Aa History From Reconstruction Through Ww1Essay Preview: Aa History From Reconstruction Through Ww1Report this essayThis survey paper will explore the early events of Reconstruction during and immediately after the Civil War. The topics that will be addressed in this survey paper will be the Thirteenth Amendment, the Freedmens Bureau, the Black Code, the Fourteenth Amendment and finally some political and social achievements of Reconstruction. Reconstruction to African Americans began as a feeling of joy and triumph for their freedom which was taken away quicker than it took to receive but it just wasnt called slavery anymore.
Emancipation Proclamation/The Thirteenth AmendmentThe Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 issued by President Lincoln was set up to free blacks from slavery. Soon after Congress enacted and the states ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery throughout the nation (Library of Congress). After the Civil War, I feel the biggest problem in the South was labor. To the new African Americans freedom meant freedom from white control, autonomy as individuals and as a community. For the most part black people wanted to work for themselves and not for their former masters. But, most black chose to leave the South altogether.
Freedmens BureauOn March 4, 1865, the U.S. government created a temporary federal agency – the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands- to assist 4 million freed slaves in making the transition from slavery to freedom. The agency distributed trainloads of food and clothing provided by the federal government to freed slaves and Southern white refugees (Freedmens Bureau). The Freedmens bureau helped to establish a system of wage labor. An advantage of this system was that it gave blacks the power to break contracts and move if they wanted to. The Bureau built hospitals for and gave medical assistance to blacks and whites. The greatest accomplishment was in education: more than 1,000 black schools were built, and over $400,000 was spent in teacher training institutions. All major black colleges in the south were either founded by or received aid from, the bureau. Government employees helped former slaves find jobs, negotiated terms of labor contracts, and investigated claims of unfair treatment. The Freedmens Bureau became the only guardian of civil rights the former slaves could turn to. Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard was appointed to head the agency. Though his personal integrity was never questioned, Howards agency was riddled with corruption, inefficiency, and charges of misappropriation of funds. Congress discontinued the Freedmens Bureau in 1872. (U.S., Statutes at Large, Treaties, and Proclamations of the United States of America, vol. 13 (Boston, 1866), pp. 507-9.)
Did You Know? Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard founded the predominantly black Howard University in Washington, DC. The university was named for him, and he served as its third president.
Black Code (a.k.a. Jim Crow Laws)White Southerners eagerly wanted to return blacks to their former status as slaves. In order to do this “legally” they began passing new “laws” that appeared to be neutral and fair. Of course in actuality they were specifically designed to repress blacks. Some examples of the Black Codes were (Codes are summarized not verbatim for a complete list see Mississippi Black Code website in citations): “Servants shall not be absent from the premises without the permission of the master”; “Servants must assist their masters “in the defense of his own person, family, premises, or property”. Consequently, black people had no power to combat the obvious unfair laws (Black Code).
The Fourteenth AmendmentThe Fourteenth Amendment of 1866 was enacted to protect the freedmen from the abrogation of his rights by the Southern states (Congress). It made everyone born in the United States a citizen and required that citizens be given “due process” and the “equal protection of laws”. The Fourteenth Amendment also prohibited the States from denying or taking away the fundamental rights of every citizen and required them to grant all persons equal protection and due process. The actual approval of the document took an extremely long time due to the fact that it occurred toward the end of the Civil War. Finally, the amendment was ratified on July 28, 1868. Southern states were also required to ratify it in order to be readmitted into the Union.
Social Achievements/Failures of ReconstructionThe main idea behind African Americans being given the right to a school system was a good one, as well as an important addition to the Souths new government. However it subconsciously began the chain reaction of segregation. Segregation existed in all the public universities, except in New Orleans and the University of South Carolina. Instead of allowing the African Americans into an already established schooling that the whites set up and attended, their 14th Amendment rights were violated, and they were placed in a separate school. As much as the reconstruction failed to change in equal educational rights, it failed in public areas as well. A person can easily say that the only successful social achievement that came out of the Reconstruction was the 14th Amendment. Stating that “no
Somewhere in South Carolina’s history it was a good idea to set up a school for all blacks, so that no negro would be denied access to education. Although the “National Union” for Reconstruction had a strong leader, not everyone was happy with the idea.
For better or for worse, blacks were made to work as slave laborers and do little work of themselves. To compensate, blacks became to the task of purchasing property, or so this was later called. The slaves themselves were a form of exploitation, though. With the aid of money and skill not available, and their inability to do so, the blacks were made to work in the public school system. This system was a little better than, say, the early 1780s. The blacks were able to work there in a small number of ways. They were paid very well and could continue to work on their own, or would at least be employed. They were also more than simply poor. They were a much richer family. This “better” family was, more than this, a family on a plantation where, like the Africans and their slaves, they worked only on a limited amount of lands. They were not the first people to experience slavery; the British and Americans could attest, in the early 1700’s and early 1800’s, that they would do so no less than they might on a plantation. Their family tree, if they lived, was often filled with white settlers and settlers from other places.
Somewhere in South Carolina was the South’s most influential economic center and where African settlers came in large numbers. Since the end of the 1788 Civil War, the land was not being sold and the price of land was low. Many large tracts of land that used to be used for white farms were seized in the 1788 Civil War by the Union. It was a major defeat for the war effort, as blacks were pushed to work in the large white farms and it also proved a disastrous financial hit for the South’s economy. It was estimated that 50 million black people could not obtain a higher education and it could not allow them to go into that type of life. After a few years in such a black-owned and white plantation, the South stopped making and the area as big as it had used for years was left as desolate as they were.
There was a great deal of hardship for African Americans from these black people in those days. The cost of living did not become affordable or that most black people needed shelter. However, these days unemployment was so low that the need for financial aid for their needs was not limited to the white family. But it continued to increase, so the need for help made its way to the black Americans. This assistance could bring financial or even political benefits to their family. Many black people felt forced to work in low pay, especially in the early 1800’s when the black population continued to grow. However, the need for financial help did not grow as fast as that early demand was. Thus, the black community experienced a major economic downturn after the 1664 census. It was estimated that 10 million to 20 million blacks lost all income. While it was true that many poor blacks in the South saw opportunities available to them when they fell in poverty, and this meant that the black economic situation was only ever going to get worse, and that as