KKK to restore the social balance they had before the war. This lead us to fall back into a similar tense equilibrium the two divide halves of the country had before the war. In conclusion reconstruction both succeeded and failed at both of its main goals but it made significant changes on the social structure of our nation.
5. Anna H. January 13, 2015 at 4:32 pm

   I believe that Reconstruction was both a success and a failure. I say this because it has many strides that helped to shape our country to be what it is today, but these many strides also had great consequences that came with them during the Reconstruction era. I believe it was a success in the aspects of creating and passing the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. These amendments helped shape our country because the 13th amendment abolished slavery all together, while the 14th and 15th amendments granted every U.S citizen equal protection under the law, and allowed them to vote (except women). Reconstruction was also a success because some of these freed blacks were even starting to work in the government buildings, and help out with politics, even though many white government people didn’t take their ideas into consideration, it showed that blacks were starting to become a part of the U.S. Later, white government people holding positions stated to include the freed blacks and started to listen to their ideas, and take them into consideration. On the other hand, the Reconstruction era was also a failure. It was a failure first off because off the Klan, and their reactions in intimidating, killing, and punishing mostly blacks and their supporters, to keep them from voting during elections. Reconstruction was also a failure because after it ended, Southern states were left to themselves again, and began to impose major segregation on blacks. This is an example of failure because Reconstruction was supposed to make all U.S citizens equal for eternity, and change peoples view on race. But, as soon as it ended people basically went back to doing what they did before Reconstruction. The Reconstruction era also failed to help blacks economically. They did not receive what they hoped for after escaping slavery, and continued to be poor farm workers who had to go work for rich landowners, which sounds a lot similar to slavery to me. These are the reasons why I believe that Reconstruction was both a success, and a failure.
6. Cassie D January 13, 2015 at 4:42 pm

   In my opinion, reconstruction was a failure. While the best intentions were at hand, I don’t feel much changed in the 12 years other than the obvious abolishment of slavery. Racism is still a prominent issue in America and I feel we haven’t followed through in this plan to make all equal and such. It’s not only racism though, it’s discrimination on many levels whether race, gender, sexual orientation, or whatever difference people can find in another person. I think the main issue with the reconstruction period was that the country wasn’t unified on what they wanted to reconstruct. People didn’t have a solid ‘this is what we are trying to accomplish’ it was a battle between the country to change or stay the same. Issues such as the black codes came up during the reconstruction period which just revived southern defiance. The 13th amendment made it so slavery was abolished, but people still tried to create restrictions on blacks and restrain their lives. The black codes main purpose was to get a labor force in the South and to go back to the social structure they had before the war, where the blacks were on the bottom and the whites were on top. The issues just grew from this point like sharecropping and tenant farming, so blacks could get basically be trapped back into slavery because they were in so much debt that they couldn’t leave. While the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments were steps in the right direction, they weren’t enforced and so they made little change until much later in history. I think a major issue that came along with the reconstruction period was the development of the KKK. The KKK stated as a group of men that talked about the things they didn’t like, all anti-black related. They wore the white costumes because they wanted to be seen as the ‘confederate ghosts’. They then realized that this fear tactic worked well so they then turned to violence. The failure of federal enforcement in regards to the enforcements acts of 1870 and 1871 just proves more why reconstruction was a failure. They tried to stop the KKK, but couldn’t manage to do that. The “Lost Cause” and the redeemers worked to fight the advancement of this nation by working against it politically by voting against the republicans and making this happen by using violence and terror. Another step in the right direction was taken when the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was made, but once again it wasn’t enforced well enough to do anything. On top of all of that there wasn’t a new civil rights act until 1964, so reconstruction did what really? I feel that reconstruction made large steps in the right direction, it was just the carrying out of the plan and the enforcing of the amendments that would have helped to change more. I feel the actual 12 years labeled the reconstruction period wasn’t necessarily when the most change happened, I feel change has been happening since then and we are still growing from it today.
7. Sam Z January 13, 2015 at 5:16 pm

   It is impossible to say the reconstruction was a total failure, mostly because we can’t go back and see what would be different if it hadn’t happened at all. I wouldn’t say it was entirely a success either (or even a little bit really) but I think the reconstruction period that existed kept things from getting as worse as they would without it. If it would have gone as intended by some, it would have been a lot more successful. If there is one thing I do agree with, however, it is that the protagonists in this section of history are the (radical) republicans (even if some of them were acting out of self interest) and freedmen against Andrew Johnson and the KKK. The video shows a lot of the devastation during the reconstruction time, but I have to think, was this caused by reconstruction itself or was it occurring because a war just ended and tensions were still high? For example the formation of the KKK: was this caused because the ex-confederate soldiers were bitter about reconstruction, or would they have created it regardless? I think it would have happened even if there weren’t reconstruction efforts and that the attention the south was getting because of reconstruction actually helped stop the KKK (because organized troops were sent in to stop it). I feel like there were some more obvious triumphs of reconstruction as well- the formations of the freedmen’s bureau, for example. The bureau did do a lot to help freedmen, even though the only land they could give was sucky. Something that would have majorly upped productivity of reconstruction would have been if the good land confiscated by the government went to freedmen instead of back to the ex-confederate owners so easily (thanks Andrew Johnson). Overall, reconstruction seems really successful from the outside when seeing the big picture: emancipation of slaves, formation of the freedmen’s bureau, etc. However, when you dig a little bit deeper, you see that some of the plans that seemed very helpful, really weren’t: freedmen still ended up poor and landless and had to go work for former master just like before. The reconstruction time period also has some horrible outcomes- the formation of the KKK, racial prejudice, “separate but equal”, etc- that may or may not have been affected if reconstruction was done differently. I think reconstruction had some benefits… but not nearly enough as there should have been.
8. Shannon Smith January 13, 2015 at 5:22 pm

   I believe that the reconstruction era was a failure, despite small improvements in the African American’s lives. I don’t think the government should have had to form amendments to give people who already American citizens constitutional rights. Rights for African Americans such as the right to vote should have come with the passing of the 13th amendment. Full Constitutional rights should have come with freedom. The 14th amendment had a major loophole in it which was the “due process of law” part. It allowed laws that discriminated against blacks based on race to be passed without being unconstitutional. This prevented freedmen from voting, using their constitutional rights, or even trying to make a new life for themselves. The land that was given to the slaves was then taken away from them when President Johnson gave former confederate officers pardons in which former slaves were forced into sharecropping to work and pay off debt which they should not have had in the first place. As freedmen pushed for their right, terrorist organizations like the KKK flourished embarking on terrorizing night rides. Even though some people from the north tried to combat the Klan, the law illegalizing this kind of terror did not pass until most of the activity was slowed. Even after the leader said that the Klan had vanished into thin air, there was still activity going on out of small dens of Klansmen throughout the South. Also, local sheriffs did not arrest the Klansmen because they were either a part of it themselves or feared the Klan harming them. Scalawags and carpet baggers may not have been very helpful with Reconstruction overall because most of them wanted either economic or financial opportunities. Scalawags urged black men to vote even though they were not allowed to vote due to laws such as Grandfather clauses (which allowed poor whites to vote due to idea of white supremacy), poll tax, and Literacy tests. Black codes also prohibited blacks from using their new found rights and kept them to the farm life that they had when they were slaves. This oppression towards African Americans would continue until almost a century later in the 1960’s after Reconstruction- an era that was supposed to give blacks full rights after they were emancipated.
9. alex ross January 13, 2015 at 5:29 pm

   When it comes to the question of whether reconstruction was a success or failure, I have to say the answer is pretty complicated. My view on it was that it started off with rapid success, however that progress slowed and actually started to regress and for roughly the next 90 years I would consider it to have been a failure. However, the process was completed in the 1960s during the civil rights movement when blacks finally got the equal rights originally promised to them during the early phases of reconstruction. The rapid success that reconstruction had right off the bat was caused mostly due to the republican majority in congress. Under this majority, they passed amendments to free slaves, grant the equal citizenship and guarantee the right to vote all within a few years. Also, they rapidly progressed the role of blacks in society, allowing them to vote and even electing a few of them to congress and sensate. African Americans were protected from violence by federal troops and were getting much needed things like education. However, once southern democrats came back in power, they did all they could to reverse this. They enacted black codes and Jim Crow laws that limited the rights of blacks. They started a system of segregation that would last for almost 100 years. Also, without the protection of federal troops, terrorists like the KKK terrorized blacks by attacking and in some cases even killing them. During This time period, reconstruction could have been considered a miserable failure. However, during the civil rights acts in the 1960s, the government finally decided to enforce the 14th and 15th amendment, both of which were good things that had come out of reconstruction. And because of their decision to enforce those, everybody finally got the equal rights that they deserved. So in the end, I believe that the initial success of reconstruction allowed it to overcome the period of failure, to eventually accomplish the original purpose of reconstruction.
10. Wil Iverson January 13, 2015 at 6:34 pm

    Overall, the reconstruction era was both a success and failure. Primarily because of all the precautions and actions taken by the north ended up having a separate effect then anticipated. The beginning of reconstruction was more or less successful with the establishment of the Freedmen’s bureau. This gave hope to the newly freed slaves due to the aid given to them by the Bureau. Along with the Bureau, the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were ratified which gave blacks full citizenship and the rights that came with it, such as voting. Along with african americans having citizenship, they got involved in southern politics by establishing positions in office within the state governments during their rebuilding. The military reconstruction act of 1867 helped with the protection of freed blacks as well. The south was divided into multiple districts that were to be under northern military control which protected the rights and safety of blacks, as well as keep order and insure things are going as planned. However, the downfall of these plans were caused when president Andrew Johnson allowed the charter of the Freedmen’s Bureau to expire which stopped all governmental aid to southern blacks. Along with the fall of the bureau, negotiations involving the 14th and 15th amendments caused the northern military to withdraw from the south, causing racial prejudice to explode throughout the south. The whites began to reestablish their dominance in the south by denying blacks the right to vote or making it more challenging for them to gain access to polls by requiring them to pass literacy tests. Along with the decline of black voter due to the high standards required to vote, the Ku Klux Klan arose which gave blacks another reason to stay away from the polls despite recent legislature granting them rights to vote. Share cropping was another major issue for the newly free black citizens because of the hardships they had to endure. Many african americans found themselves as tenants on their former masters land. Sharecropping was not a viable mean of making money, the tenants had to pay large taxes to their landlords and the merchant that loaned them the tools. It was practically slavery all over again. With both benefits and setbacks in play, it is fair to say that reconstruction was one or the other. Political and social advancements towards the start broke barriers and created major milestones, but it wasn’t until later into the era when things started to fall apart.
11. Parker T. January 13, 2015 at 6:55 pm

    Reconstruction had many ups and downs. When the Freedmen’s Bureau and the ratification of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments sprang up, they were a huge step towards equal rights for everyone in the country. This “huge” step was short-lived, however, when the 14th and 15th amendments were stretched and in some ways changed by the court in cases like the Civil Rights Cases in 1883. Although slaves were officially free, they were not guaranteed much freedom. In some southern states, freedmen were allowed to vote and participate in politics. This new freedom brought anger to many whites which led to many white southerners attempting to keep blacks from voting no matter what the cost. When slaves were freed, they were guaranteed land in order to start a farm to support themselves and their families. This land unfortunately, was useless for farming as it was often either swampy or rocky. When Johnson came into power, he ended up giving the good farming land back to the southerners which left the freedmen with no land or land that had no use. Since freedmen could not support themselves with their limited amount of skill and no land, they were forced to work for the wealthy white aristocrats. This system restored the power back to the whites in the south. Freedmen started working for wealthy white southerners again in a system called sharecropping where slaves worked the owner’s land for a portion of the product produced at the end of the season. The freedmen had to take out loans on all of the supplies they needed and soon enough, they were so in debt that they were stuck working for the white southerner for another season. This cycle repeated over and over again until it became clear that all of the issues during the pre- Civil War period still remain after the fact. Because of these failures, I have to say that Reconstruction, although it was a some-what good attempt, was a failure.Reconstruction had many ups and downs. When the Freedmen’s Bureau and the ratification of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments sprang up, they were a huge step towards equal rights for everyone in the country. This “huge” step was short-lived, however, when the 14th and 15th amendments were stretched and in some ways changed by the court in cases like the Civil Rights Cases in 1883. Although slaves were officially free, they were not guaranteed much freedom. In some southern states, freedmen were allowed to vote and participate in politics. This new freedom brought anger to many whites which led to many white southerners attempting to keep blacks from voting no matter what the cost. When slaves were freed, they were guaranteed land in order to start a farm to support themselves and their families. This land unfortunately, was useless for farming as it was often either swampy or rocky. When Johnson came into power, he ended up giving the good farming land back to the southerners which left the freedmen with no land or land that had no use. Since freedmen could not support themselves with their limited amount of skill and no land, they were forced to work for the wealthy white aristocrats. This system restored the power back to the whites in the south. Freedmen started working for wealthy white southerners again in a system called sharecropping where slaves worked the owner’s land for a portion of the product produced at the end of the season. The freedmen had to take out loans on all of the supplies they needed and soon enough, they were so in debt that they were stuck working for the white southerner for another season. This cycle repeated over and over again until it became clear that all of the issues during the pre- Civil War period still remain after the fact. Because of these failures, I have to say that Reconstruction, although it was a some-what good attempt, was a failure.
12. Ryan Gross January 13, 2015 at 7:22 pm

    It doesn’t take a genius to recognize that reconstruction after the Civil War was a complete and utter failure. The era was laughably a major waste of time, with little positive outcomes, the outlaw of Slavery being the most notable. The negatives outweigh the positives, and once you look at it closer it only looks good on paper but once put into action was a mess, like lobbying.
    Anyways, to narrow down a few of those negatives, I must first start with the temporary failure of the 14th and 15th amendment. These two acts were both designed to” Blend the two races!” and “Purge the social barriers!!” But sadly, none of this happened. If the former Confederate states even followed these amendments, they were shortly compromised and pushed aside at the blade of court cases. These court cases overturned the amendments and left them to rot for nearly a century. To be more specific, they found a long way around the 14th amendment. The term used in the amendment ‘equal rights’ was viewed as different from the word ‘separate’. And now yes, you’ve guessed it. This was the birthplace of the infamous segregation era. Separate drinking fountains, unfairness in court, you get the picture. The 15th amendment was designed to give everyone voting rights regardless of color, and this was torn down as well.

    Let’s talk about the corruption that arose in government. As discussed in the notes, patronage became popular. Patronage is when men are given high paying seats in office for purely financial gain. Another example of the corruption in government were the ‘carpetbaggers’ and ‘scalawags’ who were introduced into office. Carpetbaggers are Northerners who come to the south in hopes of making money off of reconstruction. Money became the first priority with these men.

    The last major failure of reconstruction was slave’s introduction into society. Because slaves had always been farmers and craftsmen, big campaigns ran saying they could only be farmers, and actual laws were passed saying so. Slaves were introduced to sharecropping, where they farmed and worked for white men in exchange for rent and/or a small payment. This turned freedmen back into a state of ‘almost’ slavery where they were punished just as harsh, had little rights, the only difference being they weren’t working against their will… most of the time.

    I mostly agree with the newer interpretations, that President Johnson was one of the worst presidents ever and tried to stop Republicans from giving the former slaves any real rights.
13. Skyeler McQ January 13, 2015 at 7:32 pm

    I believe reconstruction was a failure. The goal of the Civil War was to free the southern slaves, which it did. The goal of reconstruction was to restore the south to its former glory while simultaneously creating an environment of equality for all American men, which it did not. Though the south became great once again, equality was not present for freed slaves in the south. Racist, terrorist groups, like the Ku Klux Klan, terrorized African Americans. This members of this organization harassed members of the Freedmen’s Bureau by dressing up as Confederate Ghosts. After they decided that their scare tactics were effective, they added violence as a method to control those who disagreed with their white supremacist ways. The KKK oppressed black voters, as they would vote republicans, as well as scalawags and carpetbaggers.
    The southern state governments’ black codes and Jim Crow laws also oppressed freed slaves. These racist laws wanted to guarantee that whites stayed above blacks in the pre-civil war system of race relations. These laws forced blacks into labor, by putting in place laws that arrested black men and women for not working. This was because the southerners believed that the freed men and women had, “Plenty to eat and nothing to do”. If African Americans were arrested, they were either forced to join a chain gang or “rented out” as farmhands for rich white planters. These black codes also made many black people become tenant farmers.
    Sharecropping was not a good life for free African Americans, but it was often their only alternative. The government only distributed small quantities poor quality land to these freed people, thusly giving them no way to make a living. They labored on the farms and plantations of their former masters. They repaid the plantation owner by giving them a portion of their crop each year. Due to the former slaves’ lack of proper funding, they had to use credit from the planation owner’s shops to afford farming tools and seeds. Over the years, freed slaves’ debt piled up and up and up! Many black Americans lost their economic independence due to sharecropping.
    The lack of freedom and equality for freed former slaves caused me to conclude that reconstruction was a failure. It itself never succeeded, but eventually black Americans gained their equality during the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
14. Halle T January 13, 2015 at 7:39 pm

    Quite honestly, I believe that The Reconstruction Era from around 1865 to 1876 was overall a failure. The only exception being the establishment of the Freedmen’s Bureau, and the ratification of the 13th-15th amendments, nothing else was really accomplished. However, in my point of view the negative affects greatly outweigh those very few, rare positive ones. I’m just going to come right out and say it because it is the 100% truth. Although, yes, we were able to establish amendments prohibiting racism IT STILL HAPPENS! I mean look in any newspaper and some story regarding racism will most likely cover the top page. I’ll admit it is definitely better than it once was, it is still occurring meaning that the government never fully did one of it’s jobs during that oh so famous Reconstruction Period, that job being to end oppression against other races. And yes how truly wonderful and fan-freaking-tastic it was that black people could finally vote, but this only caused those crazy southern racists to react outrageously. They’d attack black voters to prevent them from doing something in which they now legally had the right to do, thus causing more pain and harm to those very people select government officials and anti-slavery had wished to protect. And don’t even get me started about another awful event during this period. I think you’ll know where this is going as soon as I say “group of racist pigs in bed sheets”. Yes, the KKK. A horrendous group of white boys who would threaten and harm or kill blacks, but anyone associated with them as well. So yeah, maybe if you look at that miniscule amount of time it looks like America as a whole did an average job at accomplishing some small goals. Good for them, but if you take a step back and look beyond this 12 year period, you’ll see that anything “accomplished” in that era is now in shambles. Otherwise I wouldn’t turn on the news and hear about another attack against a certain race/religion, maybe I wouldn’t still hear people in the hallways laughing at dumb racist jokes. Maybe if we had truly accomplished what we wanted to during Reconstruction, we would be a little farther ahead with issues about race than we are today.
15. Grace Sleder January 13, 2015 at 7:52 pm

    I believe Reconstruction is was more of a failure than a success. Reconstruction was needed, but it lacked the leader and good plans to make it a success. Yes, it created the 15th amendment which said that all American citizens could vote, but the government had no way to enforce this ideal. This amendment also created resentment from women because they seemed to be below their former slaves with a right to vote. Yes, the Civil war ended, but another war, a war of terrorism began. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) formed which at first was meant to scare Blacks but became a deadly force which terrorized African Americans and white Republicans. Yes, Blacks got into Southern politics earlier in the Reconstruction area but soon the South returned to normal and codes were put in place to keep former slaves down. Black Codes became Jim Crowe laws which were unspoken rules to keep races segregated. Jim Crowe laws kept African Americans almost to their former state until the Civil Rights movement in the 20th century. Politics were also corrupt in the South with scalawags and carpetbaggers who would do some good, but really wanted the benefits from government work. The Freedmen’s Bureau granted land to former slaves which was given back to the ex-Confederates it belonged to in the first place. This led to sharecropping where former slaves could be tenants for their masters and farm on the land then give the owner a percentage of their earnings. This system is very similar to the institution of slavery. In sharecropping, the owners of land would also hunt their tenants down like slaves if they “jumped” a contract. The Reconstruction had good intentions by the Radical Republicans, but it wasn’t followed through. Many improvements made ended up not fulfilling their intentions and violence at home continued.
16. Caitlin Mc January 13, 2015 at 7:54 pm

    I believe that Reconstruction had successes and failures, yet overall it was a failure. Reconstruction might have laid the groundwork for things to come but thats all it did for former slaves, lay the groundwork. It didn’t have many huge accomplishments after abolishing slavery and lead America to a time of poverty and corruption. Former slaves actually went back to being basically enslaved from the consequences of the Black codes, and one of the worst groups in history, the KKK, formed ands killed countless people. There was a racist president in power who gave virtually no punishment to former Confederates and white supremacy lived on because of this. In granting pardons to former Confederate generals and soldiers, Andrew Johnson nearly restored the South to exactly as it was before the war. Some Southerners even went as far as to try to get women and children to work in the field just to earn money. African Americans were forced into working as tenant farmers because they couldn’t achieve full independence until they owned land, which was hard to do considering the only land available was swamped or unsuitable for farming. The Northerners watched on and some had a hands off approach and a set of mind that if the freedmen worked hard enough then they could become successful. This did not work for obvious reasons, no land. One advantage to Reconstruction was the development of African American culture including new churches and types of music. Another obvious advantage of Reconstruction is that it did show progress, no matter how little. This progress inspired African Americans to become educated, run for government jobs and push for suffrage. Though the freedmen did get some support for their cause of oppression in the South from government employees, it wasn’t a very large number that wanted to take up their worthy cause. Therefore, I believe that the disadvantages out way the advantages and Reconstruction was a failure.
17. Paige B January 13, 2015 at 7:57 pm

    I believe that reconstruction was a failure. I think there were many small successes, but the failures outweigh these successes. Furthermore, the fact that racism is still such a huge problem in America just proves that reconstruction did not leave the lasting effect it had intended, and may not even be finished today. People didn’t finish what they started and this unfinished business was either addressed later in the 1960s during the Civil Rights Movement, or just pushed off until now when these problems have arose again. Foner’s view of reconstruction is that it was not just a 12-year period, but an ongoing process of accepting the Freedmen into our society. When you look at reconstruction from this point of view, then it is obvious how much of a failure reconstruction was. In the 12 years of reconstruction, Americans may have accomplished the short-term goals they had in mind, which makes it seem like a success. However, when you look at the big picture, there is still racism in America today which means Americans only temporarily solved their problems and just handed off the left overs to the next generation. Maybe by not fully solving the problems, Americans never truly ended reconstruction and it is up to us to finish what they started. Although it may be naïve to say that racism could completely disappear, I think it is realistic to say that this generation can finally complete reconstruction. By accepting all people, no matter their race, gender, sexual orientation, we can finish reconstruction and finally make it a success.
18. Max Robinson January 13, 2015 at 8:05 pm

    The reconstruction of the civil war in America that dated from (1865-1876) was a failure for the more radical republicans but a success for the less extreme republicans. Firstly, radical republicans wanted blacks and whites to be completely equal with all the same rights and privileges, while less extreme republicans thought that a separate but equal American future for blacks and whites would be a more prosperous one. The huge issue of slavery was fixed after the war thanks to the thirteenth amendment, which was a win for every republican. However, equal rights for both blacks and whites was still a lingering issue. shortly after the war black codes were established in the South and enforced by local state governments, consequently the black’s most basic human rights were still not present. Rights like voting for president were much harder to attain for blacks, due to confederate, terrorist organizations, like that of the Ku Klux Klan, that used violence and other scare tactics to prevent blacks from having rights. Even though amendments like the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth all granted rights to black these rights were limited due to the poor politics of Andrew Johnson. For example land taken from Southern aristocrats were supposed to be redistributed among the newly freedmen, however shortly after the former slaves would be evicted from the land with no money and a specific skill set of farming, therefore the only jobs for them was sharecropping, basically the same thing as slavery. To less radical republicans, reconstruction was a success because it ended slavery, yet limited the black’s rights and turned the Southern social pyramid of aristocratic slave-holders upside down. Yet for the more extreme republicans, Reconstruction was a failure, due to the fact that it didn’t grant blacks all the same human rights as whites, and also it spurred the creation of white supremacist groups like the K.K.K.
19. Jaxon B January 13, 2015 at 8:18 pm

    The reconstruction era (1865-1876) is way too hard to pinpoint as a total success or a total failure. Its fair share of success includes the passing of important amendments such as the 14th and 15th amendments following the passing of the 13th amendment which gave Blacks numerous rights only in the course of five years. There was also several blacks that held office in all levels of government, far more even than by today’s supposed “post-racial” society. This post-slavery society also boasted the fastest integration of the former slaves into regular society than any other country since. Russia when it freed it’s serfs in 1861, it took them a long, long time before many of them even had the chance to be a steady economic force in the country, only half a century later, many of the former serfs eventually became living in serf-like conditions again and not all were even freed by then. However, Reconstruction easily was not as big of a success as is often seen as. In addition to violence from radical ex-confederate organizations like the Ku-Klux-Klan, many “carpetbaggers” and “scalawags” used tactics to sway the other side into giving into their political views, the death toll was almost comparable to the war that had just preceded. Both types of state governments at the time of reconstruction were both easily corrupt. Many Republican governments were brutal in the ways they treated any ex-confederate soldiers and those who were against their government and often used scare tactics for political processes. The state governments with ex-confederates in charge were racist and were able to get away with passing many laws that restricted black rights. Lastly, the reconstruction left most of the south still in shambles and many people, black and white, homeless. Despite the fact that there were acts meant to help the people of the south find property, there was little action taken.
20. Jack McCaff January 13, 2015 at 8:41 pm

    I believe that reconstruction was both a success and failure for many reasons. I believe that it was a success for the Freedmen’s Bureau, and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. The Freedmen’s bureau was one of the greatest organizations in reconstruction. This organization helped slaves assimilate into society by giving them an education. It also reunited many of the slaves with the families they had lost, giving them an extreme amount of joy and celebration. On another note the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendment also did wonders in reconstructing this country. The Fourteenth amendment gave freedmen legal equality which was a huge step into the future. In addition, it eventually lead to freedmen getting involved with political affairs such as being a mayor or a lieutenant governor. The Fifteenth amendment gave freedmen the right to vote which ended up being incredibly influential in future elections. A great example of an election that was affected by this would be the election of Ulysses S. Grant. Many things can show the success that reconstruction had, but other situations can show the failures that arose from reconstruction. One awful thing/group that arose from reconstruction was the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan started as a group of people going for a peaceful night run as an attempt to scare others, but soon it lead to attacks on the freedmen. Many times the Klan would attack and kill entire families, this largely scared the families making them afraid to even peek their heads out the window at night. Even though the Fourteenth amendment seemed amazing many people found loopholes that gave them more leverage during court cases by using it. In one case the court decided that a corporation was a person therefore it had the same privileges and immunities as everyone else. While many great things came from reconstruction, many bad thing cane with them.
21. Jack G January 13, 2015 at 8:48 pm

    I believe that you cannot describe reconstruction good or bad it was both. Yes the civil war abolished slavery and in reconstruction the 14th and 15th amendments were established that granted freed slaves citizenship and the rights to vote but, reconstruction was the introduction to American terrorism and the rise of one of the most dangerous groups until this day, the Ku Klux Klan. When you look at reconstruction from the social aspect it was very bad. First off, once African Americans were freed from slavery and granted citizenship and the rights to vote, which was a very good thing but, those rights of freed slaves were not enforced due to the corrupt southern state governments. Once freed slaves became an independent race they were left alone or better stated as “laissez faire” (hands off). The freed slaves were left alone by almost all people except some Republican radicals like Thaddeus Stevens who wanted to help shape the new people into society. Other then the citizenship problem, freed slaves had a whole other problem on their hands, the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan was originally created to scare Blacks to not vote so white Democratic southerners wouldn’t feel in the same social class as their former slaves. The racism towards blacks doesn’t stop right when reconstruction ends though, it makes a great comeback in the civil rights movement when the klan had one of its most dangerous stages. What started as a joke played on African Americans from southerners turned into the most dangerous modern day terrorist groups to inhabit this country. With all the bad points about reconstruction, a lot of great things were brought to our country. After seceding from the Union the south eventually ended up joining back the Union and creating their state governments. The restoration of the union now created a full government once again. Another key points of reconstruction was the creation of the 14th and 15th amendments which granted blacks citizenship. After the two amendments were created things like the freedmen’s bureau were created and sparked the idea of the welfare system which helps almost 35% of our whole entire country until this day. Although reconstruction didn’t have the best outcome for freed slaves, it did help restore the Union which eventually put an end to all public slavery almost 100 years later in the civil rights movement.
22. Andrew Martin January 13, 2015 at 8:51 pm

    Reconstruction had positives and negatives no matter which side you look at it from whether it be the south or the North. For the Northern states a major positive and the whole reason for the civil war was slavery being abolished, which was formally added to law by the 13th amendment. Another positive for the north, or at least northern republicans, was that they had complete control over the house and senate and could pass anything they wanted to despite the constant vetoes from Andrew Johnson (why do all power craved veto loving presidents have to be named Andrew?). If you look from a southern standpoint they had some positives as well. Johnson allowed planter elites and the confederate government easy readmission to the union. This allowed them to gain power politically and socially over the south. Another positive as seen to them was the fact that sharecropping was made. Instead of slaves being able to buy land and start for themselves they had to buy land from their old masters and be in debt to them because they didn’t have enough to buy their own land. They then had to take out a loan to buy supplies to be able to farm and this created a system of debt that freedmen could never escape. Some negatives for both sides were that in the North people wanted more equality to be present in the south but weren’t really that enthusiastic about going to war again so no civil rights movements happened for another century. The south obviously had its whole social and economy world flipped on its head with slavery being abolished. This led to terrorist organizations such as the KKK which would hurt anyone who isn’t a WASP. Also the south didn’t like the scalawags and carpetbaggers which were the republicans that came to the south to strike it rich. They also helped freedmen learn to read and write and were targeted by the KKK in some cases. Overall I think reconstruction wasn’t worth fighting a war over, Johnson should’ve done much more to help freedmen be included more equally in social structure.
23. Lexie Seidel January 13, 2015 at 8:52 pm

    Blog 71: Was Reconstruction a Failure?
    In my opinion, Reconstruction was a failure. It was able to reunite the Union, it did not reach the goal of racial equality. Slavery still lived on throughout the Reconstruction Era, it just had a different name and different actions. There were several actions taken towards making the freedmen equal to the whites, but these actions were never truly enforced, or completely avoided with the development of Black Codes. The Black Codes made it “legal” to separate blacks and whites, to take away blacks right to vote, and take away from their rights as American Citizens. The Freedmen’s Bureau was the best shot for starting a new life without slavery, but the land the freedmen got was terrible for farming, and even if it wasn’t, they generally didn’t have enough money to get a farm started. During Reconstruction, there was also a huge amount of violence, primarily towards the newly freed blacks and republicans. In the video, Aftershock, I recall them saying that the Post Civil War Era might have been worse than the Pre Civil War Era, due to the discrimination and violence from angry whites. One statistic from the Video said that Arkansas or Tennessee, for every three days, one freedman was killed. One of the major groups that was responsible for these deaths was the Klu Klux Klan. The Klan threatened, beat, and killed freedmen, republicans, scalawags, and carpetbaggers for what they believe. In many cases, these threats were made to prevent people from voting or to keep a politician from voting a certain way or speaking out against the South. Overall, based on the lack of success with the new freedmen, I would say that Reconstruction was a failure because it took nearly 100 more years for blacks to get the rights and treatment that they deserved for being an American Citizen.
24. Sloan K January 13, 2015 at 8:52 pm

    I think that reconstruction was a combination of both a success and a failure because what was accomplished and what occurred in order to accomplish them. Reconstruction was a success when you’re talking about legally abolishing slavery, but when you look at what happened to the slaves after they were freed, it looks as though it was a failure. After the slaves were freed, many were forced back into working for wealthy land owner because they didn’t have another way to make enough money to survive. They were treated horribly, there were Klan’s, like the KKK, out to get them, and they had whites that were trying to restore white supremacy in the South. While the treatment of the Blacks didn’t get much better during Reconstruction, it was a step towards suffrage for all. In the movie we watched, it talked a lot a about what the Southern governments did to try and prevent freedmen from gaining political power in the government, but Governor Brownlow threatened to shoot Tennessee legislatures because they wouldn’t vote his way. He wanted to pass the 14th amendment, and it was because of him that it did get passed in Tennessee. Black codes were enacted in the south to try and control blacks and it forced many people to become sharecroppers. Sharecropping cause blacks to be dependent upon the landowners, and it was a step back towards slavery because the sharecrop families went into debt and would have to work to pay off that debt for a very long time. Though this was a big problem for the recently freed people, there were more black people moving their way up into the government after the passing of the 14th amendment. The reconstruction was more of a success and a failure but it was both. There were many hardships for blacks during the reconstruction, in the end if eventually ended slavery and reunited the north and south, showing that it was a success and a failure.
25. Dylan Sutton January 13, 2015 at 8:54 pm

    Blog #71

    There are many points that could go to either argument. For instance you can say that reconstruction brought the Union together and without it we would never have the Unite States of America. To counter that argument you can say yes, it did bring the Union back together but the southern plantation owners were not affected and instead of having slaves hey had sharecroppers. So for this question and of what really happened to the South that was thought to be have taken care of, I choose that Reconstruction was a failure. America could have been cured of this sickness towards blacks long before we were actually.

    There are many different negative effects during reconstruction, all equally awful in their own way. I will start by saying from reconstruction rose Americas first terrorist group the Ku Klux Klan. The people who joined and supported this Klan hate blacks and how they were considered equal to them. They went out of their way to make and freedman they saw life and living hell. The Klan tortured, scared and killed any white that supported these freedmen or the north. The next negative effect from Reconstruction was sharecropping. This method was basically slavery the only difference was that no one was owned by anyone. The newly free people needed a home and work so they probably ended up working on the plantation they were a slave on. The freed people had a piece of land given to them by the plantation owner. They would give a certain percent of what they grew out of that land to the owner. What they had leftover they went to sell at markets leaving little for them to eat. The last negative effect I will talk about is representation in the government. After the Civil War Andrew Johnson threw any sophisticated black person into a southern government. Now this wasn’t fair to the poor freed black Americans because the blacks that were in office were never poor an did not know the life that they lived. So the needs that they needed they were never going to get. These are the effect during Reconstruction that make me say it was a failure.
26. Griffin Z. January 13, 2015 at 8:56 pm

    Reconstruction was a failure. It had its merits-slavery was abolished, freedmen were given citizenship and the right to vote, giving blacks the power to change government, and blacks were put into government positions almost immediately, a feature unique to United States Reconstruction. However, each of these merits was undermined. Slavery was abolished, but, since most blacks didn’t have land, most were forced to sharecrop, an institution almost identical to slavery, except families couldn’t be split up. Some southerners refused to free their slaves, and kept on using them as free labor. Even though blacks gained citizenship, many didn’t feel like they had much freedom without land. Without land, blacks had nothing to farm. What good was freedom if they were impoverished and starving? Reconstruction did a poor job with distributing the land back to blacks (no 40 acres and a mule), and so blacks had little situational improvement due to Reconstruction. The distribution of land also attracted carpetbaggers, or white Northern republicans looking to make a quick buck where the south had lost a fortune. White southerners began to target carpetbaggers for taking land that had once been their own and using it to profit while ex-confederates suffered in poverty. Things soon escalated to violence. And although black men could now vote, many were scared away from the polls by angry southerners. The blacks that were put into government were a part of the middle class, and did not represent the peasant majority of freedmen. Reconstruction also saw the rise of many white supremacist groups such as the KKK. These groups, along with angry southern individuals, targeted black men, women, and children, along with any republican who dare show his face in the south, making the Reconstruction South a virtual continuation of the Civil War. With all of these negative effects, Reconstruction was effectively a failure.
27. Daniel A January 13, 2015 at 8:58 pm

    American Reconstruction is probably one of the most unique and interesting parts of American History. I, for one, believe that the process of Reconstruction was a spectacular failure. The word “Spectacular” referring of course to the long term gains and good that the process did as opposed to modifying the word “failure” to show just how much the failure failed. Let’s start with the short term outcome; Reconstruction was a flop. Reconstruction saw many instances where the progress that it had tried to make was stamped out by society, and sometimes even by the government itself. The idea of equality between the former slaves and whites was stamped out at every opportunity. The South had just lost its slave labor force, the backbone of the Southern economy, when the 14th Amendment was ratified. The economy couldn’t handle the lack of labor and the Southerners needed to act fast, so they created the sharecropping system. The sharecropping system was slavery in nearly all but name. The landowners would give a former slave or group of former slaves a plot of land. They could then work the land and a significant portion of whatever crops they yielded would be taken by the landowner as payment. While at first seeming like a reasonable proposition, the former slaves would fall deep into debt within a short time span. This debt forced them to keep working the land in hopes that they could pay off the debt, however this dream would almost never come true. The white supremacist society of the South had once again found a way to force blacks into a cheap, reliable workforce. This was not the only failure in Reconstruction regarding equal rights. After the closing of the Plessy vs. Ferguson court case, the fallacious belief of “separate but equal” was about to take hold in America. While it is true that in the following years the country had more public utilities separate, they were anything but equal. Even though Reconstruction was a short term failure, it would ultimately help America achieve racial equality. The main positive thing that it accomplished was giving the former slaves a taste of freedom. This taste of freedom proved to a driving force in African Americans working towards equal rights for many years to come. This drive for equality was invaluable during the years to come, as we will see in the coming chapters. This is why I believe Reconstruction to be a spectacular failure.
28. Maya R January 13, 2015 at 9:00 pm

    The reconstruction era was a success, during this time period there were many failures but many successes as well. Not only did the amendments help the time period it changed American forever. During the reconstruction era slaves were freed everywhere. Causing many changes within the South and North. Although the South didn’t like this at all, now slaves had rights that they have never had before. Slaves that were freed in other regions of the world never had any rights at this time period like the free slaves in America. The 13th amendment abolished slavery all together, then the 14th and 15th amendments gave everybody equal protection and the rights to vote. This was very important because now people were realizing that slaves weren’t any less of a person than a white man was. Over time the South got more and more angry with the North and having to treat the black men equal. With the military troops from the North it made it hard to do anything about it. Eventually the Ku Klux Klan took the issue into their own hands. At first they just tried to scare people not to vote and would threaten them but then violence was involved. The KKK in the end made it impossible for the black man to vote. Without the 14th and 15th amendment taking place during this time period racial equality would have been harder to reach in the near years.
29. Haley L January 13, 2015 at 9:06 pm

    I think that Reconstruction after the Civil War was a failure because it didn’t make things much better for the freedmen. I also think that Reconstruction was a failure because part of it was run by a white supremacist. I think that some parts of Reconstruction were successful like the Freedmen’s Bureau, but in general Reconstruction was unsuccessful. Reconstruction was unsuccessful because after slavery ended, the newly freedmen’s lives didn’t improve much. Many former slaves were forced into sharecropping because it was all they knew how to do. Sharecropping ended up putting many freedmen into debt which led to poverty for the majority of former slaves. Reconstruction also was a failure because it led to the formation of the Klu Klux Klan which would impact history for longer than just the Reconstruction Era. Another negative effect of reconstruction is how the KKK used intimidation to scare off black voters which resulted in Democrats being elected and things were going back to how they were before the Civil War. Another unsuccessful part of Reconstruction was how the land taken by the Union army during the war was returned to the former slave owners and kicking off the former slaves. The land would have made a big difference in the freedmen’s lives. The land being given back to the former slave owners was mainly President Johnson’s fault because all they had to do to get it back was apologize. If Congress had been in charge of Reconstruction from the beginning, it’s possible that the freedmen would have been able to keep their land or the ones without land could have gotten some and it could have made a difference in their life. One success in the Reconstruction Era was the 15th Amendment. It was successful because it gave freedmen more rights and allowed them to vote. Overall, Reconstruction was unsuccessful because it had more failures than successes.
30. Nate Wagner January 13, 2015 at 9:17 pm

    I think that although reconstruction showed glimmers of hope and equality in the beginning, it ended up being a failure. At first, the change was radical in getting the African Americans the ability to vote and participate in government. However, many carpetbaggers corrupted the southern government and only helped the blacks in order to assert the republican presence in the south. And in the Neoprogressive view, it was said that blacks really didn’t have much of a hand in politics anyway, so the the reconstruction was not that radical.The 14th and 15th amendments provided hope for a racially equal and integrated society, but with the white supremacist Andrew Johnson as president and his awful policies- along with the slaughterhouse cases and Supreme Court rulings- the rights of the blacks were almost non existent. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the southern states saying that seperate ( segregation) didn’t necessarily mean unequal. They also gave the decision of citizenship to the states. This meant an era of racism and unequal rights in the century following. Also, there was no redistribution of land back to the blacks, it fell back into the hands of the southern elite. Because they did not have the ability to their own land and usually looked towards star topping for a living, many African Americans felt that they were never truly free. Moreover, with the corruption of the kkk, black voters were intimidated into staying away from the poles so they never truly had representation. The kkk also struck fear into the hearts of African Americans everywhere. With common lynchings and mobs, the blacks had no choice but to except being treated as racially inferior. If the origional goal of reconstruction was to create equality for the freedmen, as well as rebuilding the southern states, it accomplished the state part, but the racial equality part was far from finished.
31. Caty H January 13, 2015 at 9:23 pm

    Reconstruction was a difficult time, full of violence and fear for the recently freed slaves. I believe that reconstruction was neither a success nor a failure, but a little bit of both. The country made great strides towards racial equality, but it seemed with each step forward made, there were two steps back. Slavery was abolished, and the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments would lead to racial equality. But, with all of the court cases occurring against the newly enacted amendments, racial equality had yet to reach its prime. For example, when the fourteenth amendment was passed which guaranteed rights for all, court cases like Plessy v. Ferguson declared that racial segregation was not a violation of the fourteenth amendment because “separate” could be equal. The fifteenth amendment assured equal voting for all (except women), with no restriction of race. Blacks began to vote more, and became more involved in politics. In fact the United States was the fastest country to have blacks involved in politics right after emancipation than any other country that had abolished slavery. But, the Southern state governments were also filled with corruption due to the carpetbaggers and scalawags in charge (according to the anti-union whites in the south). The Southern state governments were as well hurting the people they were trying to help, such as the institution of share cropping. When the slaves were freed they were given a large amount of land for them to profit off of, but the land was always rocky, marshy and overall infertile. This led to share cropping as a system where freedmen had to work for their previous white owners, and they were tied to the land they were working. Basically they were forced into another form of indentured servitude, not much different than that of slavery. In conclusion, the reconstruction era was neither successful nor a failure. After the Civil War, America progressed towards racial equality when the 13th. 14th, and 15th amendments were ratified. But, racial disdain had also expanded in this country. For example, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), a band of ex-confederates, who were not happy about the blacks having equal rights gained great influence in the south. Not only was racial equality never fully achieved but racial discrimination is still deeply embedded in today’s society with the KKK still having a certain amount of influence.
32. Amelia P January 13, 2015 at 9:24 pm

    Although its hard to determine one final answer for this topic, overall, I would say the Reconstruction was a failure. Though it abolished slavery and helped develop the 14th and 15th Amendment, it didn’t do so right away. The entire reason for the Civil War was to abolish slavery. That was the goal. But, after the civil war ended, people still treated blacks the same. They weren’t human to the whites. Everything they had fought for during the war was wasted. However, I wouldn’t say that it was completely wasted because eventually, the 14th and 15th amendments were in place and the horrible treatment of the blacks had subsided. Still, this should’ve happened right after the war. Another failure that came from the Reconstruction was the Ku Klux Klan. They were a terrifying group of idiot white men who thought it was fun Are you gonna watch the klansville thing? ?to terrorize black men who did nothing wrong. One good thing that came from the Reconstruction was the Freedman’s bureau. In my opinion, this time was absolutely rridiculous. I can’t wrap my head around the way the whites treated the blacks after they fairly earned their right to freedom that they should’ve had in the first place! To me, its just unfathomable how incompetent some people during this era were All in all, I think the Reconstruction was a failure because it people completely ignored the war that had just been fought and went back to their normal lives.
33. Isaiah J January 13, 2015 at 9:34 pm

    In my opinion, Reconstruction in the mid-1800s (1865-76) failed. The goal of Reconstruction in this era was for the Southern part of America to be restored, and to find a way for newly freedmen to be accepted as equal, or at least have equal opportunity as whites. This failed to me because of all the corruption of the Southern state governments that followed the Civil War. The Radical Republicans were seen as evil back then for “foiling” Andrew Johnson’s plan to carry what Abe Lincoln started, but that wasn’t the only case. Many whites felt that blacks were too uneducated or immature to fulfil government roles or other political places, and despised of white republicans who were helping blacks be put into these government roles. So to scare off these people, x Confederate troops created the Klan, which is one of the reasons Reconstruction failed, because the Klan prevented freedmen from fully experiencing their newly given rights. Another thing that ruined Reconstruction was sharecropping. Sharecropping forced freedmen to give a portion of the crops that they grew to the landowner whom they shared land with, showing that rich whites were trying to reestablish a work force. This wouldn’t have happened if the government hadn’t taken away black land to southerners coming back to the union, or if they had given freedmen land, or good land I should say, after the civil war. One other major thing that dubs this Reconstruction era as a failure in my eyes were things like Jim Crow laws, or what preceded it, black codes. These were actual rules restricting blacks from doing certain things like having a higher title than farmer or servant, unless they paid an annual tax that other southerners coming back in didn’t have to pay. This also ties into the separation that blacks had to have from whites, as the government said that the two different races didn’t have to be together to be equal, although it was clear that the separated races were not equal to each other.
34. Max Cohen January 13, 2015 at 9:38 pm

    In my opinion Reconstruction was both a success and a failure. When you look at the positives of Reconstruction, there is one big success and that was the passing of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments. The 13th amendment emancipated slaves in the south while the 14th amendment gave the freed slaves citizenship and equal rights under American law. The 15th amendment prohibits federal and state governments from denying a person to vote because of “race or color”. In contrast to the good things that came out of Reconstruction, multiple bad things came to be after the Civil War. One example of a terrible outcome of Reconstruction was the formation of the Ku Klux Klan. Acoording to the video we watched in class, Aftershock, the Ku Klux Klan was formed by six veteran Confederate soldiers who did not like how blacks were beginning to gain rights and become involved in the government. In class when we read The New View of Reconstruction, there were two big differences in the viewpoint of the Klan in different points of history. In Dunning’s view of history, the Klan was viewed as a group of people trying to protect the South’s rights but in the Neo-Progressive school of history they view the Klan as a terror group who just wants to strike fear into black and republicans in the south eyes. Another bad result of Reconstruction was the corruption of governments in the South. After the Civil War ended the federal government tried to keep the South in control by putting Republicans in office in the South. By putting Republicans in southern state governments, they could make certain decisions for the southern states rejecting what the people said, and also swing voting by stuffing ballots. Overall, there were more bad results from Reconstruction but because of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments; I do not think you can say that Reconstruction in a whole, was a failure.
35. Olivia R January 13, 2015 at 9:42 pm

    In my opinion, Reconstruction was a failure. The resulting racism, social divide, and return of the Southern Planter Aristocracy was as close to pre-war times as possible without the actual sale and distribution of slaves. People were not treated as equal and for a time, the progress of America actually seemed to reverse itself. For example, grotesque amounts of racism and intolerance led to hate activists like the KKK as shown in the video. People would use fear tactics and later brutality and violence to oppress African Americans. The Klan acted as a terrorist group and ruled by fear, to the point where special armies had to be established to combat them. When this kind of hatred and division is present in a nation, no progress is being made to reunite following a war fueled by the same hatred and division. At the same time, African Americans were being stripped of their rights. For example, according to the book, African American defense forces were forced to disband, along with the instigation of the Jim Crow Laws, which fully oppressed former slaves and turned them into second-class citizens who weren’t equal to their white counterparts. Because of such oppression and the lack of land being distributed by the government, African Americans were forced to become tenant farmers, which chained many of them to their former owners this time through monetary need, so the essence of slavery was still majorly impacting America. This matches the Neo-Progressive interpretations discussed in the article, which mention that President Andrew Johnson played a major part in this stunted progression and modernization of equal rights. He stood in the way of progress, along with the wholly corrupt Southern governments, and advised the south against the ratification of the Republican Congress’ equal rights bills and amendments. The southern governments, even those with African American representation, did not represent the majority fairly and led to unfair treatments, according to the articles. Andrew Johnson somewhat spearheaded the opposition to progress and the development of oppression across the United States at this time, by limiting and vetoing forward-moving action that would balance equality. Reconstruction merely acted as the Civil War Part II, and led to worsen the ties between the north and south and of equality in America.
36. Jacob B January 13, 2015 at 9:55 pm

    Blog number 72 Apush
    Was reconstruction a success, a failure, or a mix of both?
    To judge reconstruction the positives and negatives must be known. Black suffrage made big gains in the years after the civil war. Blacks were freed from slavery, given the right to vote, and given a system of welfare, the Freedman’s Bureau. Unfortunately, many of these newly gained rights were not enforced, or they were restricted by black codes. Only during the time of the radical republicans were these rules enforced by federal troops. Additionally, the increase in black civil rights lead to the creation of white supremacists groups like the KKK. These groups lashed out violently towards minorities and blacks. They were terrorists who wanted to return southern society to its previous state.
    President Lincoln and Johnson had very simple plans to reintegrate the south into the union. They believed that only the southern people seceded from the union, and that the states were still part of America. Johnson’s plan involved making 50% of the south have an oath of loyalty to the union, and he had state governments created that were loyal to the north. This plan seems like it would be an easy and painless way to reintegrate, but it had many drawbacks. The initial governments were forced to rely upon northern support for any authorization. Almost every confederate got off the hook without punishment, allowing almost every confederate leader to quickly retake their previous office. Many people became worried that with former confederates in office and black codes preventing black suffrage, the civil war achieved nothing except bloodshed.
    In reconstruction, the achievements outweigh the negatives. Equal civil rights is a key issue that is discussed today. Now it isn’t an issue of ethnicity, Sexual orientation or gender orientation is the hot topic. Without the achievements of the early radical republicans, many people would lack the essential liberties that everyone takes for granted.
37. Sydney B January 13, 2015 at 10:03 pm

    I think that Reconstruction was a combination of a success and a failure. It could have been seen as a success physically, but was a failure for the blacks and their rights. In the end, the south was rebuilt after the Civil War which made the south better and it also freed black slaves so that they could potentially reach their full freedom. This idea didn’t work out as planned though. In the end, however, freedmen didn’t get to reach their full freedom and couldn’t get the rights they had hoped for by the end of Reconstruction. When the Freedmen’s Bureau was around, there were definitely success and failure parts to this organization as well. As you could see, education was a huge success in the bureau. Many blacks yearned to be able to read and write, and now they could. In their eyes, it was seen as one step closer to becoming more equal with whites. A failed part of the Freemen’s Bureau could have been the land portion of the organization. In the beginning, the bureau wanted to give newly freed slaves land so that they could become more independent and have a ‘greater freedom,’ but the plan didn’t work out as planned and most definitely wasn’t nearly as successful as the education portion of the Freedmen’s Bureau. During the Reconstruction era, a couple other huge successes include the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Fifteenth Amendment. However, just the plain fact that racism still occurs today, nearly 150 years later, shows that Reconstruction may have been a large boost in the way blacks were treated in the late nineteenth century, but it didn’t solve anything major other than the end of slavery (which was replaced with sharecropping almost all over). Overall, Reconstruction made many steps toward higher equality between blacks and whites, but this wasn’t reached until the mid to late twentieth century.
38. Torry C January 13, 2015 at 10:21 pm

    I would consider reconstruction to be an overall failure, but a little good did come along with it. The goal of reconstruction was to create equality among all people, which as we can see was never fully accomplished. Even with the new amendments, the former slaves could never fully exercise their rights. Many obstacles where put their way, for example in some places literacy test where required for blacks when voting. Black people were highly discouraged to vote by people with clubs would hang out around the polls and threaten them with violence. The new amendments where a step in the right direction but all kinds of loop holes where found to get around them. The freedmen’s bureau also made notable progress, like the addition of schools.
    The Klans where for sure one of the worst things to come from reconstruction. Blacks and their supporters lived in fear. The klans burned down black’s homes and public building that where directed to help the former slaves. These terrorist acts were out of control, there is no reason for unjustified killings or punishments. Extra measures to prevent and control these klans should have been put in place much sooner.
    Reuniting the union was the other goal of reconstruction, although in the end I think it had the most success. The civil war was fought over slavery. The focus should be on what the war was fought over and not what was torn apart in the process.
    I don’t see how anyone could say that reconstruction was a complete success when we can still see racism today. Sadly it was a slow crawl to equally. For the longest time blacks held only really low places in office. It took the United States until 2009 to get our first black president. Looking at the whole picture of reconstruction I believe that the cons outweigh the pros.
39. Nate Higley January 13, 2015 at 10:38 pm

    I think that reconstruction was a failure and a success in different ways. One failure out a few, was the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan when first created seemed docile but then grew and grew to become a major threat to freedmen. Klan would lynch and kill African Americans, which is not what reconstruction was trying to do. The Fourteenth amendment looked great to many people, but then in people could find holes in the amendment and use them to win arguments such as in court cases. One court case Santa Clara County verse Southern Pacific Railroad where the court declared that a corporation was a person under the law. Another point is sharecropping. It was pretty much slavery even though they weren’t called slaves. Some good things/ success that came from reconstruction was the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments, and Freedmen’s Bureau. The Freedmen’s bureau became one of the best organizations in the reconstruction. This Freedmen’s bureau helped get the African American into society by helping with education and rights. It also helped bring many African American families who were separated, back together again. The Fourteenth amendment, I believe helped reconstruction also. It brought equality to Freedmen and it played a part with the Freedmen getting to be involved in politics. Also the fifteenth amendment, which gave Freedmen the right to vote was a success I believe. So all in all I believe that Reconstruction was a mix of both success and failure.
40. PJ Roberts January 13, 2015 at 10:38 pm

    I think reconstruction was both successful and unsuccessful. Slavery was ended with the 13th amendment. Also the freed slaves were elevated in status faster than any other country in the world. But The Klan intimidated, killed, and punished blacks and whites. The Southern state governments were undoubtedly corrupt with carpetbaggers and scalawags in charge. They may also have not been very helpful to their constituents. Very little good land was distributed to the freedmen, leaving them stuck in tenant farming.
    It is awesome how quickly after blacks were given rights after being freed from slavery because of the 14 and 15th amendments. They were given the right to vote and were placed equal to whites with the right to vote and make important political decisions. Many of them participated in elections and made the Republican Party very wide spread throughout the south. This is how things started once black were freed but eventually the Klan came and intimidated blacks from voting. The Klan also terrorized the south by attacking people who weren’t wasps and people that tried to help blacks were treated horribly and sometimes killed. The freedman’s bureau was also brought down after the war to help freed men who had just been let go from the bonds of slavery. This started off well but then people from the north who came as a part of the Freedman’s bureau were called bad names by other whites in the south because the southerners viewed them as taking advantage of the south’s bad situation and trying to scam them and make money off of them. Which was sometimes the case with carpet baggers and scalawags corrupting the souths government. When black men were freed they were originally guaranteed land but eventually the owners came back to take it back. What ended up happening frequently was that black people would end up getting involved with sharecropping which stunted their ability to go further in freedom. Also when they were given land it wasn’t the best for growing on and was used and unwanted by others. Truly what seems to be the only positive to come from reconstruction were black rights which were soon taken away or not enforced and brought the south back into the union.
41. Gillian Tremonti January 13, 2015 at 10:39 pm

    Reconstruction was both a failure and a success. After, the 13th Amendment was passed the violence did not end in the South. The video “Aftershock Beyond the Civil War,” mentioned that and how the South did not want to recognize the 13th Amendment. In the video it talks about how different groups were created like the KKK, to keep racist attitudes alive from the Civil war. Groups like the KKK would scare and kill freedmen and even white republicans as well. Right after the 13th amendment was passed freedmen were affected the most. Thousands of freedmen were being killed and abused in the public of the South where the people would come out to see them getting lynched and in some cases castrated. From the article written by Eric Foner, William Dunning’s interpretation (the old interpretation) said that the white southerners and democrats thought that freedmen could not do anything. In this article it explained how the government was corrupt. It mentioned why the old way of thinking stayed such a long time. This way of thinking was easy to understand, everyone had distinct social and economic roles, for example, heroes and villains. The Reconstruction was a success because it abolished slavery and lead to the 14th and 15th amendments. These amendments let freedmen vote and let them have equal protection under the law. However great these new amendments were, it didn’t matter unless the south was willing to abide by them. The South finds loopholes around these new laws. This would be like having an all white jury and you are a freedman in most to all cases you would have been seen and be found as guilty just because the whites were racist. The reconstruction was good and bad. At first the new Amendments and laws passed where not completely followed. However, it laid a path to what we would do in the future.
42. Nicki Yost January 13, 2015 at 10:39 pm

    Whether or not Reconstruction was a success or failure depends on the person’s individual view of this era. I personally think that Reconstruction was a success. For one main reason, SLAVERY WAS ABOLISHED! The whole point of fighting a four year long war was to abolish slavery, and give African Americans basic civil rights. So the 13th Amendment was passed abolishing slavery, as were the 14th and 15th Amendments setting basic ground work for equal protection under the law and the right to vote. Plus nowhere else in the world were former slaves so quickly included in politics. We as a country were already multiple steps ahead of the world. Now all of that said yes, I’ll admit, there were some down sides. Mainly the Klan and the position of women’s rights come to mind. First the Klan, this terrorist group had begun as an attempt to keep the country as it was, i.e. slavery. They succeeded in the most part be intimidating, killing, and punishing both blacks and white. As well as drawing fear from their get- up of hoods and confederate uniforms. While I’ll fully admit this was awful, it couldn’t be avoided. We don’t live in a utopian society, people will disagree. They wouldn’t think that the path of Reconstruction is a good one, and they will take charge against it. They will fight with words and fists. But the Klan took it to a different level which cannot be described. People will fight, how they fight is up to them. Speaking of, one thing that many people disagreed on was the women’s position in all of this. In my question on the Google Doc, I described what women had to go through during these fights. When the 15th Amendment came around and specified male’s right to vote, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Women didn’t get the basic rights they deserved, and wouldn’t for a long time. I say Reconstruction was a success and sent this country on the only path it knows, forward.
43. Nennaya L January 13, 2015 at 11:05 pm

    I believe the main purpose of reconstruction was to rebuild the country and restore the Union to it’s rightful place and that didn’t happen the way it should’ve. The Freedmen’s Bureau really promoted uniting black independence in the South by establishing schools, giving legal marriages, and provided financial aid to impoverished whites after the war and blacks but nothing was more important than attaining land. The NeoProgressives of the 20th century believed that economic autonomy is having land. After the war with Johnson’s plan he to restored all former lands back to Confederate leaders, settled agreements for the South to obey the 13th amendment and granted pardons. When blacks were given no land they had to work to get what they needed and become apart of the sharecropping method This allowed white supremacist to restore some of the dehumanizing aspects of slavery, the main issue the Union was all about in the first place. With Johnson’s plan whites were then able to come up with the black codes that stated freedmen couldn’t assemble without a white person and couldn’t be taught to read or white. Even with the Radical Republicans passing the Reconstruction Act of 1867 over Johnson’s veto forcing whites to obey the 14th amendment it still angered whites. It inspired many acts of violence as in the aftershock video with Bob Lee reign of terror in Texas, DP Upham wreaking havoc on racist activists in the South. It even inspired the “Invisible Empire in South” known as the KKK for they terrorized radical whites and freeman preventing them to vote and “restored homerule in the South.” Corruption became a major issue in the country causing a recession then leading up to one of the most biggest depressions in American history . The Freedman’s Bureau did bring tax dollars for federal assistance and tried to restore order to the harsh southern economy but there was many scandals. Boss Tweed defrauding the city and cheating tax payers and the Credit Mobilier scandal distributing stocks to congressmen and getting money for themselves. Even in the end the Radical Republican Party started to die in the South and nothing was enforced. In aftershock it’s true that the North had won the war but the South won Reconstruction. In the Reconstruction Era there were many efforts to rebuild the hurting nation but everything backfired causing not much change at all not until a century later.
44. Charlotte B. January 13, 2015 at 11:06 pm

    After all is said and done, I think that the period of Reconstruction after the civil war was a combination of both a success and a failure. There are points to support either side to the argument. Reconstruction was a success because it abolished slavery through the 13th amendment. This helped set up the successes of the 14th and 15th amendments, which gave African American’s the rights they deserved, and incorporated them into the political world. This was much unlike other countries, where African Americans were freed, but not included in politics until much later in history. The 14th and 15th amendments grant everyone equal rights under the law, including citizenship and voting. But, this was only for men. Women were still not allowed to vote. Reconstruction also somewhat helped to reunite the nation after so much hostility during the civil war. On the other side of the argument, the Reconstruction period was a failure for many reasons. One reason was that the Ku Klux Klan, also known as the KKK, came into origin. The KKK was a terrorism organization that only sympathized with WASPS. They were known for plotting out attacks mostly against African Americans to keep them from voting. Another reason that Reconstruction was a failure was because southern state governments were left to govern themselves. Many of them went by the rule of “separate but equal.” There was a lot of unnecessary segregation during this time period. This time period was also a failure because of the land that was left to give to the freedmen. The land was in horrible condition and it wasn’t suitable for farming. Most African Americans just became sharecroppers to their former masters or they became tenant farmers. But, in retrospect, sharecropping was sort of a form of slavery. There are ideas from each side of the argument that are completely valid. Reconstruction was a mixture of a success and a failure based upon what the outcome of rights for African Americans versus the terrorist organizations and unfair governments that emerged thereafter.
45. Jane J January 13, 2015 at 11:14 pm

    Reconstruction was supposed to unify the nation and bring us together. Yes, there were some success with Reconstruction, but I think Reconstruction in all was a failure. I believe the goal of Reconstruction wasn’t reached due to the fact that Southerners and other racist whites weren’t able to accept the fact that they had to live with African Americans and the fact that everyone was now equal. Many white folks protested against African Americans being accepted into society. This led to many clubs such as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) to form. These clubs were one of the causes of Reconstruction being a fail. In the video, Aftershock, it stated how hundreds and thousands of African Americans were killed from the time of 1865-1866. Many of these deaths were caused by the KKK trying to terrorize blacks. This generated tension between the Freedmen and racist whites. The black codes were also something that wasn’t really helping with Reconstruction. It was putting Freedmen in a situation similar to slavery. The black code led to many of them becoming sharecroppers, which was slavery with a different name. In the article, The New View of Reconstruction, Foner’s own interpretation was that Reconstruction was a small segment of something much larger. I agree with him, because although this Reconstruction was a fail, it was a step that brought us closer to our goal of unification. Waving the Bloody Shirt is another example; the Republicans are reminding the country that the Democrats are the ones who ruined the world and split the Union. They wave a bloody shirt to show the Democrats how they are royal and that they won the war. With this going on during Reconstruction, it is difficult to unite the Union. In sum, I believe that Reconstruction was a fail, but it was a small part of something big.
46. Allison Lammers January 13, 2015 at 11:16 pm

    In my eyes the Reconstruction era was almost a complete failure. Although there were a few successes along the path, it was mostly bad and had extremely negative effects on all the people involved. The ones most affected by this movement were the “free blacks.” I say that lightly because for the most part they weren’t free at all, and many were worse off than they would have been in they were enslaved. The whole point of abolishing slavery was so that blacks could have the exact same rights that whites did and so that they could get their own jobs and have their own families and not be controlled by someone else. This was the objective of reconstruction and sadly hardly any of this happened. After many slave-owners and slaves got word that slavery was no longer, people threatened their slaves with beatings and even death if they took a footstep off of their plantation. Slave owners couldn’t bear the thought of their lives without their slaves because they did everything for them; they were all their money and what they were living off of. Soon black codes were enforced which were harsh laws that dictated all blacks lives like making them have a steady job, and ignorant regulations like moving off the sidewalk when a white person is walking by. Even though some things seemed like they were changing for the better in this era; like enforcing the 14th and 15th Amendments for instance. Everything had a negative side and this one was blacks were afraid to go to voting polls for there was fear of being attacked by ones who opposed to this right, or there was people that forced them to vote on a certain side so there was no point in even going in the first place. Not to mention blacks that tried to start their own plantations often had to accept cheap land that wasn’t fertile so they couldn’t make a living for themselves. These are just a few of the reasons why Reconstruction was a failure and it didn’t benefit the lives of anyone in this period of time.
47. Zaria S January 13, 2015 at 11:30 pm

    In my opinion, Reconstruction was a combination of both success and failure. Although it was more of a failure, it undeniably gave blacks more freedoms (at least on paper). Slavery was abolished, and the freedmen had a chance to establish themselves as members of American society’s The Fourteenth and Fifthteenth Amendment gave blacks equal protection under the law and the right to vote. Blacks were also given more political power, being involved in conventional meetings. These 3 big steps really gave blacks the legal foundation they needed to integrate into society. Only if it were that easy though. Even though the amendments were passed, white southerners were bitter that the same people that they once controlled were now getting rights. Groups like the KKK formed in defiance of the Radical Republic idea of black supremacy. They believed in “HomeRule” (white supremacy). The KKK used fear and violence on blacks, carpetbaggers, and scalawags. They even killed congress men who had helped pass amendments that gave blacks more rights. Southern government also became more and more radical, due to the corruption or scalawags and carpetbaggers, trying to take advantage of the South in their vulnerability. Not only was their social incline a dangerous factor, but the (little) land that had been given to them was as for farming. This made it harder for blacks to get on their feet financially, and forced them into the dependent and slave-like lifestyle of sharecropping. On the bright side, they were earning some money, but that money was quickly taken away due to the pithole of debt this job created. You could easily say that Reconstruction made life even more dangerous for blacks, but it also gave them a start in becoming average American citizens.
48. Jilly W January 13, 2015 at 11:59 pm

    In my opinion reconstruction was more of a failure than success. One of the reasons it was a success was because it created the fourteenth and fifteenth amendment. It was also a success because instead it helped the south get back on its feet after the civil war instead of leaving them with no government or economy. Although these reasons have positive parts about them there are also fatal flaws that help show the negative parts of the plan as well. One of the biggest flaws of the fourteenth and fifteenth amendment was that the federal government gave the state government the right to enforce them. Therefore, giving states such as Virginia and South Carolina the ability to choose which men could and could not vote or have many rights at all. This mistake led to the black codes which limited the rights of black even more than they had been before. The black codes had ridiculous rules such as if you were color you must have a job, you must carry a street pass from place to place and you could not practice politics. Another failed part of reconstruction was the fact that the government failed to properly distribute land to the newly freed men. The government had promised these men 44 million acres of land out west but few took it because the land was not good for farming. Another reason reconstruction let down was because of how congress was divided. Since the congress was three-fourths republican they would overrule any and all of Johnsons vetoes, therefore giving the Republican Parry an unequal amount of power and giving the country no chance of a republican/democrat reconstruction compromise. This leads to the final reason reconstruction was a catastrophe. Reconstruction had many reasons for being a disappointment, one pf them being that the union made it too easy for the confederates to join back into the union, and then after they re-joined the union the leaders of the confederacy came back up to power, leaving the south practically as it was before the war.
49. Sydney Patton January 14, 2015 at 12:40 am

    From what my sources suggests, the Reconstruction era wasn’t a complete failure. Taking a look at how social life had changed, through the school Neo-Left/ Neo Progression perception, the Reconstruction period from 1865-1876 changed little. Since land wasn’t really distributed to former slaves, they remained economically dependent upon their former owners. In other cases, the land given to the slaves was useless or they would be given “abandoned” land but would have to relocate if the owners returned their homes. Since Andrew Johnson offered amnesty upon simple oath to all except Confederate civilian and military officers and those with property over $20,000. Johnson had granted 13,500 special pardons; many were top political figures in the Confederacy. The planter elites was back in control of the South in no time. The planters succeeded in in stabilizing the plantation system again and used their political power to to block growth of alternative enterprises, such as factories, that might draw off black laborers. To keep this system strong black codes were made to guarantee stable labor supply now that blacks were emancipated. A majority of blacks became sharecroppers (tenant workers) because of black codes. But, there are also some positives turnouts of the Reconstruction. Reconstruction provided the opportunity for blacks to solidify their preexisting families. Blacks manifested in their withdrawal from churches controlled by whites, in the blossoming black fraternal, and self-improvement organizations. The 14th Amendment was ratified in July, 1868: provided a constitutional guarantee of rights and security of freed people, insured against neo-Confederate political power, and enshrined the national debt while repudiating that of the Confederacy. There were many establishments of black colleges in the South. Then the 15th amendment was ratified which stated that a United States citizen shouldn’t be denied the right to vote on account by race, color, or previous condition of servitude. I believe what lead to the abandonment of Reconstruction was the failure of federal enforcement and legal changes to the 14th and 15th amendment. The Reconstruction wasn’t as radical as the Republicans wanted it to be it kind of formed a foundation of what our government is today.
50. Beau Kewley January 14, 2015 at 3:23 am

    There’s many things to look at in the success or failure in the Reconstruction era, but overall I see it as mostly a failure. The reason I see it as a failure is because it didn’t completely solve the main issues fought for and about in the Civil War. An example of this is the rights of blacks. The Civil War was fought to free them of slavery, and continue to have the freedmen become a complete part ot society. The Reconstruction did bring advancement to the United States in big strides with the 14th and 15th amendments, but I don’t think that is enough for the blacks. They were still treated very poorly for close to another hundred more years even after going to they were freed from their owners. I don’t think reconstruction was a complete failure though. Eventually the 14th and 15th amendments did end up bringing the violence and extreme racial injustice to an end. I think the ten year period itself known as the “reconstruction era” was a waste though in the way that it took too long to accomplish what it wanted to. Other poor things that came out of reconstruction is the Klan, and an abundance of black freedmen without work or a home. The Klan terrorized blacks for a considerably long time and refused to give up the white supremacist Southern America that they once had. The government didn’t take immediate or serious action on the Klan, and it ended up advancing some of the south’s dislike for blacks within their society. Black freedmen didn’t have much to do after they were freed from slavery because they were poorly educated, and the government kind of just let the black people figure it out on their own. The government didn’t take much action that actually progressed America for good in the Reconstruction Era.