How Did Reconstruction Improve The Rights Of African Americans

Reconstruction was a time period in history that the United States went through to reunite the North and South after the Civil War. African Americans were a major part of this due to the fact that during the Civil war their emancipation from slavery was one of the major reasons for the division. In an attempt to reduce future conflicts that were arising due to the hostility between black and whites; laws were put in place to try and secure the rights of
African Americans. These laws that were put in place were supposed to insure that African
Americans were not enslaved again and that they had the same rights as an United States citizen. Although these laws were put in place African Americans were not truly free during
Reconstruction.
Since
Adams says that when freed men and women trying to escape from their old masters there were armies of white man slaughtering them. Prior to them trying to escape, their old master forced them to address them as before, "You should say 'master'. You all are not free... and you shall call every white lady 'missus' and every white man 'master.'" (Document C). The physically written law could not force those subject to it to obey it. Since everyone denying former slaves rights were not incriminated many things continued to happen without the government knowing. Example of laws that were passed to free not only to ensure slave rights but the rights of all Americans are the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments. The 13th amendment was passed to abolish slavery, the 14th amendment was passed to grant citizenship to anyone born in the united states including African Americans “All persons born or naturalized in the
United States...are citizens of the United States…” (Document A). The 15th amendment was passed to grant African American men the right to vote since they were declared citizens by the 14th amendment.
Henry Adams’ account of the things that he experienced is an