What do you think? Was reconstruction a success or a failure?
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
America's Unfinished Revolution
The reconstruction of the south was the period during and after the Civil War where several different groups in the government tried to solve the economic, political, and social problems that arose as a result of the Civil War. It was atime of disorder and chaos. Southern whites rejected all forms of equality and blacks wanted nothing but full freedom and land of their own. This led to frequent and inevitable riots. Reconstruction lasted from 1865 to 1877 and was one of the most controversial periods in the nation's history. People still debate its successes and failures.
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15 comments:
Reconstruction was a step in trying to making things right.
It was NOT 100% successful.
The damaged land was redone and railroads were set down, but that cost money and labor.
Sure, it gave the blacks rights,
and certain amount of land;
but between the blacks and whites there was still driscrimination and animosity.
And the land that was given to the blacks, were pretty much useless.
They also received voting rights, but they could not read.
the whole ordeal was an attempt to make things right,
but in reality it did not do so much.
I think that it was a little bit inbetween failure and success. It did alot in helping the south become more industrialized but it could have done more with the social standards. I also think it was a consipiracy. the whole "lets be friends" thing was just a plot to get the blacks to cooperate. they didnt have any rights. they just needed to industialize and so they did. thats about all i have to say. its not a very deep conversation.
I think that it was more of a success than it was a failure. Sure it didnt fix everything; but it did alot. Even though blacks werent being treated the same, i do not think it was thier number 1 concern. i think trying to get the south more up todate *industrialy* was their top concren; and look at the south now..we are not behind the north at all.. :-]
Reconstruction was somewhat both a success and a failure. It was a success for the many things it did for the newly free african-americans. Reconstruction had open schools help free men and women find there missing families.
Then there were many failures. Like there were promises of land to former slaves but only 10% was giving to the right people. Then there was no body helping the A-a to go to school with out getting trouble from white people the even killed a guy for trying to get his education. Thats why reconstruction could go both ways
The reconstruction was a success in fixing damaged land and it helped African American humans get education. They could go to human schools. some of the african americans even found their lost family members. Reconstruction was a failure because there was still alot of segregation among humans. that human got killed because he wanted to learn.
Reconstruction was a big step in history. It was not at all successful but it as many other unsuccessful things had its purpose. Blacks and whites still did not have their equality but at the same time that wasn't the only purpose of the Reconstruction. The Reconstuction was also a period to repair things such as phoung talked about the railroads and damaged land. Sure it cost money and labor but what doesn't. Blacks also had more opportunity after Reconstuction so I do believe it was mostly successful
I think that reconstruction was in between a success and a failure. I think this because when it started to give more rights to the african americans like letting them go to public schools, churches, property, and money. There is always a backfire. Even though the bond between whites and blacks got a little better. Racism was still there. Segregations everywhere. It started a lot of problems. Also the blacks did not get a lot of money but it was a start, it was much better than being a slave. The best thing in reconstruction was industry. Industry started to start in the south and that was big because before the south was so much behind in industry.
Reconstruction was entirely a failure. Blacks had all the freedom they wanted... On paper. In reality they didn't have any more freedom or any less prejudice against them. How many blacks actually voted until the late 60's? How many blacks were elected into political office after these "freedoms" were granted to them? How many african americans actually had land of their own? The statistics don't impress me at all. The poverty cycle was never broken for the majority of black families. Not to be one-sided, of course, because the economy of the south didn't improve much either. That depended on breaking the poverty cycle. I suppose considering the circumstances, this was much better than being a slave(not to mention slavery was still being practiced in some areas), but it was one of the biggest displays of hypocrisy in American history we've ever seen.
I think that reconstruction was not a suceess. Yes there were goods things that came about this time but there were more bad things that happened than bad. Public schools were made, african americans could now build churched that they didnt have to keep underground, and they could now participate in all levels of goverment. But there were bad things like the rising of the KKK, economt went down, the land from plantations wasnt distibuted to peple who needed land, and the vaoting rights that african amercans had were being violated. Overall i think that it was mostly a faliure even though some good came out of it.
i dont think reconstruction was a success because eventhough it gave blacks many "new" rights, segregation was still present which ment that the hatred towads the black was aslo present. This as a result, did not give the blacks the opportunity to excersice their "constitutional right".
thai- i go fifty fifty on wether the reconstruction was a success or faliure.
i deam it as a success because eventually the south did get back up on their feet and were able to bounce back from the depressing times when the economy was in ruin. also after years of fighting for freedom slaves were now freed people and did get fair and equal oprotunity by law. the slaves took advatage of their new found freedom and built schools, churches, and other facilites. They engaged in politics and put together organizations to better and strengthen themselves as people.
Reconstruction was a faliure because i dont think the reconstruction on america happened within reconstruction time. yeah, everthing did get put back in place and even better if you ask me(take the modern south and georgia for example, booming with industry), but it was way after the time when it was supposed to be finished. Also when x-slaves were freed, they had no place to go and no way to earn their living. they were still viewed as inferior to the white race and were not treated as equals but more tolerarted. the south was still physically in ruin, and there were not enough sources for funds to rebuild a lot of what the south needed reconstructed.
I do not think that that the reconstruction of the south was a complete failure although it wasn't a complete sucess either. The reconstruction, for example, gave the blacks voting rights, but they were unable to read and write. Also the blacks had the right to own property but they did not have enough money to buy property and the government was unable to provide the former slaves with property. Another factor which stopped the reconstruction in being a sucess was racism. Although the blacks had the same rights as white, the hatred was still there and so was segregation.
If you were look at it as a game, where "Failure" was given a point for every bad thing that happened during reconstruction, and "Success" a point for every good thing, failure would win. Failure would get a point for blacks being denied their rights, another for segregation, and another for land not distrubted as promised. And that's just to name a few, for time's sake.
So, Reconstruction was a failure in my eyes.
I feel that the start of reconstruction was a boost in the society at the time, but later really didn't go anywhere. Although many railroads, businesses, streets, and economy were gradually improved and growing, the government loss a great deal of money for reconstruction, especially from whiskey distillers. Also, blacks were illiterate and didn't know really who or what they were voting for, and segragation played a key role because everyone didn't get along. In addition, the land that was promised to the people, they didn't get it, only 10% of the people got the land that was intended for. In my opinion, i think that it was both a sucess and failure in certain areas.
I agree with Thai on this one. I consider Reconstruction to be 50/50. Blacks were still poverty stricken, couldn't read or write, and had no money. Now honestly what are you suppose to do in a situation like that. An society wasn't making it any easier on them. With all the hatred, segregation, and lynchings. How can these African Americans even begin to "Reconstruct"?? when they had nothing to begin with.
Now on the other hand I will say that this period of time gave African American time to get there situations together and at least try to better themselves somehow.
An the South as a whole became more industrialized and the land and railroads were re-bulit.
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