When the Civil War broke out in 1861, most of the African Americans were ready. Based on this, African Americans sought to join the Union Army while experiencing rejection at first for fear of alienating pro-slavery sympathizers in the North and the Border States. With time, the position weakened, allowing enlisting of the free African Americans in the Union Army. The integration of the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 was essential in marking the initial step to freedom for enslaved African Americans in the Confederacy. Following the end of the Civil War, America had to address one of the critical questions related to the treatment of the defeated South. During the war, unique regions faced a situation in which they would experiment with the transformation from the slavery world to lie after emancipation (Eric, 2002). This paper focuses on assessing how the nation’s commitment to the founding ideals was tested during the Reconstruction by a thorough evaluation of the political, economic, and social implications of Reconstruction, as well as reasons why Reconstruction ended.
Critically, the integration of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 was critical in freeing African Americans, particularly in the rebel states. Following the Civil War, the ratification of the 13 th Amendment emancipated all slaves in the United States regardless of geographical affiliation. Based on this, the mass of Southern blacks had to deal with the difficulty, which their counterparts in the North had confronted concerning being free among numerous hostile whites. African Americans did not know how to be free. Similarly, the white people had no idea how to have a free African American among them.
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Even following the Emancipation Proclamation, 24 months of the war, service to the troops by African Americans, and the defeat of the Confederacy, the nation depicted a lack of preparedness in dealing with the question of handling the demands and expectations of the newly freed African American population. This did create room for the implementation of the Reconstruction by the Congress, which lasted from 1866 to 1877. The objective of the Reconstruction was to facilitate the effective reorganization of the Southern states following the Civil War; thus, the chance and means for readmission of such states into the Union (Eric, 2002). Reconstruction was also in place to offer ways for the blacks and whites to live together in a free, non-slave society. Nonetheless, the Southern states viewed Reconstruction as a humiliating and vengeful imposition; thus, they sought to go against it.
During these years, the black, as well as white teachers from the South and North, churches, learning institutions and missionary institutions focused on working tirelessly to offer the freed African Americans the chance to learn. Most of the slaves of different age groups focused on maximizing this chance to become literate as grandfathers and their grandchildren sought to settle in classrooms to pursue education as part of the tools of freedom. The process focused on integrating Freedmen’s Bureau as a tool to help the freedmen while optimizing the 13th Amendment as a Constitutional attribute in place to help abolish slavery (Eric, 2002). Initially, Lincoln had the desire to facilitate readmission of the Southern states when 10 percent of the voters pledged allegiance to the Union and showing their recognition of the end of slavery. On the other hand, Johnson insisted on the approach by the Confederate leaders to seek personal pardons.
The Reconstruction act never offered the desired freedom sought by the African Americans as the New Southern state governments sought to liaise with the former Confederate leaders to pass or implement the ‘Black Codes.’ The objective of such codes was to restrict the rights of the freedmen. For example, the codes limited the permission or rights of the freedmen to rent or keep houses with the limits of the town under different circumstances, as evident in the case of Opelousas, Louisiana. Showing substantive shock at the ‘Black Codes’ and the election of the Confederate leaders, the Radical Republicans refused to seat Southerners in Congress. Congress went ahead and passed the Civil Rights Act over Johnson’s veto to grant freedmen rights of citizenship while using the right approach to oversee overturn of the ‘Black Codes.’ The Civil Rights Act under the 14th Amendment to grant all citizens, regardless of the color, different rights (Eric, 2002). There was the ‘due process of law,’ which was in place to offer the right to fair procedures before the state government takes away an individual’s freedom or property. Besides, the Amendment provided the ‘equal protection of the laws’ as the law required the state laws to treat people equally. The Reconstruction Act 1867 outlined a framework of ensuring the Southern States resettled back to the Union.
The functioning of the Reconstruction has diverse political implications and attributes. One of the critical political aspects during this era is the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. The Radical Republicans focused on passing the Tenure of Office Act, which required the president in place to need the Senate consent to remove cabinet members. Based on this law, Johnson became the first President to be impeached following his decision to remove his Secretary of War (Eric, 2002). The trial went to the Senate with one vote saving Johnson from removal. The nations sought to experiment with the Reconstruction governments, which enabled the carpetbaggers, scalawags, and freedmen to participate.
Early studies on Reconstruction have been critical in depicting Reconstruction governments as corrupt and dominated by the inept, ignorant, and evil black politicians allied with the carpetbaggers and scalawags. The governments justified the use of violence by the whites in the process of ‘redeeming’ the South. Nonetheless, it is essential to note that such governments were valuable in making major and lasting implications for southern society. This is through establishing the first systems of free public education while repealing imprisonment-for-debt laws, and abolishing property qualifications for holding office.
Regardless of these developments, the period had meaningless land reforms and redistribution limiting the blacks from achieving their goals and expectations such as obtaining land and becoming self-sufficient yeoman farmers. Amid these failures, the emergence of the labor system during Reconstruction would dominate African American economic life in the 20th century (Eric, 2002). For example, through sharecropping, the system blacks rented a plot of land while paying plantation owners specific percentages of the crop, usually half or a third.
The religious life of African Americans underwent a substantial change in the Southern states during Reconstruction. For instance, the encounter led to the tremendous growth of number black Christians in the Southern states under the influence of the black missionaries’ proselytizing activities, particularly from the North to represent white religious bodies and black denominations. The second aspect relates to the development of autonomous religious life through the creation of separate black churches (Eric, 2002). At the end of the Reconstruction period, a majority of African Americans withdrew their affiliation to the white churches. Their withdrawal from white churches was prompted by increased discrimination against them through cases such as separate pews in seating arrangements. African Americans made different gains during Reconstruction.
For example, during Reconstruction, the African Americans gained through the passage of the federal legislation to protect the civil rights of southern blacks. There was also the gain through the southern blacks in the national legislature and the further presence of the blacks in the Southern governments as legislators and executives. Nonetheless, the threatened anti-black violence returned the control of the southern society through the people who showed commitment for the restoration and maintenance of the white domination. The Reconstruction governments were in place to exercise their duties and roles in banning racial discrimination, establishing public schools, and encouraging railroad construction despite remaining guilty of corruption (Eric, 2002). In terms of economics, Reconstruction had different features such as sharecropping, tenant farming, debt peonage, and the emergence of the ‘New South’ associated with enhanced crop diversity, some manufacturing, and more railroads.
Conclusively, the Reconstruction period saw continued hostilities between the South and the North. Following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, President Andrew Johnson, as his successor, sought to reconcile the differences between the North and the South while using the chance to reunite the Union. Nonetheless, the Radical Republicans in Congress saw an opportunity to punish the South for their role in seceding from the Union. These two critical factions argued over Reconstruction policies, facilitating the creation of further problems between the North and the South. Racism in the South prevented the newly freed African Americans from achieving equality in the economic, political, and social spheres of American life. Following the economic depression in 1873, the North lost substantial interest in creating room for the end of Reconstruction. After this, Rutherford B. Hayes sought to use the opportunity for political gain. It is through withdrawing troops from the South in the deal that would enable him to win the disputed 1877 Presidential election. The deadlock would finally break following the Southern Democrats’ agreement to offer support to Hayes’ claim for the presidency if he would agree to put an end to Reconstruction.
References
Eric F. (2002). Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877 . New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics.
