Reconstruction Realities- Assessing the South’s Status Cultural Shifts and African-American Impact

Reconstruction Realities- Assessing the South’s Status Cultural Shifts and African-American Impact

Reconstruction and the Compromise of 1877

Lincoln’s intention for the Reconstruction was the 10% Plan which was particular about the conditions that a southern state had to meet to rejoin the Union. In this case, the mandate was that at least 10% of their voters pledged to be loyal to the Union. It allowed the Southern states’ forgiveness and wealth restoration for the people in the South except for the highest officials in the South. This plan was easy for male citizens in the South to accept, regardless of the fears that the emancipation of slaves in the South advocated for. After his assassination, the incoming president, Andrew Johnson, implemented his plan for Reconstruction, which essentially allowed the South a “free hand” in the regulation and the transition from the notion of slavery to freedom, giving the blacks no say in Southern politics. His plan does not seem feasible because it makes other people less important than Lincoln intended. Also, it urged the abolition of slavery before readmission and extended the unpardoning on anyone with wealth over $ 20,000. This led to heated contentions between Congress and President Andrew because they were disturbed by the mass killing of the freed slaves. Adopting restrictive black codes, they decided to take the matter into their own hands because President Johnson’s ideas seemed overboard (Congressional Reconstruction 2021). They advocated rights to vote for black men and even tried confiscating plantations to redistribute to people of color (“16.3 Radical Reconstruction, 1867–1872 – U.S. History | OpenStax”, 2021).

With this notion in mind, it suffices to say that due to the opposition these suggestions received in the South and the way they reacted to the freed black slaves, it is clear that the South should have been treated like a rebellious state due to their insistence on the using of black labor. The rise of terror groups such as the Ku Klux Klan unleashed their anger on Black people by murdering them on a large scale and for losing the war. They wanted to frustrate the Black people from exercising their newfound freedom (“Radical Reconstruction, 1867–1872 – U.S. History | OpenStax”, 2021). By treating them as a rebellious nation, the North would have forcefully affected their agenda for freedom and better treatment of the minority people.

References

Congressional Reconstruction. (2021). [Ebook] (p. 1). https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtid=2&psid=3103.

Radical Reconstruction, 1867–1872 – U.S. History | OpenStax. Openstax.org. (2021). https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/16-3-radical-reconstruction-1867-1872.

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Analyze if the South should have been treated as a defeated nation or as a rebellious states.

Explain how the American culture and society changed in the North versus the South during Reconstruction.
Analyze the impact of the Compromise of 1877 that ended Reconstruction on African Americans.