Radical Reconstruction

Some historians argue that Radical Reconstruction was not radical enough. After studying the events of the late 19th century, defend whether or not you agree with this position. What are the long-term implications?

Even though the slaves were freed, I believe that the reconstruction did not succeed because extreme racial segregation and lack of jobs. I believe President Johnson and President Grant had affected the reconstruction in many ways.

I believe that some of the problems with reconstruction were caused by the Republican Congress in their battle with President Johnson because he was a southerner, and his soft handling of the southern war leaders, the Southern aristocrats gave the power back to the planters, and the politicians. Johnson, was not a strong president, and appeared to favor the south over the north, even though he stayed in the north, when his state withdrew from the union. I believe things would have worked out better if reconstruction had gone the way the charter of the Freedmen's Bureau, with the 40acres, and a loyalty oath to receive a pardon for the war. Which President Johnson scrapped. Laws Congress passed to help the freed slaves the president would veto, then the Congress would override the president, and this happened time after time. (Schultz 2012).

The secret organizations that sprang up after the war also were a detriment to reconstruction. They were trying to bring the south back as close as possible to slavery with heir extreme segregation. They used murder, and arson to make their point, and punished any freed slave that thought they were equal to the Whites. Terror by the white groups kept the south from becoming an industrial giant like the north, they did not have the man power after the war, and they lost too many men. The freed slave knew more about farming than industrial work. The black codes were a huge detriment to reconstruction, preventing any Black person from purchasing, or renting land in some states which was a big roadblock for reconstruction. (Schultz 2012).

In summary, reconstruction was not radical; I believe it was radical in the wrong way. President Johnson, and the radical were the main stumbling block to reconstruction. The radical republicans in Congress were not effective enough their battles with Johnson made some changes, but when Grant was elected, it was never going to work. The radical in the south were never going to change, and Grant was not interested enough for a big fight, which it would have been. I believe if Lincoln had not been assassinated, it might have been different. I do not think full reconstruction was completed until the 1960s.

The post-Civil War South has been called the New South. In what ways did it succeed in reinventing