Essay Sample on Reconstruction and Industrialization in America

Introduction

After the civil war era that was in America in the years between 1849 to 1864, there came the Reconstruction period that was structured to recollect the pieces of the devastated and ravaged nation to build a new country with new policies and laws that would foster inclusivity. For inclusivity to be an integral and binding factor in the nation there had to be the acknowledgment that a group of minorities existed within the American society and its members were being unfairly treated (Foner, 2017). During the reconstruction period the debate around the topic of ending slavery and giving freedom to African American; either partly or fully, was heated because the minority society had helped in fighting the civil war. This is the time that the suffering of the African American community was highlighted across the country and two opposing factions with distinct opinions on the matter surfaced to proclaim their stands. However, the main of the reconstruction was to foster peace and unity across America and compel the then succeeded states to join the Union. This paper dissects the dynamics of the reconstruction in America topic to pinpoint if the objectives were achieved or if the whole plan failed.

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New South Determiners

The two factions were the Northerners and the southerners. The issue of ending slavery; who were mostly of African American, was the litmus test of the presidents that vied and lasted for the position throughout 1865 to 1877. A vast majority of the southerners were of the unpopular opinion of freeing slaves while their Northern rivals fiercely and forcefully advocated for the unconditional release of the African American slaves. The two factions had strong reasons to back their mentalities on the issue and each of them collectively formulated strategies to ensure that their decisions were accepted and enacted. The southerners were largely dependent on agriculture because lands of the south were characterized by fertile soils and favorable climate (Shi & Tindall, 2016). They grew cash crops like coffee and tobacco and also food crops like corn that financed the economy of their states and the federal budgets. Their activities made them totally dependent on slaves that could offer cheap or free labor and work for them unconditionally till their mortality. On the other side, northerners lived in an industrialized society that was not completely dependent on slaves, on the contrary, they needed skilled laborers that could communicate and work efficiently in their industries.

Strategies used by Determiners

For the industrial venture to be successful the Northerners voluntarily had to teach slaves how to read, write and speak English for them to communicate well in their industries and enhance efficiency. Additionally, white northerners were also forced to equip the slaves with required skills in the industries to boost productivity. Since the northern part had already agreed to the agenda of ending slavery to foster unity, their southern counterparts were the only hurdle to the realization of the dream. The main key determinants in the plan were the Congress and the Republican parties which represented the ideas and decisions of the north and the south respectively (Foner, 2017). During the reconstruction period, each faction produced successful presidential candidates that led in the course of enforcing the new orders or restructuring them to suit the needs of the side he was coming from. Lincoln Abraham from the North and Andrew Johnson from the right were the two presidents that were pivotal in the trends on the matter and their tenure attracted a lot of dissent from different subsets in the main two factions.

Apart from federal interference, especially during the Abraham era, the factions had their own strategies of proving their positions on the matter. In the south there was the constitutionally outlawed and fierce sect named Ku Klux Klan that was responsible for mercilessly killing and maiming the Freemen; the freed African American slaves. Their inhuman acts were meant to show rebellion to the government for outlawing slavery and also scare the slaves from leaving their white masters. Largely, the Klan succeeded in scaring the slaves but the government usually remained strong on the unity topic though it was often forced to use different tactics to enforce the law (Du Bois, 2014). On the other hand, northerners also formed sects to advocate for rights of the African American minority group and they usually influenced the politics of the south by bribing election officials to favor political candidates that advocated for the abolition of slavery. Most of the time the bribery worked because the Northerners were wealthy than a majority of the southerners.

Change of Dominant System

The black slaves had to diversify their mode of operation to fulfill their course to freedom and this helped them to catalyze the process. All along, the northerners had been advocating for their freedom by they finally realized that they had a critical role in their emancipation. Before and during the early years of the reconstruction period, the slaves labored in white supremacist in gangs blocs. This allowed them to get oppressed and still accept poor pay; sometimes in form of food. But later they restructured into family units that were hired at premium rates; though sometimes negotiable, to work in European farms (Jason, 2017). The system led to bargaining that sometimes ended in sharecropping that empowered the slaves economically. However, reconstruction failed to establish racial equity and total freedom to blacks because there were a lot of compromises and blackmails in the government to derail the set plans. The laws that were passed did not guarantee equal rights and privileges to the 'freed slaves'. This made it particularly hard for the judicial system to punish the criminals that propagated racial injustices.

References

Du Bois, W. E. B. (2014). Black Reconstruction in America (The Oxford WEB Du Bois): AnEssay Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt toReconstruct Democracy in America, 1860-1880. Oxford University Press.

Foner, E. (2017). A short history of reconstruction. Blackstone Audio.

JASON. XIDIAS. (2017). MACAT LIBRARY: Reconstruction in America. TAYLOR &FRANCIS.

Shi, D. E., & Tindall, G. B. (2016). America: A narrative history. WW Norton & Company.