Introduction
The Civil war in America preserved the Union and further set the slaves free. However, the period of reconstruction was marred and characterized by no focus on political efforts that failed to solve the sectional wounds as well as eliminating freed slaves with newly obtained liberties and the result was a massive failure in bringing about long-term integration of races ( Richardson, 2007) .
Reconstruction of the south was the period both during and after the War when different government groups attempted to solve the political, economic and social problems that came as consequence of the Civil War. It was a period marked with extreme chaos and disorder. The whites in the southern states rejected all kinds of proposals on equality with the blacks seeking nothing less than freedom and land ownership. The result was a frequency in riots. Reconstruction lasted from the year 1865 to the year 1877 remaining one of the most controversial times in the American history ( Cassel, 2008) . Reconstruction had some specs of success but the failures outweighed the successes suggesting that it was a failure. The following paper studies the measures of Reconstruction and why it failed.
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Success of Reconstruction
Reconstruction was successful I the sense that it led to the restoration of the United States as one unified country. All states that were once in the confederation began drafting the new constitutions with respect of the 13 th , 14 th and 15 th amendments by the year 1877 and pledged their loyalty to the government of the United States ( Coyne, 2008) . Moreover, the reconstruction settled the debate of rights versus federalism of states that had been an issue from the 1970s.
Failures of Reconstruction
As earlier mentioned, the failures of the reconstruction far outweigh its successes insisting on the fact that reconstruction was a failed experiment. A number of factors contributed majorly to the failure of the reconstruction. The reconstruction was an imposition by the governments on the southern states that did not see the evolution of racial attitudes in that period. Many states in the South acted fast to roll back all the advances that the African American people had made. According to Cassel (2008), the Radical Republican legislation failed in its mandate to protect former slaves from the persecution of the white folks failing massively to engender crucial changes to the social setup of the Southern States.
The removal of federal troops from the south by President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1877 saw former officials of the confederate and slave owners return to power almost immediately. The newly energized and empowered white politicians of the south passed black codes, qualifications for voters and other pertinent legislations to reverse the rights of blacks which the black community had gained during the Radical Reconstruction ( Coyne, 2008) . The Supreme Court of the United States bolstered the anti-progressive movement by making key decisions in the cases of the slaughterhouses, civil rights and the United States V. Cruikshank which proceeded to efficiently repeal the Fourteenth together with the fifteenth amendment as well as the Civil Rights Act of the year 1875 ( Coyne, 2008) . As this progressed a sharecropping that was basically a legal form of slavery kept the black people tied down to land under the ownership of white farmers.
The legal slavery son became widespread in the southern states. The black community had to fight for their civil rights with the Northerners losing interest in the Reconstruction during the mid-1870s. Northerners were exhausted by all calls of reconstruction by the year 1877 that was marred with scandals, fight for the rights of black people and radicals ( Richardson, 2007) . The result was a closure of the reconstruction having not accomplished many of its goals.
The Union was in dire need of bringing back the South Black into the country after the Civil War. The black community were to come back on equal footing to revive the economy and rebuild their destroyed landscape. However, there were major divisions in the government that saw these goals fail to be achieved. Lincoln made a proposal of the 10% plan that sought to give a lenient path for the states in the south to re-join the Union ( Foner, 2011) . However, Andrew took after Lincoln after the passing of the latter. Andrew himself was a slave owner and had all intentions to actuate his plans once he ascended to power.
The plan by Andrew initially worked with the former confederates working their way up to top government seats and getting elected to the congress of the United States. The congress hardly sat the southerners considering the republicans had dominated the settings. Moreover, the Republican Party was also divided ( Thehistoryconnection.com, 2016) . The moderates and conservatives all had the want of the south’s admission to the Union and the Congress ( Coyne, 2008) . They further wanted more reforms than the ones provided by Johnson. However, the radical republicans were calling for drastic changes with the desire of remaking the south in the image of the north. Such tensions grew in the Republican Party and the president who seemed to lean towards the South, leading to little and insignificant progress that saw an impeachment trial of the President Andrew Johnson.
The disputes in the North side-tracked the Union from any substantial progress which did not help the South come back to the Union. Another cause for the lack of political focus during the period of reconstruction was the economic prosperity observed in the North after the Civil War. For instance, there was the completion of the first transcontinental railroad, abounding of industrial inventions and a skyrocketing industrial output ( Foner, 2011) . The Northern boom that was combined with the subsequent depression drew attention from the Reconstruction.
The failure of the North in its effect to rebuild the South bringing it back to the Union was overt during the reconstruction period. First, the failing concept and nature of Reconstruction began being seen in the year 1880 between a contrast of the South and Northeast that was similar to the one in Russia and Germany that were the one of the poorest and richest countries in Europe respectively ( Coyne, 2008) . Furthermore, the South remain a single-party region long into the 20 th century being totally under the control of the reactionary elite that ruled the land. The above harboured intense animosity and hatred for the North that saw Tennessee remain the only state of the previous confederacy to have observed the birthday of Lincoln as a legal holiday until the 1940’s ( Cassel, 2008) .
Reconstruction failed and so is evident due to the idea of black codes and other restrictive laws on former slaves having not been challenged in the courts even though they were unconstitutional. Other attempts to fight for such rights were subverted by militaries ( Richardson, 2007) . The result was the virtual lack of protection of the African American community as earlier mentioned. The integration of freed slaves back into the society was another indication of the unsuccessful nature of the Reconstruction. Despite the little times of progress during the reconstruction that promised a lot to the freed African Americans, the situation worsened with time ( Foner, 2011) .
The 13 th , 14 th and 15 th Amendments were supposed to guarantee certain liberties to the African Americans and so they were seeing that 14 African Americans got elected to the congress with others serving in the state and local governments. However, there was an increase in supremacy groups, the Klu Klux Klan together with the Black Codes that intimidated the freed slaves and push back all the civil liberties of the African American ( Thehistoryconnection.com, 2016) . Moreover, the slaughterhouse cases together with the U.S v Cruikshank as well as the U.S v Reese saw the Supreme Court help immensely in limiting the rights of the black ( Cassel, 2008) . In addition to the system of sharecropping and more so the crop-lien system placed the black community into the positions of indebtedness reminiscing the dependency of slavery thus raising hopes of freedom. However, the Yankees were put back to the slavery. Therefore, the failure of Reconstruction to offer racial equality was to set the African Americans free but in an oppressive state and second class citizens into the 20 th century ( Cassel, 2008) .
Reconstruction during and after the War was an epic failure with the North at odds experiencing significant distraction on the address of all efforts and how they failed to effectively rebuild the South hence bring it back to the Union. It came to a time when the slaves seemed to be free and equal with the white people but racism continued to pervade the society. The ineffective efforts to remerge the south to the union proved less successful just as it was with integrating the freed slaves back into the society or union rather.
Conclusion
Reconstruction was a failure. However, despite its failure, Reconstruction attempted to make people learn the aspect of change with reconstruction changing the life of the black community. Some of the changes made were good but others made life quite bitter and difficult. Eventually the black community in the Union made it safely out of the slavery. Reconstruction was the beginning of a revolution termed the Civil Rights Act. The African Americans made significant steps towards liberation courtesy of the fact that they had obtained strength in the fight to sustain their progress in striving for they believe and rights.
References
Cassel, S. (2008). Lit Pick/Flaming net Teen Book Reviews Lit Pick/Flaming net Teen Book Reviews Retrieved 22 September 2017, from http://flamingnet.com/reconstruction.php
Coyne, C. J. (2008). After war: The political economy of exporting democracy Stanford University Press.
Foner, E. (2011). Reconstruction: America's unfinished revolution, 1863-1877: Harper Collins.
Richardson, H. C. (2007). West from Appomattox: the reconstruction of America after the Civil War Yale University Press.
Thehistoryconnection.com. (2016). Reconstruction Failure Thehistoryconnection.com Retrieved 22 September 2017, from http://www.thehistoryconnection.com/Reconstruction-Failure.html
