Free Essays on Civil War Reconstruction

Over the last 138 years, we as a nation have fumbled with the notion of freedmen and their role in society after the Civil War. Until the civil rights movement we looked back on Lincoln’s legacy of Reconstruction carried out by President Johnson as a noble step towards a truly free society. Until the mid 1900s it was clear who were the instigators and supporters of the Reconstruction. Andrew Johnson’s clear and â€Å"brave battle† towards Reconstruction targeted the carpetbaggers and the scalawags as corrupt people who took advantage of a devastated southern economy. I suppose they assumed after a time of war, it is wrong to pursue capitalism and opportunity (carpetbaggers) and see the potential of a new open opportunistic government (scalawags). Their egos and status clouded the vision of our government from seeing black people as they are-equal citizens of earth. Whites thought of them as children who couldn’t handle the complexity of co-running our government, when in fact we couldn’t handle or maybe were even a little intimidated by the complexity and potential of our African American brothers. It’s not surprising that the loudest voice of the time, our government, won the support bred from white propaganda that everything will be fine and the black man is free and happy. As unfair as it sounds, it took our black community nearly seventy-five years to gain the status and respect, making them a credible source of what the reconstruction really meant to blacks. In 1935, a black historian and activist by the name of W.E.B. Du Bois produced and released his view, the African American view, on what the Reconstruction Era really entailed. He entitled his book Black Reconstruction in America. Although his book was ignored by most historians, this was just the foundation of the social change that was to occur in the next five decades. If we could go back in time and ask a white politician the political status of the b... Free Essays on Civil War Reconstruction Free Essays on Civil War Reconstruction In the years between 1860 and 1877 the citizens of the southern United States were faced with numerous social and constitutional issues that had been escalating for many years. With the Civil War and the issues of slavery and racism becoming very imminent, America was on the verge of major social and constitutional revolutions. The way these issues were handled would have a major impact on the United States as it is today. The secession of the southern states and the forming of the Confederacy brought about the first major constitutional change. The south felt that they needed to form the Confederacy because they felt that their states’ rights were being imposed upon by the Federal government (Doc. A). The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 became one of the most important constitutional changes in that it freed the slaves in the 11 states of the Confederacy. Lincoln’s plan for reconstruction of the south was the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, which he instituted in 1864. He did this because he wanted the south to rejoin the Union. His plan was well liked in the south because it did not give blacks the right to vote and it only required a 10% loyalty oath vote. Tennessee was the first state to accept Lincoln’s plan and rejoin the Union. Later that same year, Congress had a response to Lincoln’s plan that was known as the Wade Davis Bill. Included in the Wade Davis Bill was a 50% loyalty oath vote and slavery was to be outlawed. It was required that state conventions were held, where new state constitutions were written. Soldiers and high-ranking military officers were not allowed to be part of the state conventions. This bill was given to President Lincoln right before Congress was to be recessed for the season. Lincoln did not immediately accept or veto the Wade Davis Bill, but he held onto it until after Congress had recessed, and this became known as the infamous â€Å"pocket veto.† The 13th and ... Free Essays on Civil War Reconstruction Over the last 138 years, we as a nation have fumbled with the notion of freedmen and their role in society after the Civil War. Until the civil rights movement we looked back on Lincoln’s legacy of Reconstruction carried out by President Johnson as a noble step towards a truly free society. Until the mid 1900s it was clear who were the instigators and supporters of the Reconstruction. Andrew Johnson’s clear and â€Å"brave battle† towards Reconstruction targeted the carpetbaggers and the scalawags as corrupt people who took advantage of a devastated southern economy. I suppose they assumed after a time of war, it is wrong to pursue capitalism and opportunity (carpetbaggers) and see the potential of a new open opportunistic government (scalawags). Their egos and status clouded the vision of our government from seeing black people as they are-equal citizens of earth. Whites thought of them as children who couldn’t handle the complexity of co-running our government, when in fact we couldn’t handle or maybe were even a little intimidated by the complexity and potential of our African American brothers. It’s not surprising that the loudest voice of the time, our government, won the support bred from white propaganda that everything will be fine and the black man is free and happy. As unfair as it sounds, it took our black community nearly seventy-five years to gain the status and respect, making them a credible source of what the reconstruction really meant to blacks. In 1935, a black historian and activist by the name of W.E.B. Du Bois produced and released his view, the African American view, on what the Reconstruction Era really entailed. He entitled his book Black Reconstruction in America. Although his book was ignored by most historians, this was just the foundation of the social change that was to occur in the next five decades. If we could go back in time and ask a white politician the political status of the b...