FREE ESSAY ON RECONSTRUCTION

RECONSTRUCTION

The Reconstruction
The Reconstruction held out the promise to rectify racial injustices in America. The
Reconstruction, rising out of the Civil War had as its goals equality for blacks in
voting, politics, and use of public services. Even though movement, was born of high
hopes it failed in bringing about their goals. Born in hope, they died in anguish, as the
movement saw many of their gains washed away.
The Reconstruction came after the Civil War and lasted till 1877. The political, social,
and economic circumstances after the Civil War defined the goals of Reconstruction. At
this time the Congress was separated politically on issues that grew out of the Civil
War: black justice, rebuilding the South, readmitting Southern states to the Union, and
deciding who would control government. Newly freed slaves wandered the South after having
left their former masters, and the white population was morally devastated, troubled
about what laid further on.
After the Civil War, a variety of political groups were scrambling to further their
agendas. They also wanted to limit the rights of blacks to move, vote, travel, and change
jobs. Republicans wanted to follow a policy of understanding between the North and South,
but at the same time make sure slavery was abolished Republicans, comprised of Northern
politicians, were strongly opposed to slavery, unsympathetic to the South, 
wanted to protect newly free slaves. At the end of the Civil War came President Andrew
Johnson. His major goal was to unify the nation.
The Black Codes and President Johnson's veto of all Reconstruction legislation that was
unfavorable to the South caused Moderate and Radical Republicans to change their goals
from just ending slavery looking for political fairness and voting rights for blacks. The
new goals were based on humanitarian and political considerations. Northerners had grown
more and more understanding of the troubles of the blacks in the South following many
well-publicized incidents in which innocent blacks were harassed, beaten, and killed. The
extension of suffrage to black males was a political move by the Republicans in Congress
who believed that blacks would form the stamina of the Republican Party in the South.
Few blacks held elective offices in the South's population. And those in office usually
did not exercise the power, which during Reconstruction continued to reside with Moderate
and Radical Republicans in Congress emancipated slaves had little to do with either
fashioning Reconstruction policy or its implementation.
The leaders of the Reconstruction failed to understand that without economic justice
blacks would be forced into a dependency on the white power structure to protect 
their rights and when these rights no longer served the interests of this power structure
they were easily stripped away. Reconstruction Acts and Constitutional Amendments offered
little protection to stop this stripping away of black political rights. 
The Reconstruction leaders failed to understand the relationship between political rights
and economic power; if they had they might not have discarded measures that could have
provided former slaves with the economic power to continue their political rights. 
The Reconstruction left blacks with no economic support, dependent on others for their
social and political power. The Reconstruction, when those political alliances did not
serve the needs of the whites in power, blacks was deserted and they're political and
social goals wiped out. Though, the Reconstruction held out great promise and hope to
blacks in America, it failed to achieve their large goals and in following decades much
of their accomplishments washed away. Yet, it brought major permanent changes. The
Reconstruction ended slavery. The failing of the Reconstruction is not as simple as
racism, politics, or individual events; to single out one to explain such complex periods
gives an unfinished picture of both history and the nature of racism.