Reconstruction Dbq Essay

Words: 582
Pages: 3

The Civil War and the period of Reconstruction brought great social, political, and economic changes to American society. The Reconstruction time period lasted from 1865 to 1877 and it greatly affected both, the North and South. The changes that took place during Reconstruction mainly affected African Americans; this was the era of the emancipation of slaves. The effects of these changes continued into the 20th century.
Although the main point behind Reconstruction was uniting the nation, not everybody felt the same way. Formerly enslaved people were not treated as equals, the rest of society attempted to distance themselves from African Americans as far as possible. The enslaved people were terrorized by the most infamous white supremacist
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Although planters found it hard to adjust to the end of slavery, the economy gradually became better and better. In the late 1800s, the Southern industry was booming, the industrial revolution had a great affect on the nation. "...we find a South wide-awake to business, excited and even astonished at the development of its own immense resources in metals, marbles, coal, timber, fertilizers, eagerly laying lines of communication, rapidly opening mines, building furnaces, foundries [workplace where melted metal is poured into molds], and all sorts of shops for utilizing the native riches" (Document 5). After the Civil War, cities, towns, village had to be re-built, this new look had created the new and improved south. The "New South" referred to the development of heavy manufacturing, but despite the dramatic changes much of the southern economy remained agrarian.
Socially, politically, and economically African Americans weren't very involved during Reconstruction in the south. White people wanted to isolate them as far as possible to prevent them from gaining equal rights, such as the right to vote. The slightest positive aspect that happened during the period of Reconstruction, was the South's economic status, other than that enslaved people were treated