Tuesday, February 18, 2014

In which ways was the South restored after the Civil War and in which ways was it reconstructed?

When we speak of Reconstruction historically, the period from 1865 - 1877, it is generally regarded as a dismal failure.  Politically, the Union was restored, as the 10% Plan allowed the states to be readmitted into the Union.  Constitutionally, the 13, 14, and 15 amendments were added abolishing slavery and giving free blacks citizenship and some voting rights.


Socially, the southern states responded with the Black Codes, which essentially made blacks into slaves again without calling them that.  The KKK also emerged at that time as a social police force.


The Freedman's Bureau attempted to bring basic literacy to former slaves, but the funding was cut after only seven years, and the vast majority of former slaves were still uneducated.


Thaddeus Stevens called for "40 Acres and a mule" for every freed slave, but that was not adopted, and most "free" blacks ended up as sharecroppers or tenant farmers, without their own land. 


Physically, the South was never fully reconstructed.  The industry was gone, and most of the railroads along with it.  Some economists suggest the South did not recover economically until the 1980's.

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