ESSAY EXAM #1
CHANGES IN PEOPLE’S INTERACTION WITH THEIR GOVERNMENT, ECONOMY, AND NEIGHBORS:
IN THE AREAS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ACTIVISM, AGRICULTURE, AND INDUSTRY

AMH 2020
September 9, 2013

Introduction: After the civil war, people’s interactions with their government, economy, and society have changed in the areas of federal government activism, agriculture, and industry. Events concerning the government were the radical reconstruction that played a great deal in government activism, the Homestead Act that affected agriculture, and J.P. Morgan which practically save the industry from a complete collapse. The economy’s occurrences and people that helped in maintaining economic levels while also bringing them to a downfall were the interstate commerce, Munn V. Illinois, and the Sherman Antitrust fund. Affairs such as the Radical reconstruction was a form of the federal government activism that worked toward enforcing civil and political equality for the ex-slaves which cause neo-confederates in attempt to make congress desolate the act. Radicals called for another reconstruction which was then called the Military Reconstruction Act, which was to begin political reform and to “suppress insurrection, disorder, and violence. The radical reconstruction worked to gain black suffrage and recognizing native born blacks as citizens rather than a just a lower race of the human species. The Military Reconstruction Act exceeded expectations, the act made efforts to disable neo-confederates, and remove any person in government power willing to disagree.
With people fighting against the Radical Reconstruction Act, such as President Andrew Johnson (1865-1869), people continued to make ex-slaves suffer. A freedman said “Give us our land and we take care of ourselves, but without land, our old masters can hire us or starve us, as they please” Although