The Revolutionary Aftermath of the Civil War, American


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The Revolutionary Aftermath of the Civil War

The Revolutionary Aftermath of the Civil War Despite many hardships that remained from the antebellum state of the union, reconstruction was a socially and constitutionally revolutionary period. The attempts to deter black voters were greatly outweighed by the numbers of blacks voting, as well as the laws that were passed to protect the rights of American citizens, black and white alike. The years after the war saw a rise in the number of human rights laws that were passed, most of which were primarily focused on blacks, but included whites as well. In document D, Gideon Welles stated that the national government didn’t hold the power to grant suffrage to anyone, nor had it shown any interest in the matter. Because of this, the state governments were able to enact black codes which restrained citizens, both black and white, from voting because they were illiterate or because they weren’t of a high enough economic status. This later changed as blacks became more active in government and voiced their upset to the national government, as shown by Document C. Because of petitions like these, the national government banned the black codes, allowing blacks from every state to vote. Political cartoons such as Document G showed the progress that was being made with black voters, despite the lack of secret ballots. With all the newly freed slaves as well as freedmen, land was in desperate need in order to survive and to support a family. The Petition to the Commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau and the President (Document E) cried out for the opportunity to legally own land, and showed the progression of the American government in supporting the freedmen and their well After the Thirteenth Amendment was passed in order to ban slavery, many more revolutionary Constitutional changes were put in place. The establishment of a national bank helped to strengthen the ties between north and south by using a standard currency with a set worth, as Senator John Sherman claimed in his speech to Congress in 1863 (Document B). In a slightly less revolutionary viewpoint, the black codes were enacted, which tried to return freedmen to their indentured state and also attempted to impede the path of black suffrage by establishing a mandatory literacy test which had to be passed in order to vote. The Fourteenth Amendment, which granted citizenship to freedmen followed, and soon afterwards, The Civil Rights Acts of 1866 were established, which invalidated the black codes and helped to revolutionize the post war era by eliminating the anti-freedmen laws. Finally, the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified in 1869, and prohibited the denial of suffrage due to skin color. In many ways, the reconstruction wasn’t revolutionary. Blacks were still greatly discriminated against, and weren’t given equal monetary opportunities. The crop lien systems and crop sharing systems of farming further deterred their interests by returning a sense of servitude to the land owner, and set back their funds even more. This benefited the white men, as they were the majority of the land owners, and changed the social standing of blacks very little. Unlike the social changes, the constitutional changes were very revolutionary. Because of the radical laws that were ratified in order to protect blacks, they were free to the same opportunities as whites. Many freedmen held public office in once slave states, owned Although the social aspect of the post-Civil War era changed little, the Constitutional aspect greatly altered the future of our country, and helped to change how we relate to each other in modern society. Without the laws ratified in this period, our country might not have become what it is today, and that is revolutionary in itself. Bibliography:

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