Throughout the history of America, their have been many political, physical, and emotional changes in the country. One particular political change was Reconstruction. Reconstruction was a program implemented by the federal government between 1865 and 1877 to repair damage to the South caused by the Civil War and to restore the southern states to the Union. Reconstruction helped by getting the South to rejoin the union and restore the United States and transformed southern society; however, it brought African Americans and former slaves trouble with their rights, therefore bringing both success and failure to this rehabilitation. Abraham Lincoln’s main goal was to hold the nation together. Therefore the Civil War and Reconstruction succeeded
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General William Tecumseh Sherman suggested that acres abandoned by planters should be given to former slaves, which he called “Forty acres and a mule.” Consequently, southern landowners did not agree with that idea and did not like how the government thought they could give away their land, therefore rejecting to honor that right for former slaves. Although the thirteenth amendment freed African American slaves, it did not give them full citizenship and the privileges that came along with it. Thankfully, the Freedmen’s Bureau were federal agency designed to aid freed slaves and poor white farmers in the South after the Civil War helped many African Americans and continued until 1872. But all of the southern states were working on restoring the old ways, which included Confederate officials going to the United States and all of the states having Black Code. Black Code were laws that restricted African Americans’ rights and opportunities, and this caused African Americans not to be allowed to vote and were kept to be landless workers. These laws also stated that if any black person who did not have a job were to be arrested, they could be sent to work as prison labor. Thankfully the Fourteenth Amendment was passed by Congress in 1868; it defined citizenship and guaranteed citizens equal protection under the law. Due to this amendment if any state refused to let African Americans vote they would risk losing a number of seats in the House of Representatives. Then the Fifteenth Amendment was passed, guaranteeing voting rights regardless of race or previous condition of servitude. But with that, the southern states could still impose voting restrictions based on literacy or property qualifications, and the people that would most likely be targeted were African
General William Tecumseh Sherman suggested that acres abandoned by planters should be given to former slaves, which he called “Forty acres and a mule.” Consequently, southern landowners did not agree with that idea and did not like how the government thought they could give away their land, therefore rejecting to honor that right for former slaves. Although the thirteenth amendment freed African American slaves, it did not give them full citizenship and the privileges that came along with it. Thankfully, the Freedmen’s Bureau were federal agency designed to aid freed slaves and poor white farmers in the South after the Civil War helped many African Americans and continued until 1872. But all of the southern states were working on restoring the old ways, which included Confederate officials going to the United States and all of the states having Black Code. Black Code were laws that restricted African Americans’ rights and opportunities, and this caused African Americans not to be allowed to vote and were kept to be landless workers. These laws also stated that if any black person who did not have a job were to be arrested, they could be sent to work as prison labor. Thankfully the Fourteenth Amendment was passed by Congress in 1868; it defined citizenship and guaranteed citizens equal protection under the law. Due to this amendment if any state refused to let African Americans vote they would risk losing a number of seats in the House of Representatives. Then the Fifteenth Amendment was passed, guaranteeing voting rights regardless of race or previous condition of servitude. But with that, the southern states could still impose voting restrictions based on literacy or property qualifications, and the people that would most likely be targeted were African