Did The American Reconstruction Fail?

Did the American Reconstruction fail?

Joseph Parish

The American Civil War may have preserved the Union as one nation along with freeing the slaves, however, it can be argued as to whether the reconstruction was successful, or if it was a complete failure. The reconstruction of 1865 was a period in our history where our leaders attempted to devise plans to rebuild a broken nation. This was not a simple, and easy task to accomplish. During the process of reconstruction, America was experiencing a gross lack of political focus necessary to reunite a divided nation. It is important to remember that the war spanned all of the eastern states, and each state was involved in their own recovery efforts as well.

The southern states were in shambles and essentially, they had a non-existent political and economic system. These states were desperately looking for a means to revive their lives as close as it used to be. To add additional problems to an overflowing pot, they had an addition four million prior slaves to contend with. These were people with no means to support themselves, and were viewed as a negative part of southern society. Although they had been freed by the war, their future looked even more grim than previously.

The Union was attempting to bring the defeated South back into the mainstream of America, while the south was desperately attempting to revive their damaged economy. Various political leaders were busy presenting their version of the reconstruction plan. The Lincoln plan was offered by the president and was the most lenient solution devised. Many northerners felt it was too easy in the southern states. Lincolns plan offered the south a means by which they could once again be part of the nation. The plan stated that the southern states were to accept the emancipation of slaves, and to swear loyalty to the union. It was simple and to the point.

Prior to imitating his plan Lincoln’s life was cut short by an assassin’s bullet. His untimely death left the field open once again to a wide possible choice of plans. After the president’s death, several political leaders emerged with their own version of the plan. The Radical Republicans as they were known, had two major goals in mind. Since they felt that the south was to blame for the war, they wanted to punish them severely. Secondly, they desired to assist the former black slaves in accepting their new found freedom. After all this bickering had slowed down, our congressmen finally acted and presented their plan. Their plan was to put troops on southern lands to enforce the rights of the black men, and provided that all states in order to enter the union again, would need to modify their 14th amendment. They were required to agree that all men born in America were U.S. citizens.

Problems developed in the 1876 presidential election between Democrat Samuel Tilden, and Republican Rutherford B. Hayes. The race was extremely close, and the outcome was left to a group of men known as the “commission”. In the Compromise of 1877, Hayes was declared the winner with a slight stipulation. The military occupation of the south was to come to an end. There was now nothing to keep the southern states from taking advantage of the freed slaves. Soon state laws were enacted which took the liberties of the black man from them. It was at this point in time that the reconstruction period drew to a close.

It is easy to see that even with the plan in place, the north failed to effectively rebuild the south and support the newly freed slaves. Integrating the freed slaves into society was another of the failures experienced by the reconstruction efforts. The bitterness which had developed from the south’s failure to win the war, eventually created fractions such as the Ku Klux Klan, and other white supremacy groups. These groups in combination intimidated the newly freed slaves, and hindered their civil liberties.

Some people contend that the reconstruction was a success, while others proclaim it a total failure. Perhaps the answer lies in between the two. Granted, the slaves were legally free, and the badly needed 13th, 14th and 15th amendment was passed, but other than that, most of the other efforts were blatantly a failure. Therefore, I suggest that the reconstruction efforts after the Civil War were a complete failure. The north could not come to an equitable agreement on how the process should be carried out, thus they failed to rebuild the south as projected. The freed slaves, although given the rights of equal treatment were not treated equally and fairly by the southern states, and this compounded the north’s reconstruction effort as well. Other associated failures were the Freedmen's Bureau, which was poorly funded and eventually eliminated. This naturally left the large portion of the slaves uneducated and still residing in the South. The slaves were forced into a sharecropping system where the landowners took further advantage of them. The relief was not to be achieved by way of the reconstruction.

Visit me at www.wordwriter.info