Reconstruction

America has gone though many changes throughout history. There have been many Leaders and proposals for a superior future. One movement that changed its future was Reconstruction. Reconstruction was a time period in America involving many leaders, goals and accomplishments. By the end of the civil war, nobody knew what was to be done. With the assassination of President Lincoln in 1865, it was up to President Andrew Johnson to try to reunite former enemies. They had to solve one issue; African Americans still continued to serve white southerners on their plantations. Was the Reconstruction a success or a failure? The Reconstruction was more of a success. Reconstruction helped African Americans establish a life of freedom and equal right. The North only had the intent to bring the Union back together, however, abolition was an act by the civil war. After the Reconstruction The thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments was passed in order to abolish slavery and to establish the rights of former slaves. Also in 1865 the United States created the Freedmen’s Bureau to help former slaves in Southern states. It helped former slaves by providing medical supplies, health care and establishing schools.

The thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments were ratified in America. Now African Americans were freed from slavery and they were able to start new life as freedmen. In 1863 President Lincoln issued the Emancipation as the nation approached its third year of the civil war. The proclamation declared, "that all persons held as slaves" in the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." However the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery. He recognized that it would have to be followed by a constitutional amendment in order for slavery to be abolished. Therefore the thirteenth amendment was passed in December 6, 1865to the Constitution declared that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the