Question

Historians disagree about whether Reconstruction was a success or a failure. Explain what you think were Reconstruction's two greatest successes and two greatest failures. Provide support for your answer.

Answer 1

The two greatest successes of Reconstruction was the establishment of a system of education for recently emancipated African Americans through the Freedmen's Bureau. These coleges and universities are colectively known as HBCUs. Land grant colleges were also established through the Morrill Land Grant Act. Anoher important success was the REconstruction Amendmens. The 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery except as punishment for a crime. The 14th Amendment, which granted African Americans citizenshio rights and the 15th Amendment gave African American men the right to vote.

The two greatest failures were the inability to adequately address the rise of Southern nationalism and the rise of extralegal groups such as the Klu Klux Klan. The second greatest failure was the inability to achieve the redistribution of land in the region to ensure more equitable relatonships between groups in the South. This lack of redistribution caused the rise of tenant farming and sharecropping, which served to replicate systems of oppression that existed during slavery.