Reconstruction Dbq

Colin Malarchuk

APUS History

Mr. Nolan

Jan 27th 2014

Reconstruction DBQ

        In history, any major change can be considered a revolution. The transition of the legal status of African Americans from slaves to freeman is considered a major change and, therefore, a revolution. No revolution comes without an opposition, though. As the Civil War was fought from 1861-65 and President Lincoln officially made the war over slavery, the southern farmers who relied on their free labor force, fought to protect their property. When the Union won in 1865, returning the Confederacy into the union, and Lincoln had already given the Emancipation Proclamation, this lead to the reconstruction period. This “reconstruction” period is when the real revolution happened. Just because the slaves were legally freed and the South was admitted into the Union, changing the mindset of southerners to accept these freemen and enter under was a completely new battle. There were many constitutional and social developments between 1860 and 1877 that amounted to this revolution.

        Many constitutional developments lead to this revolution. Southern secession was a key factor that contributed to this revolution. Before 1860, there was simply sectionalism, driven by slavery and other problems, between the North and the South, but the legal secession made the North and South essentially two separate countries. Many countries like, South Carolina, had put out Declarations of Causes of Secession to disclose their reasons for seceding and which Union ideals they opposed. During the years of the war, many of the southern people had acquired a mindset that they were separate from the north, and this would not fade overnight. This problem was seen far in advance. During the Civil War, there were a few plans that would only admit southern states back into the Union if a portion of them showed support for Lincoln and the Union government. President Lincoln was very loose in this are, proposing the 10% plan, which said that if 10% took an oath of allegiance to the US the state was reinstated. Radical republicans believed this plan to be way too lenient and proposed the Wade-Davis bill to require 50%. This act was vetoed by the president and was one of the first disagreements between Republicans, radical and moderate.  Lincoln wanted to ease the south into regaining their nationalism while the radicals wanted to force it upon them. And, other constitutional advances were instituted to induce a sense of nationality. One of these advances was money. Some believed, like Senator John Sherman, that if all the people were dependent on the United States for a currency then the people would be more nationalistic. This idea led to the National Banking Act of 1863. This act created a system of national charters for banks and encourages the development of the national currency. Many southerners who resisted assimilating to the Union would look for any loophole to cheat blacks out of their rights. When the 14th amendment was passed to deal with the mistreatment of freemen through Jim Crow Laws, the anti-black southerners weren’t done. Some southerners still refused the African American’s right to vote. Many like Gideon Welles said that it is the right of the government to free the slaves but not regulate suffrage. Many southerners would administer impossible literacy tests to black voters and once they could not pass, they wouldn’t be allowed to vote. Because of this, the 15th amendment was ratified, to prohibit the denial of the right to vote. Many of the republicans in the north wanted to help get equality in all of the US. The Civil Rights act of 1866 was one of the key acts to do so. This was the first US federal law to define what it meant to be a US citizen and affirmed that all citizens would receive equal protection. And many felt, like Senator Lot Morril, that this contributed greatly to the revolution at the time. Though there wasn’t enough constitutional power at the time, once the 14th amendment was ratified, the Civil rights Act was reenacted in 1870. Many constitutional developments contributed to the revolution of reconstruction during and after the civil war.

        Many social developments lead to this revolution. Southern secession was a key factor that contributed to this revolution. Jim Crow laws and the intimidation of whites towards blacks played a key roll in the social aspects that regressed reconstruction. Many brave African American freemen petitioned for the right to vote. Since the civil war was the first war where blacks could fight in, they felt cheated when after their hard fighting and after being freed; they still did not have the suffrage that the white man did. This social pressure of many blacks fighting for what they thought was right helped pass the 15th amendment, which guaranteed every citizen the right to vote. Also, a key group that helped eliminate the social setbacks of African Americans was the Freedman’s bureau. They were established to be a primitive welfare agency that provided food, clothing and schooling to freemen. One major problem they dealt with was sharecropping. This system gave the slaves a portion of (usually their ex-owner’s) land in exchange for the freeman to work on that land and give half of more of their crops to the landowner. This system kept the freemen trapped where they were. The owner would take so much of the freeman’s crop that he had nothing to sell, and obviously had to eat what he could. So without any profit from what he was farming, he didn’t make any money to be able to go north or wherever he wanted. The worst social development that hindered reconstruction was the Ku Klux Klan. They used fear and intimidation to restrict black’s rights. There came about many writings about the Klan saying that they increased the power of the central government. During the period that Republicans controlled the state governments in the South, southerners formed the KKK to intimidate blacks and white reformers. Similar to the KKK, the White League operated to get Republicans out of Southern office and intimidate freedmen from their voting rights and restricting their political organization. The solution to the Klan and White League was the Force acts of 1870 and 1871. The force acts were federal laws that gave the president the ability to enforce suffrage to all people and the 15th amendment. So, as many social hindrances came about socially, there was always a solution to the problem.