"America After the Civil War"

     America After the Civil War

    From 1861 to 1865, the United States endured a brutal war. This war was against no other, than ourselves; the north versus the south were attempting to destroy each other over the disagreement of slavery. When the North won, the South was outraged. Life did not continue on as planned. The United States entered an Era of Reconstruction, during this time period there were many black advancements, but also much destruction. 

    The Reconstruction Era is generalized as the. time period where Lincoln freed the slaves, and blacks were beginning to take massive steps to reach equality. During the Civil War, roughly 180,000 enslaved blacks helped the Union on the front line to defeat the South. The enslaved soldiers were determined that this war would be the breaking point, and would cause slavery to end. 

    When the Civil War ended and the Union won, they achieved their goal of ending slavery; but this abrupt ending caused many questions to arise. Questions regarding education, voting, and citizenship all began to come up. As these questions were being argued over, ex-slaves had other priorities they had to deal with. Due to the slave trades and auctions, families got separated with no ways of communicating with each other. When the now free blacks were able to go search for their family members, they took full advantage of the opportunity. They tried to reconnect through newspaper ads, word of mouth, and even going back to the very last place they saw each other. 

    On April 14, 1865 Abraham Lincoln was assonated by John Wilkes Booth, this caused Andrew Johnson to be sworn in as president. He was a southern democrat. He created the Freedman's Bureau, an organization that took land from southern confederates and gave it to ex-slaves. But, while all these marvelous advancements were happening, southern blacks were poor, starving, and homeless. 

    During this same time period, Jim Crow Laws and Black Codes were being instated. These laws required many blacks to enter labor contracts with white employers, black children could be taken from their parents and involuntarily placed into apprenticeships, and discrimination laws against blacks were passed. The KKK became very prominent in 1866, and they would repeatedly attack successful, wealthy, and well-off blacks. At this same time, the Birth Right Citizen Act was passed 1866, meaning anyone born in America, including previous slaves, were now considered citizens. Blacks eventually received the right to vote, and Ulysses Grant was elected, he then put blacks in positions of power. The downsides to these events were race riots broke out across the country and when blacks would go to vote they would be taunted by racist whites.

    America in post Civil War time was a constant circle of 'two steps forward and one step back'. For as much black progress there was, there was also still a lot of negativity towards blacks and their freedoms. The progression needed for blacks to have proper equality to whites was still many years away.