Essay Draft

‘To what extent was the reconstruction in the former Confederate States successful in achieving its objectives in the first decade after the American Civil War?’

Following the American Civil War, tension and conflict between the opposing states and races was unavoidable, and the objectives of reconstruction in the former Confederate States could not be successfully achieved to a substantial extent within the first decade after the war. With hopes to unify the southern and northern states, common objectives were established by politicians in which the, “Congress focussed on rebuilding the nation”[1], and attempts were made to abolish African-American slavery, which would be achieved through changes in legislation such the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Some success was seen in these objectives of reconstruction, where several movements existed in an effort to eradicate slavery. The Freedmen’s bureau, which was set up to provide the freed slaves with short term support and security, and the Civil Rights act of 1866, which granted all men, including those of African-American heritage, with United Sates citizenship, provide examples of the post war objectives achieving success. However, many of the plans and objectives fell through, and were unable to be successfully implemented into society. Unification of the southern and northern states saw difficulties in deciding appropriate punishments for the south, where many agreed the southern states were wrongly excused of their punishments. Numerous troubles also resulted for the freed black slaves, whereby manipulation of the law and unacceptance in society meant they were still experiencing discrimination to a devastating extent. Such significant difficulties following the war were almost unavoidable due to the nature of the war, as soldiers were in essence fighting their own people. For the first time in history, Americans were also facing, “a landscape of ruins, cities in ruin, crops in ruin, an economy in ruin, and a whole section of the population with their psyche, their spirit, their society in ruin”[2]. Thus, within the first decade after the American Civil War, the objectives of reconstruction were not successfully achieved due to undying conflict between the southern and northern states and white Americans and the African-American freed slaves.

As the American Civil War reached its conclusion, it was crucial for both the Southern and Northern states to consider appropriate methods and objectives of reconstruction to aid the reconsolidation of the Union.  The predominant objectives of the reconstruction aimed to, “bring the Union physically and politically back together”[3], in which plans were developed to, “rebuild the nation, readmit the southern states and provide citizen rights to African Americans”[4]. Whilst the preponderance of the nation indisputably desired the restoration of economic stability and political unity, various difficulties resulted in determining an effectual plan in which this could be done successfully. However, following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865, the new President, Andrew Johnson, developed what was known as the Presidential Reconstruction, which became the plan of implementation in regaining political unification. Whilst many Republicans, “had hoped for gradual remission of the southern rebel states into the union (sic)”[5], and others had wished to see them completely excluded from political influence, Johnson’s reconstruction proposed a contrary approach. The Presidential Reconstruction asserted that, “southerners who were prepared to swear an oath of allegiance to the union (sic) were to receive a pardon and amnesty”[6], and that with the exemption of their previously owned slaves, all property would be restored to them. Whilst many members of the Congress felt the southern states did not receive their deserving punishment through the Presidential Reconstruction, it was nevertheless implemented and accepted in the reconstructive period. The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, in which slavery was abolished in the United States and in any place under its jurisdiction, “gave congress (sic) the power to enforce it”[7], whereby slavery would no longer be tolerated in any part of the nation. Southerners rejected the idea of illegal slavery as they, “still believed in the arguments that had justified it”[8], however were still required to follow the constitution, especially considering their vulnerable economical state after the war. Thus the implementation of the Presidential Reconstruction and the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution identified the main objectives of reconstruction following the American Civil War, whereby political unification, economic restoration and African American civil rights were the prominent motivations.

The objectives of reconstruction that were established following the war accomplished some success in initiating effective solutions to rebuild the unity of the nation, especially in regards to racial inequality. Whilst it was crucial that both the northern and southern states felt they were receiving equal consideration in any pot-war movements, the successful objectives prominently focussed on the desires of the northern states, that was eradicating slavery. This was evident in the establishment of the Freedmen’s Bureau, which was set up to, “support freed black slaves in the short term and provide a basis for their long term security”[9]. The Freedmen’s Bureau’s prominent focus was thus to provide freed slaves with an improved lifestyle, where it, “administered schools, negotiated labour contracts between ex-slaves and white employers, provided legal advice too freed people, and organised such institutions as hospitals, orphanages, and elderly homes”[10]. The initial intentions for the Bureau in its establishment in March 1865, suggested it should be, “a temporary institution to ease the transition form slavery to freedom”[11]. However, its existence was extended for an additional three years in the Supplementary Freedmen’s Bureau Act in 1866, where it was suggested that in addition to improving the lifestyle of the freed slaves, the Bureau would also implement military courts in order to, “deal with labour disputes between former slaves and their ‘new’ employers, and to protect African–Americans from those aspects of the Black Codes that forced labour contracts on former slaves”[12]. Other successes that resulted from post-war reconstruction included the Civil Rights Act in 1866. The Civil Rights bill, introduced by Senator Lyman Trumbull, granted citizenship and civil rights to all men in the United States, “without discrimination of race and colour”[13]. A prominent objective of the civil rights act was to offer protection for the freed slaves against state laws such as the Black Codes, which aimed to, “replace the social controls of slavery that had been removed by the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and were thus intended to assure continuance of white supremacy”[14]. President Andrew Johnson initially vetoed the bill, however, the congress superseded the veto making the act, “the first major piece of legislation enacted over a presidential veto”[15]. Amendments made to the United States’ constitution also displayed success in reconstruction achieved by the nation. The Fourteenth Amendment, conducted in 1866, stated that, “all persons born or naturalised in the United States are both national and state citizens”[16], and also, “prohibited states from depriving any person of life, liberty or property without legal due process”[17]. The Fifteenth Amendment followed in 1870 and allowed all male citizens the right to vote without racial discrimination. By 1875, the United States aimed to eradicate racial inequality with the passing of the Civil Rights Act, which was implemented to, “protect the rights of all Americans, regardless of race”[18], prohibiting the exclusion of African-Americans from public facilities such as restaurants, theatres, and trains. Therefore success in the objectives of reconstruction following the civil war was prominent in those that involved the eradication of racial inequality.  

Whilst there was undoubtedly some success in the objectives of reconstruction, there were many flaws within these procedures and their outcomes, essentially due to citizen upheaval, that made them ineffective. Several issues resulted in the processes of reconstruction, where, “many in Congress, particularly the Radical Republicans, felt that president Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction plan failed to punish the Confederate states adequately”[19]. It was a common conception amongst people of the northern states that the anarchies of the war could not be forgiven by simply swearing an oath of allegiance to the Union, and that further punishment should have resulted for the southerners, which unquestionably decelerated the process of unity within the nation. Difficulties also resulted in the movement for black civil rights, where many of the freed slaves faced numerous troubles following the war. It was perceived that the legislatures of the Black Codes, “appeared racist and reactionary and attempted to replace one kind of slavery with another[20]”, where African-Americans faced discrimination in several aspects of the law. African Americans faced far heavier penalties should they have committed the same crime as a white American, and also faced many restrictions in owning property and receiving work. Attempts that were made to further eradicate this racial discrimination often backfired, evident in the Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution. Although the amendment allowed African-American citizens the right to vote, some southern states were said to have, “used literacy tests, poll taxes or outright violence and intimidation to deprive African Americans of this right”[21]. African-Americans were also commonly subjected to disfranchising stereotypes and labels that further segregated them from the white Americans. It was said to have, “suited Southern whites to depict Reconstruction as an era of black rule, rape, murder and arson”[22], portraying the black community to be monstrous and inhumane. Therefore, several flaws in the reconstruction of the nation and its unity resulted following the American Civil War, essentially due to a common refusal to abide by and accept changes in legislation and daily life.

Post war reconciliation surfaces many difficulties for participant nations under any circumstance, however, such issues were greatly difficult to overcome following the civil war, especially considering reconciliation following a war of such nature is often more difficult than a war of any other kind. For the United States, the civil war not only created disharmony between the southern and northern states, but also evoked various economic problems that proved difficult to surpass following the war. Many industries that depended on raw materials collapsed due to wartime destruction, impacting the south significantly in cotton textile and tobacco production. The national economic depression that resulted in the early 1870s, “only made these post war economic challenges more difficult”[23]. Inescapable tension between the northern and southern states also ascended difficulties in the unification of the nation and reconciliation. With a total approximation of 620,000 soldiers that died in the civil war, moving on from the war proved difficult as, “bitter and demoralised ex-soldiers, refugees from war towns and cities and freed slaves roamed the countryside aimless and confused”[24]. Whilst some citizens were eventually able to move on from the devastation of the war and accept the foreseeable changes, others who were, “unwilling to accept a new relationship to former slaves, resorted to violent opposition to the new world being created around them.[25]” This included the terrorist group the Ku Klux Klan, which was founded in 1865 as a, “racist group established by people who believed that white people were better and wanted to see black people remaining slaves”[26], and exhibited violent and malicious behaviours against African-Americans. Thus, following the civil war several difficulties arose in the reconciliation of the southern and northern states due to the nature of the war, which made it more difficult to overcome than wars of other kinds.

Within the first decade following the American Civil War, the objectives of reconstruction could not be successfully achieved to a substantial extent. Whilst the objectives of reconstruction, which focused on the unification of the southern and northern states and the eradication of African-American slavery, saw some success in the establishment of new laws and societal changes, such as the founding of the Freedmen’s bureau and the Civil Rights act of 1866, the resulting negatives were far more significant. The unification of the southern and northern states was affected by the perception of inadequate punishment towards the south, where many believed they should have received greater punishment following their loss of the war.  The freed black slaves were also unable to escape suppressive discrimination from white Americans, where legislation was manipulated and society refused to accept integration of the freed slaved into their daily life. The nature of the war itself intensified the complications within the nations reconstruction, as moving forward from the Civil War proved tremendously difficult due to the unending tension and conflict. Therefore the reconstruction in the former Confederate States was unsuccessful in achieving its objectives in the first decade after the American Civil War.

Word Count: 2050

---

[1] U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, 1865 - 1877: Rebuilding the Country, https://www.visitthecapitol.gov/civilwar/html/section3.html, (Accessed 5/6/15).

[2] American Experience, Reconciliation the second civil war, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reconstruction/carpetbagger/sf_building.html#e, (Accessed 7/8/15).

[3] U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, op. cit.

[4] ibid.

[5] D. Paterson, D. Willoughby, S. Willoughby, Civil Rights in the USA, 1863 – 1980, Heinemann Educational Publishers, Oxford, 2001. P. 31.

[6] ibid.

[7] U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, op. cit.

[8] V. Sanders, Race Relations in the USA since 1900, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 2000. P. 18.

[9] D. Paterson et al, op. cit. P. 34.

[10] Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area, Reconstruction, 1865-1875, http://www.tncivilwar.org/research_resources/reconstruction, (Accessed 5/6/15).

[11] D. Paterson et al, op. cit. P. 34.

[12] ibid.

[13] U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, op. cit.

[14] History World, Black codes, http://history-world.org/black_codes.htm, (Accessed 7/8/15).

[15] U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, op. cit.

[16] ibid.

[17] ibid.

[18] ibid.

[19] ibid.

[20] D. Paterson et al, op. cit. P. 32

[21] U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, op. cit.

[22] V. Sanders, op. cit. P. 18.

[23] Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area, op. cit.

[24] D. Paterson et al, op. cit. P. 29.

[25] Digital History, America’s Reconstruction, http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/exhibits/reconstruction/section2/section2_intro.html, (Accessed 7/8/15).

[26] BBC, Who were the KKK, http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/tch_wjec/usa19101929/1immigration9.shtml, (Accessed 7/8/15).