Pre and Post Reconstruction Period – Politics, Economic and Social Effects
History 2301-SA01 – United States History to 1877
Instructor:
18 July 2011
Pre and Post Reconstruction Period – Politics, Economic and Social Effects
This research paper is intended to explain in general terms some of the political, economics and social effects America dealt with during the Pre and Post Reconstruction Period.
During the last years of the Civil War, as Union forces moved closer to victory and millions of former slaves became free, Americans began to think about how to reconcile the splintered parts of the nation and were immediately faced with a series of complex questions that required some resolutions. Some issues raised were: a) How would the former states of the Confederacy be integrated back into the Union? b) What type of labor arrangements would replace slavery in the South? c) Would southern politicians who had joined the Confederacy be excluded from politics, or an even more important question, would they even be welcomed back to Congress and state legislatures in the spirit of reconciliation? d) How would the South, which had suffered the greatest damage in the war, be rebuilt so that it could prosper economically? e) How would civil rights be defined for the four million slaves who became free during the war? f) What roles would African Americans be able to play or be welcomed in the political, social and economic environment of the post-war period? g) What additional measures would be taken to ensure that African Americans were treated fairly and justly? While there were no decisive answers to any of these questions, each drew a range of responses from different sectors of American society known as “The Reconstruction” and is widely viewed as a crucial time in American history. History shows that American politics, society and economics underwent major transformations during Reconstruction and each of them was met with main opposition; thus, both radical and
Instructor:
18 July 2011
Pre and Post Reconstruction Period – Politics, Economic and Social Effects
This research paper is intended to explain in general terms some of the political, economics and social effects America dealt with during the Pre and Post Reconstruction Period.
During the last years of the Civil War, as Union forces moved closer to victory and millions of former slaves became free, Americans began to think about how to reconcile the splintered parts of the nation and were immediately faced with a series of complex questions that required some resolutions. Some issues raised were: a) How would the former states of the Confederacy be integrated back into the Union? b) What type of labor arrangements would replace slavery in the South? c) Would southern politicians who had joined the Confederacy be excluded from politics, or an even more important question, would they even be welcomed back to Congress and state legislatures in the spirit of reconciliation? d) How would the South, which had suffered the greatest damage in the war, be rebuilt so that it could prosper economically? e) How would civil rights be defined for the four million slaves who became free during the war? f) What roles would African Americans be able to play or be welcomed in the political, social and economic environment of the post-war period? g) What additional measures would be taken to ensure that African Americans were treated fairly and justly? While there were no decisive answers to any of these questions, each drew a range of responses from different sectors of American society known as “The Reconstruction” and is widely viewed as a crucial time in American history. History shows that American politics, society and economics underwent major transformations during Reconstruction and each of them was met with main opposition; thus, both radical and
Bibliography: Work Cited Abbott, Richard H. The Republican Party and the South, 1855-1877. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1986. Birth of a Nation. Dir. D. W. Griffith. Perf. Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Henry B. Walthall, Miriam Cooper, Robert Harron. 1915. Videocassette. Madacy Entertainment Group, 1997. DuBois, W. E. B. Black Reconstruction in America. New York: Russell and Russell, 1935. Foner, Eric. Reconstruction: America 's Unfinished Business, 1863-1877. New York: Harper, 1988. Franklin, John Hope. Reconstruction: After the Civil War. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1961. Library of Congress. The Strobridge Lith. Co., Cincinnati. “Abraham Lincoln and his Emancipation Proclamation.” c1888 Oubre, Claude F. Forty Acres and a Mule: The Freedmen’s Bureau and Black Land Ownership. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1978. Trelease, Allen W. White Terror: The Ku Klux Klan Conspiracy and Southern Reconstruction. New York: Harper, 1971.