Question

Was the failure of Reconstruction primarily one of immediate political circumstances, or was it more deeply rooted in the history of American sectional and race relations?

Answer 1

Answer:

Please see the details as below

Explanation:

The Reconstruction failed because of many reasons.  Following the civil war, America was desperately trying to recreate what it once had been.  As they were trying to reconstruct the union, they realized that it was failing miserably.  Considering that America was filled with sectional and race relations, it wasn’t particularly shocking that it turned out that way.  The reconstruction also failed because the newly freed blacks were still looked down upon by society.  The feelings toward blacks would take a long time to change, because they took a very long time to create.  The north also had no idea what freeing slaves would do to the south.  The transformation of a slave being recognized as three/fifths of a person to a full person by the government also challenged the reconstruction.  This gave the states with more free slaves many more votes.  These freed slaves were mainly in the south, so the states that had previously succeeded from the union had a chance to rule the government if they so wished.  

          The race and sectional relations had a large factor in the failure of the reconstruction.  In the year 1865, the congress created the Freedman’s Bureau, which was created to help the struggling blacks in their lives as free men.  This bureau helped the newly freed men when it came to education, but it did not supply any of them with land.  President Andrew Johnson ended the Freedman’s Bureau in 1872, for he felt that whites were superior to blacks still.

          After all of this, the Reconstruction after the Civil War was still a failure.  The rebels in the south were gaining a lot of power because of all the free blacks living in the region.  Also, through the previous hundreds of years, America felt that whites were the superior race.  This racist undertone challenged every step towards the Reconstruction.