The Reconstruction Era

The Reconstruction Era of the United States of America refers to a time of postbellum efforts to restructure the political, legal, and economic systems in the states that had seceded from the Union during the American Civil War. This period began when the Civil War ended in 1865 and continued for twelve years until its deterioration in 1877. A crucial period in the nation’s history, this reconstructive phase marked the first time the laws and Constitution were rewritten to guarantee African-Americans recognition as citizens and equality before the law. During the Reconstruction Era, people had varying opinions of what should be accomplished. For the majority, Reconstruction encompassed the concept of freedom—both its definition and its boundaries.
The thirteenth amendment, for instance, was made to outlaw slavery, along with the fourteenth amendment to define citizenship and protect all Americans under the law and the fifteenth amendment to grant the suffrage to all men. All of the reunited, pardoned Southern states ratified these Reconstruction Amendments and drafted improved constitutions that greatly expanded public responsibilities, established free public education systems, created new penitentiaries, orphan asylums, and homes for the insane, guaranteed equality of civil and political rights, and abolished practices of the antebellum era such as whipping, property qualifications for officeholding, and imprisonment for debt. In addition, the Freedmen's Bureau of the U.S. federal government was established in 1865 to aid freed slaves in the South. Separated family members were brought together, freedmen were urged to gain employment and arrangements were made to teach freed slaves how to read and write. Furthermore, businessmen opened new industries, like steel, cotton and lumber mills to revitalize the economy and black men were finally permitted to hold office in every political position. Yet, despite these positive aspects, the Reconstruction Period was an economic, societal, and governmental failure in the
The Radical Republican legislation unsuccessfully protected former slaves from white persecution. In part, this can be ascribed to the fact the president of the United States at the time, Andrew Johnson, was racist. In his plan for Reconstruction, President Johnson offered pardons to the white southern elite to all who signed an oath and allowed the South to create their own provisional governments. This, in turn, granted white southerners to reestablished civil authority in the former Confederate states in 1865 and 1866. In these new southern governments there were many competent but inexperienced leaders and carpetbaggers motivated by greed and corruption. Some of the first laws enacted by these new governments were the Black Codes. These laws restricted freed blacks’ activity and ensured their availability as a labor force now that slavery had been abolished. Furthermore, President Johnson vetoed the Freedmen’s Bureau extension and Civil Rights Bill. Northern outrage over the black codes and Johnson’s leniency helped undermine support for Johnson’s policies, and by late 1866 control over Reconstruction had shifted to the more radical wing of the Republican Party in Congress. However, after nearly a decade of the Radical Republicans working to secure equal rights, the House of Representatives changed hands in 1874. Under Democratic leadership, government spending was cut and many