Opportunities and Setbacks of Reconstruction Essay Example

After the Civil War was over Reconstruction began. Slavery was abolished and the Confederate Military leaders were punished but it was a very difficult time for African Americans with no money or food or even housing. There were way too many setbacks for them and there were definitely more setbacks than opportunities for African Americans during the Reconstruction era. This essay will show the racism and violence towards freedmen, the laws against them, and how there were no opportunities.

One way Freedmen had more setbacks was because they still faced discrimination and racism. As Notebook Page 18 says, “The Ku Klux Klan wanted to restore Democratic control of the South. They attacked African Americans and other Republicans.” Democratic groups wanted to take over the freedmen and used them as slaves like before the war but, Republicans wanted to help the freedmen with food, housing, and medical care, that is why the KKK also attacked Republicans. But they were just selfish because they wanted to control and tried to make things like before the war which was horrible conditions, and second, those people didn’t do anything to the KKK so they shouldn’t be attacking them. Notebook Page 18 also says, “The KKK victims had little protection. Military authorities were sympathetic to white southerners and often ignored the KKK violence.” I cannot believe that military officials would just stand back and not get into it.  They should at least try to stop the KKK violence a little bit. They are just so oblivious that their actions aren’t good.

Another example of a setback is when the leaders of the South made blacks codes to keep African Americans ``controlled”. TCI states, “Once in office these leaders began passing laws known as the black codes to control their former slaves.” When the Southern states made the black codes, Freedmen suffered greatly. African Americans had pretty much all of their rights taken away from them.TCI also states, “The back codes only served three purposes. The first was to limit their rights of freedom.” So first of all, why would you want to limit their rights if they didn’t do anything to you? And secondly, these black codes really affected the freedmen and they only cared about themselves and not the ones being affected.

Although they mostly had setbacks they had some opportunities after the war such as the Freedmen's Bureau. As TCI says, “Over the next four years, the bureau provided food and medical care to both blacks and whites in the South.” See that is at least one good thing. I would be happy if my family had food and medical care without paying anything. One other good thing was the 15th Amendment. “In 1869. At President Grant’s urging, Congress passed the 15th Amendment, which said a citizen’s right to vote shall not be denied because of race or color.” That is another good thing but those are the only opportunities I could find and I could find many more setbacks if needed. 

As you can tell, freedmen had it very bad for them during this time and you saw how violent and racist people were towards them even though they were free and how the US made laws against them to make them suffer more than they already had.