The Reconstruction Era

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Reconstruction Era As a country, America has gone through many political changes that have left an impact. The reconstruction era was no different, the nation was shattered and needed to be reunited once again. The main goal for the reconstruction period was to protect African Americans and give them their rights that they deserve. But that completely backfired due to corruption by the wealthy who wanted no change at all. Eventually this lead to many failures and some successes during the reconstruction era, leaving many goals unaccomplished. The most important success of the reconstruction era was that the confederate states acknowledged the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments which lead to them pledging their …show more content…
For example Radical reconstruction legislation failed tremendously to protect former slaves from white prosecution. Black codes were created by state legislatures in the south to take back control over former slaves. There were eleven sections to the black codes and the whites put tremendous restrictions on blacks basically they could not do anything at certain times and you could not interact with others, they were held captive and their freedom was taken away once again. Things got even worse when President Hayes ordered the withdrawal of federal troops in the south. This gave complete control over to the confederate officials and slave owners to do what they pleased. All the newly acquired rights that blacks got from the Radical reconstruction were gone in seconds. With all of these dramatic changes the southern whites were now more in control and dictated everything on their terms. Southerners would come up with different ways to make sure that the blacks don’t live comfortably. Every southern state enacted an array of interlocking laws essentially intended to criminalize black life. Some laws were taken down quickly but then new ones would appear and they would be directed to African Americans and not …show more content…
Other than having equal rights and to be treated fairly, the other thing that African Americans asked for was the chance to own land that they worked hard for. In the beginning the freedmen's bureau settled close to 10,000 black families on land which was abandoned. The dream of owning land was short lived because the whites returned and wanted their land back and the president did not hesitate to satisfy their demands. This was a real blow for the blacks because all they wanted was to own a piece of land that they worked so hard for and for it to be taken away really hurt them because it was another thing that they were not getting. Sharecropping was the last resort for the blacks to actually own land. Essentially this was the legal way of keeping African Americans tied to the land by rich white farmers. Many african americans worked for wages, and some would pay a fixed rent for staying on the plantation and working for their landlord. These were just some of the ways that white southerners would still exercise the same principles of slavery by having them work and charging them or taking some of there crops that they have
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