What is the social and political impact of the reconstruction amendments?

The Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 freed African Americans in rebel states, and after the Civil War, the Thirteenth Amendment emancipated all U.S. slaves wherever they were. As a result, the mass of Southern blacks now faced the difficulty Northern blacks had confronted—that of a free people surrounded by many hostile whites. One freedman, Houston Hartsfield Holloway, wrote, “For we colored people did not know how to be free and the white people did not know how to have a free colored person about them.”

Even after the Emancipation Proclamation, two more years of war, service by African American troops, and the defeat of the Confederacy, the nation was still unprepared to deal with the question of full citizenship for its newly freed black population. The Reconstruction implemented by Congress, which lasted from 1866 to 1877, was aimed at reorganizing the Southern states after the Civil War, providing the means for readmitting them into the Union, and defining the means by which whites and blacks could live together in a nonslave society. The South, however, saw Reconstruction as a humiliating, even vengeful imposition and did not welcome it.

During the years after the war, black and white teachers from the North and South, missionary organizations, churches and schools worked tirelessly to give the emancipated population the opportunity to learn. Former slaves of every age took advantage of the opportunity to become literate. Grandfathers and their grandchildren sat together in classrooms seeking to obtain the tools of freedom.

After the Civil War, with the protection of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1866, African Americans enjoyed a period when they were allowed to vote, actively participate in the political process, acquire the land of former owners, seek their own employment, and use public accommodations. Opponents of this progress, however, soon rallied against the former slaves' freedom and began to find means for eroding the gains for which many had shed their blood.

Forever Free

Celebration of Emancipation

Victorious Soldiers Return

Alfred R. Waud. Mustered Out. Little Rock, Arkansas, April 20, 1865. Drawing. Chinese white on green paper. Published in Harper's Weekly, May 19, 1866. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-175 (5–1)

Black Exodus

Black Exodus to Kansas

• Standard Atlas of Graham Co. Kansas, Including a Plat Book of the Villages, Cities, and Townships. Lithograph map. Chicago: A. Ogle, 1906. Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress (5–8a)

• Standard Atlas of Graham Co. Kansas, Including a Plat Book of the Villages, Cities, and Townships. Index of families in Nicodemus. Chicago: A. Ogle, 1906. Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress (5–8b)

African American Population Distribution, 1890

Fruits of Reconstruction

Freed Persons Receive Wages From Former Owner

Hampton Plantation Account Book, 1866–1868. South Carolina. Handwritten manuscript. Page 68 - Page 69. Miscellaneous Manuscript Collection, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (5–20)

Glimpses of the Freed Women

African Americans And The Franchise

The Fisk Jubilee Singers

“I Am the Door.” From Songs of the Jubilee Singers from Fisk University. Sheet music. Cincinnati: John Church & Co., 1884. Music Division, Library of Congress (5–16)

Teaching The Newly Freed Population

“Sea-island School, No. 1,—St. Helena Island. Established in April 1862.” Education among the Freedmen, ca. 1866-70. Broadside. Page 2. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress. Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-107754 (5–2)

An African American Majority in the South Carolina Legislature

Freedmen Navigate Legislative Shoals

Laws in Relation to Freedmen, U.S. Sen. 39th Congress, 2nd Sess. Senate Executive Doc. No. 6. Washington: War Department, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1866-67. Pamphlet. Law Library, Library of Congress (5–17)

Nineteenth Century Leaders

African American Men in Government

Distinguished Colored Men

The Role of the Black Church

The African American Church—A Bulwark

Activism in the Black Church

Proceedings of the Semi-centenary Celebration of the African Methodist Episcopal Church of Cincinnati . . . February 8th, 9th, and 10th, 1874. Edited by Rev. B. W. Arnett. Cincinnati: H. Watkin, 1874. Daniel A.P. Murray Pamphlet Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (5–3)

An African American Institution of Higher Learning—Wilberforce University

• The Wilberforce Alumnae: A Comprehensive Review of the Origin, Development and Present Status of Wilberforce University, 1885. Compiled by B. W. Arnet and S. T. Mitchell. Xenia, Ohio: Printed at the Gazette Office, 1885. Pamphlet. Daniel A.P. Murray Pamphlet Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (5–4)

  What was the social impact of the Reconstruction Era?

  During the period, Congress passed three constitutional amendments that permanently abolished slavery, defined birthright citizenship and guaranteed due process and equal protection under the law, and granted all males the ability to vote by prohibiting voter discrimination based on race, color, or previous condition ...

  What are two social effects of Reconstruction?

  Northerners invested large sums of money to build railroads and factories in the South. As a result, people began moving from the farms to the cities looking for jobs. segregation and white supremacy. Most of the freedmen were uneducated, and this weakened their ability to compete with whites on equal terms.

  What were the major political and social achievements of Reconstruction?

  Among the other achievements of Reconstruction were the South's first state-funded public school systems, more equitable taxation legislation, laws against racial discrimination in public transport and accommodations and ambitious economic development programs (including aid to railroads and other enterprises).

  What are the Reconstruction Amendments and how did they impact America?

  The Reconstruction Amendments—also called the Civil War Amendments—are three additions to the United States Constitution that abolished slavery, granted equal rights to formerly enslaved people, and enshrined the right to vote for people of all races.