The Reconstruction Effort That Occurred After The Civil War

The Reconstruction effort that occurred after the Civil War from 1865 - 1866 had both positive and negative effects on the nation. Leading up to the Reconstruction attempt, there was developing regional differences between the North and South. Slavery was the issue of the decade. North argued that it was inhumane, while the South was quick to point out that many Northerners benefited from slavery. The Presidential election of Lincoln lead to the succession of the South. They believed that the United States was becoming too tyrannical, much like Great Britain before the Revolutionary War. The Southern attack on Fort Sumter started the long and bloody civil war. After the Battle of Antietam, President Lincoln issued his Emancipation†¦show more content†¦The Reconstruction efforts in the South targeting social reform worked at first, but evidently led to a segregated South. The attempt for social reform involved new amendments and Freedmen’s Bureau, which caused the oppo sition to black rights. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude. The creation of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868 intended to give African Americans equal rights. It stated that anyone born in the United States was a citizen and prohibited states from making and enforcing laws that deprived people of their rights. States were not allowed to strip citizens of their liberty or property without cause. (Doc F). Lincoln recognised the plight in which the freedmen were in, so he proposed the establishment of a Freedmen s Bureau. This agency provided educational, social, and economic services to the African Americans. Many northern whites who traveled to the South with the Union army were astonished to see that many former slaves craved literacy. Many teachers who went South where white women, but by 1870, teachers both white and black were flooding South to teach former slaves. While many were delighted with the African Americans’ newfound freedom, oppo sition to black rights never fully