Five Myths About Reconstruction

[jgoodguy]

Five Myths About Reconstruction

A good read.
sample

Here I think Loewen is only partly right. I maintain it depends on what Reconstruction's goal was. If the goal was simply to bring the confederate states back into their normal relationship with the Union, then it succeeded. But that could have happened a lot earlier if that was the goal. The support for Congressional Reconstructions shows conclusively that wasn't the goal–or at least not the only goal. Quite obviously, a major goal during Reconstruction was to protect the freedom of African-Americans and give them equal political and social rights. After some initial failures and successes, Reconstruction may have been successful on paper as African-Americans were legally recognized as citizens of the United States and had their right to vote constitutionally protected. Additionally, the equal protection clause ostensibly guaranteed equal protection of the laws. In practice, though, Reconstruction failed at this goal. With the victory of the **** terrorists in the South, African-American social and political progress was almost wiped out. As W.E.B. DuBois wrote, "The slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery." If Reconstruction's goal was to create and sustain a viable southern Republican Party, again it failed. If the goal was to repair the damage done by the war, then it partially succeeded, as much rebuilding was successfully completed, although much more needed to be done. Loewen's last two sentences reveal a problem he has in his formulation. The victory of the terrorists in the South overthrew Reconstruction. In that sense how can it not be considered to have failed? Overall, then, I would say all of those goals were part of Reconstruction, thus Reconstruction succeeded in some ways and failed in other ways.

https://studycivilwar.wordpress.com/2016/01/23/five-myths-about-reconstruction/

 

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