The Reconstruction of the South was a period where the government decided that they needed to solve economic and political problems that had increased over the years. The Reconstruction Era was a failure for many reasons. The Reconstruction Era had a goal to allow freedom and equality for all, abolishing slavery, and the restoration of the Union. I don’t believe that all the goals for Reconstruction were accomplished. In 1863, President Lincoln said that he would let all the Southern States rejoin the Union after 10% of its voting population had proved that they would be loyal to the Union.
Shortly after Lincoln agreed to let the Southern States join the Union again he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. Andrew Johnson took over as the President, but Congress called for stricter requirements. The Emancipation Proclamation was put in place to secure rights for the former slaves, and equality, but those are still an issue that we are facing today. The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were all passed in effort to abolish slavery, and make African- Americans feel that they are equal to the whites.
Many people and groups were making a push to abolish slavery, but slave owners and white southerners found a loophole around the rules about abolishing slavery and giving African- Americans their rights. The white southerners would give African- Americans literacy tests, and ask for poll taxes so that way African- Americans can’t vote, although laws were trying to force it. Most slaves weren’t educated, and they weren’t pay for picking cotton. It was impossible for them to pass a literacy test or pay the poll tax which meant that they were unable to vote, and they were still being set back because of their race.
