Reconstruction In The USA Movie Review Example

Reconstruction that followed the end of the Civil War in 1865 was a very complicated political process that was inevitable due to the fundamental differences in the worldviews of the northerners and southerners, democrats and republicans, and finally freedmen and their former owners. At first the government granted the former slaves the right to own 40 acres of land and be independent, but later when Andrew Johnson became the President, freedmen had to return to their former workplaces and sign labour contracts with the planters.
What is more, black people were not prepared for freedom and the government did have a specific plan what to do with so many freedmen. Andrew Jonson’s idea was to restore the order by pardoning the confederates and provide them with the political power in their states. For many northerners and Republicans this idea was very controversial and in the Congress there were heated debates, especially when in 1866 60 former confederates were to rejoin the Congress. Nevertheless, the Congress was able to pass the Civil Rights Bill and the 14th Amendment to the Constitution that provided black people with the rights that they had never had before. On the contrary, at the state level some legislatures adopted the Black Codes that limited the rights of the freedmen.
Nevertheless, Reconstruction was of great importance for reuniting the country and providing more freedom for all citizens of the country no matter what their race was. Even though there was a lot of violence like the riot in New Orleans and overall resistance in the Southern states, there were some significant changes in the American society that formed the basis for the further political development of the USA.