Reconstruction: The Second Civil War Reflection

Upon watching the documentary “Reconstruction: The Second Civil War”, I was given a more personal level of insight with experiences from individuals that were effected during and especially after the war. Between the years of 1865 to 1877 the government was changing the standards of America; socially, economically, and politically. This transition and new way of thinking was hard for people in the south, especially white southerners to accept blacks no longer as slaves, but now a people almost equal to them in the first few years after the end of the civil war. For blacks in particular, the first few years after the war were somewhat uplifting for now they knew that they were no longer individuals of enslavement, but people who may work for a wage. The government’s actions, more specifically Union General William T. Sherman in a more sympathetic action told the freed blacks that they could inhabit the abandon rice plantations from South Carolina to the region of Florida. With this, those who had signed up for this were given 40 acres of land within the region described earlier and a mule. For the first time, the blacks had their own community in which they had their own form of independence from whites where they had set up, their own form of government and judiciary system. This was a step proven to be a success on behalf of the government up until some of the former landowners that were demanding that they were to get their land back because legally they were the landowners. So once again blacks were feeling oppressed for their land was taken away by intimidation of force. Socially blacks were a threat, especially to poor whites of the south because they were a new element in which they would have to compete for jobs with because they could no longer be considered slaves. At first, times before the Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and even the 13th Amendment which prohibited slaver, southerners still wanted to keep black at the bottom of the social pyramid and this did this by creating restricting laws the limited the rights of blacks and basically confined and specified the type of work they were able to perform, which was mainly jobs in the fields. With Andrew Johnson as president at the time, the pace on which things were to be initiated at the law level was taking a slow pace. With the change in laws, there would be a responding social change. For example, the Civil Rights Act of 1866 was a commonly accepted bill in congress and certain members of congress urged Johnson to pass the bill, but Johnson, not wanting to give power and citizenship to the freedmen, blacks in particular, vetoed the bill. The bill was then later passed by congress and they had overridden his veto. The freedmen were becoming more and more capable. They were becoming more literate and were even aloud to vote, with the conditions of the 15th Amendment in 1869. This forbade states to deny citizens the right to vote on the grounds of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. In this video I feel it did not cover a whole lot about the governments motives to improve and rebuild the south economically. There were various onions for those who were in congress on how the south should rebuild and what kinds of options they had to rebuild their economy. The south, stubbornly wanted to continue their preferred view of attaining reconstruction by continuing the agriculture industries such as cotton and rice. But, northern members of congress wanted t the south to be more like the north and setup such business networks that did not really rely on agriculture as their main source of profit. Economically the government unfortunately wasn’t really helping the recovery in the short term with all the amendments they were passing to require that the freed slaves were now citizens which were now requiring more rights and equality, especially dealing with pay. Plantation owners now had to strategize how they were to pay their workers, because now they were no longer receiving free labor, and they could not have such financial freedoms and surplus as they used to. In particular the southern members of society were now receiving no mercy especially when it came to regaining their citizenship from the union because President Johnson in particular gave them no mercy because he strongly felt that they were the reason for the cause of the civil war. Johnson required those of such status to write to him in the form of a letter to beg for their citizenship from him. So those who were once members of the elite in the south were finding it especially hard to regain their status with the lack of mercy they were receiving from the president and with the condition of the farms that they had to abandon because they either had to go to war or it was becoming to chaotic on the plantations which was caused because of the lack of white men back at the plantation because they were all fighting in the war. For blacks in particular, they were not given the economical sympathy that they were first given with the “40 acres and a mule” cause. The attempt at rebuilding was made even harder because there were no many white men that returned from the war because ¾ of the men of the south went to fight in the war, so not only were there a shortage of white men to continue the population growth but there were a lack of men to assist the oversee the laboring side of various plantations, (for those who were qualified to.) So as we can see it, the south did have a hard time not only with themselves but also with the government because the government was reluctant to aid them because they were the cause of the civil war and economic problems. Politically the government had changed the most in order to try and assist the south to rebuild themselves. In there area of politics it seemed that most of the issues were not fought between the politic and the common man, but between politics, especially in congress. One of the main causes of opposition was President Abraham Lincoln’s death. With President Johnson now leading the country it was said that he most definitely did not have the same morals and ideas to rebuilding the country, as Lincoln would have done. It made it even worse that Johnson himself did not like the blacks and wanted to keep them at the status that they were previously before the war. Johnson was mainly for those of the poor white southern class because he was a self made man and understood such struggles and adversities they had gone through. It has been said that Johnson was probably one of the worst candidates that could have been in the position of presidency at the time with such important bills to be passed that would give everyone black or white, equal rights. When members all members of congress first assembled after the war, the northerners wanted all of the members who were part of the confederacy to be taken out from congress because they would be the individuals who would want to resort to making the way of life as similar as possible to how it was before the war. Politically, and more specifically, democratically, with every amendment and bill been passed after 1866 was gradual opening up such things as voting for everyone, and more importantly it made actions to prevent or control these rights against the law. With blacks able to vote and even run for a spot in office, the people of the black community made it evident that they must get their votes in and support their candidates so they may receive some form of direct representation. African Americans really took advantage of this. It could be said that the government’s aids did help improve the democracy of the south and enabled a level playing field on terms of individual rights no matter what race you were. On congress’ behalf, it seems that they had more of a struggle with themselves, especially between senators of the north and south. Between these years it could be said that those with political power were having a harder time than the blacks who were demanding these rights. Johnson’s impeachment where he almost lost his place as president just shows how bad on Johnson’s part it had become. With this said it could be acknowledged that the government did help out the south in terms of reconstruction for the south. The people of the south, especially for African Americans were significantly changed; within less than 10 years they went from enslaved people with absolutely no rights, to citizens of America who had the rite to vote.