Failures+of+Reconstruction

//Failures of Reconstruction//

**The reconstruction of the south was the period during and after the Civil War where several different groups in the government tried to solve the economic, political, and social problems that arose as a result of the Civil War. It was a time of disorder and chaos. Southern whites rejected all forms of equality and blacks wanted nothing but full freedom and land of their own. Presidential Reconstruction under Lincoln and Johnson demonstrates the difficulties inherent in reshaping the South after the Civil War. State Republican parties could not preserve black-white voter coalitions that would have enabled them to stay in power and continue political reform. **



**White Soothers who took a direct action against African American participation in government were in the minority. The Klan and other secret groups tried to prevent African Americans from making economic, as well as political, progress. African Americans who owned their own land or who worked in occupations other than agriculture were subject to attacks and destruction of property.**

**Presidency over lines of authority, and the unwillingness of southern whites to allow blacks any significant power in southern society were main reasons that Reconstruction failed. Even though Reconstruction failed, at least we tried but some people have to learn how to change. Reconstruction changed the way of life for blacks. Some changes were good and some changes made life difficult, but overall the blacks made it out of slavery safely. Reconstruction was the original beginning of the Civil Rights Act. The fact that African-Americans had made it so far gave them the strength to keep going and fight for what they believe in. The supreme court undermined the power of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.**


 * Many had blamed African American politicans for the reconstruction failures.As the Supreme court rejected Reconstruction polices in the 1870s, notheren voters grew indifferent of events in the south. Weary of the Negro Question and sick of carpetvag government, many Northern voters shifted their attention to such national concerns as the panic of 1873 and the corruption in Grant's administration. In addition, a desire for reconciliation bewtween the regions spread through the North. Democrats recaptured the state governments. As a result of redemption as the Democrats called their return to power in the south and the national election of 1876, congressional Reconstruction came to an end.

Despite the efforst of African americans and many Redical Republicans, Reconstruction ended without much real progress in the battle against discrimination. Although Recial Republicans wanted to help the former slaves, they made severcal serious mistakes. First, they assumed that extending certain civil rights to freed persons would enable them to protect themselves through participation in government, especially in lawmaking.** **Redical republican governments were unable or unwilling to enact land reofrm or to provide** **former slaves with the economic resources needed to break the cycle of poverty.

__Work cited__**

__www.goldenessays.com/free_essays/4/world-history/reconstruction-failure. shtml__ __ www.megaessays.com/essay_search/south_failure.html The Americans McDougal Littell__