Reconstruction Period Essay Sample

The Civil War was one of the bloodiest and most important wars in american history it was fought over what would happen regarding slavery and the african americans that wre trying to become citizens in our country, the civil war was fought between the confederacy (the south) and the union (the north) the union believed that slavery should be ended and the that the enslaved should be able to become workers or even just people in america. The confederacy beliveved that slavery should still exist and should remain in the world. Another thing to add was that if the confederacy won they most likely would have seceded from America all together and started a new government. The Civil War was fought from 1861-1865 and the union did end up winning, after the union won It was time for reconstruction where they would have to rewrite some of the laws of the past to give the formerly enslaved people equal rights and a way to thrive in america.

Reconstruction is a very important era in america as it would quite literally change the future of america and would answer the question if black people would be able to remain in america without getting cussed out and treated unfairly or if reconstruction would be able to change the ways of the past and let the black people be treated like a human being. The first thing that reconstruction did which altered pretty much everything was creating the 13th amendment, one of the most important amendments ever. The 13th amendment stated "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States” which pretty much said that slavery would not exist in the united states anymore though there would be a loophole found in this amendment which did lead to more slavery but I will cover that later on. The 13th amendment was passed on January 31st 1865 and was widely celebrated in the north but obviously was not accepted very well from most southerners. Another thing that reconstruction did well was creating the 14th and 15th amendments. Though they aren't as famous as the 13th amendment they were extremely crucial parts to america becoming equal as in the 14th amendment it gave black people the chance to become a citizen and also claimed that they would be given equal civil and legal rights and the 15th amendment gave the right to vote to black people so there voices would finally be heard during the election. The 14th amendment was passed july 9th 1868 and the 15th amendment was passed February 29th 1869. One more thing that the reconstruction era did right was bettering the rights of african americans and on paper said that they were equal. As we can see now that did get destroyed but for a brief period in time before the loop holes were found and racist people kind of got there second wind there was in some ways equality for the first time ever in america and it did make some people realize that america could truly be the role model country and could truly be a free country.

Reconstruction was a period of times that were ups and downs as I just listed some of the highs I will now have to cover some of the lows. Starting off with that 13th amendment it may have said it abolished slavery but it didnt fully kill it off as it was said the slavery coudnt happen on U.S grounds unless it was for a crime and those few words changed america again as slave owners were able to go o prison and buy out criminals to work them as slaves but could easily pass that they were doing there sentence as they were a criminal but things started getting out of hand when some white people would simpily just accuse a black person of a crime and there word would win over the black persns making the black person a slave again. Another thing that i think that reconstruction did wrong  was that even though it said that black people were now equal to white people that truly was not true and around reconstruction time is when segregation started where blacks couldn't go into certain places and they would have to use lower end water fountains lower end schools and education they were pretty much getting handed the white peoples hammy downs which was extremely unfair to the balck people as they just fight and won to gain there equality but the white people just don't care as they still didn't treat african americans like humans. One more thing that reconstruction destroyed was that a lot of public outbreaks and famous terrorist groups were born to try and keep whie supremecy as the most famous white terroist group was created in the KKK in 1865 and started to get very popular in 1866 and 1867 and there whole entire purpose of existence was to try and make as many black peoples lifes awful and to try and kill any black perosn that spoke out agaisnt them. And the KKK’s power was insane as they didnt just have poor white people or idiots they had docters cops probably people in office that was in the group as when Mr. Abraham Colby was attacked he described them as smart and high class white people such as lawyers docters police officers and other high power positions.

Now that we have covered both the high and lows of the reconstruction era and also after looking back at old sources I can say a few different things about the reconstruction era such as that a huge flaw that i think people of that time over looked was when there is multiple presidents having the largest say in the reconstruction era no presidents ever think alike so what the president before the new one did may be cancelled or destroyed and the reconstruction era really showd this off as when president lincoln planned to do a “10% plan”  where he would mostly forgive all confederate soldiers and leaders and allow them to je joi the states with also a plan to make 10% of voters pledge there loyalty to the united states but before he could get any of his plans going he was killed and andrew jackson took over with a whole new plan where he would allow the south to make there own government and this went on for a while with new presidents comes a whole different outlook on what they want to do with america and to me that is what really held reconstruction back from becoming a solidly positive thing to america when you look on the good side though african americans finally got basic rights and the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments where passed also they almost where able to get rid of slavery forever so it truely istough to say if reconstruction helped or hurt americ in the long run. Though this were either very tough or very good times for americans I am going to lean towards reconstruction being a positive thing to america as the three amendments to me are just so important and very good things to america so they outway any of the bad things that happened during reconstruction.