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Essay On Reconstruction After Civil War

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The years following the Civil War were laden with political, social, and economic strife, especially in the South. While the events of Reconstruction provided political, social, and economic gains for various groups, Reconstruction can only be described as a minor success due to its many shortcomings and failures.
The most notable successes of Reconstruction include reunification of the Union, passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, and establishment of the Freedmen’s Bureau. Reuniting the Union was Lincoln’s and many other Northerners’ main focus after the Civil War, although the last ex-confederate state was not readmitted until 1870. The passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments officially outlawed slavery, granted freedmen equal protection under the law, and gave black males the right to vote. While these helped equalize blacks and whites politically, the Freedmen’s Bureau was established to help provide economic and social assistance to former slaves. The bureau offered necessities like housing and food, but more importantly built schools and provided education and employment opportunities to blacks following the Civil War. With much southern resistance to the new political rights of former slaves, the …show more content…
Former slave owners were able to maintain a higher social status than blacks due to discriminating and segregating laws, and the plantation class still sustained much of their wealth due to the economic dependence of freedmen and the sharecropping system. With a few exceptions, Radical Republicans ultimately failed to protect former slaves from southern whites as they had hoped. Many northerners hoped for a speedy recovery to the Union, and eventually lost interest in fighting for the rights of

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