Essay On Reconstruction Failure

After the end of the Civil War, the United States, with Lincoln as the president, had work to do to assimilate the former Confederacy into the Union and resolve issues faced before the Civil War. The South, which had enjoyed hundreds of years of free agricultural labor, now had to find paying jobs for these slaves, something it, despite losing the war, was unwilling to do. The Wade-Davis bill promised to provide emancipation for all slaves and was harsh on Southern states but was pocket-vetoed and never instilled in favor of a more lenient plan.  Furthermore, negative liberty was given to African Americans, freeing them, technically, from slavery and from not voting but not empowering them to receive a quality education. This was due to the belief, especially in the south, that wealthy white landowners were part of the universe of obligation. Reconstruction was a weak effort that did not go far enough because of economic issues and a lack of attention to social disputes against African Americans.

Economic issues harbored in the South during the Reconstruction era demonstrated its weakness. Because only 10 percent of Southern voters were required to pledge to the Union and pledge against slavery through Lincoln’s 10 percent plan, most were still against the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, with poll taxes established to disenfranchise African Americans.  As the majority of African Americans in the South were former slaves, they could not pay the money required to elect the candidate of their choosing. This allowed the wealthier class in the South to promote their own interests, helping maintain a similar state to that before the war. Additionally, the black codes helped the South maintain control over the economy. These codes, put in place in defiance of the Freedmen's Bureau, led to sharecropping, in which former slaves and poor white people would work on plantations in return for wages. These wages, however, were not enough to cover payments to the plantation owners, leaving most workers indebted with seemingly no escape. The South used these black codes to revert to past labor practices, dampening initial hope for African Americans.    

The appalling lack of attention given to social disputes against African Americans in the South contributed to the overall weakness of the Reconstruction.  Many Confederate soldiers were pardoned by President Johnson in 1865 and all in 1869, allowing them to assume control over state governments and some of the national government while promoting ideals against African Americans, due to their belief that African Americans did not deserve rights or respect. Adding on, the Ku Klux Klan was established in 1865. It used scare tactics to disenfranchise African American people and scare many away from participating in any form of government. Thousands of African Americans died and many more lived in constant fear before Congress passed the Ku Klux Klan act in 1871, after most of the KKK’s damage had been done.   

Weak leadership and loose enforcement, especially by President Andrew Johnson, contributed to the weakness of Reconstruction efforts. By 1877, the South had mostly maintained its long-held practices, including discrimination against African Americans. Although there was clearly more work to be done, the Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction, with President Hayes pulling troops out of the South to gain the presidency. This abrupt ending to an important problem tainted the merit of Reconstruction and led to Jim Crow Laws, whose effects are still felt to this day.