Civil War Reconstruction

America between 1865 and 1876 was very broken and disunited due to the obvious Civil War. There was much effort put in my various powers to put together America again and attain the unity preferably desired by the central governing body. Both the Congress and the Citizenry participated to remedy the discretely disunited states. President Johnson, who took office right after Lincoln against the radical republicans to piece together America, is a perfect example of Congressional effort put into the problem. As for the citizenry putting in effort, the Freedmen’s Bureau and sharecropping both showed a different paradigm of the problem on a level in which the average citizens could assist in unifying America again. Through examples we will soon see exactly how the two entities combined forces of the government and the people to fight for a common goal. After the conclusion of the Civil War with the defeat of the Confederate states, an organization by the name of Freedman’s Bureau was composed to give abandoned or confiscated land to freed African Americans to live on. This land was given to them in the form of grants that were approximately 40 acres, give or take, to live on for three years. After these 3 years, they would be able to purchase the land at a very low price. This organization helped put America together again because it shows the co-op method in which the Congress set up an establishment to give freedom to the black and then the people were readily agreeing to it, not rebelling. This also changed the Citizenry’s view of slaves in a certain way. As the Dread Scott case mentioned that slaved were not people they were property, well, now they were able to purchase land. This meant that since property can not own property and only another person can own property, that people must soon see slaves as reasonably people and not property. Although not revolutionary since segregation was very common amongst both North and South states, there was still a new perspective offered to people to accept slaves as people themselves. This would soon help bring the South and North closer as they would begin to begin in soon the same ideology towards people of different colors and cultures. Another factor important in tying together America was sharecropping, which however was not as good. Sharecropping meant that a squad or family could work independently for a fixed share of crop, around ?. The positive side to this was the fact that there was no expenditure in advance of harvest. The tenant had to share the risks of crop failure or a fall in cotton prices. Blacks believed this to be helpful to them, and since it was the Citizenry who decided upon doing this, we can see that the not only the government, but all the way down to the individual person we can see that citizens would put forth effort to cooperate with the new system of social life considering slavery was no longer an option. Although in the 1870s it became a servitude type instance in which croppers lived on credit until the cotton was sold. This was en route back to a modified adaptation of slavery in this time period. However until then, it was a vital key to show the vast effort put into the bringing together of America. The president also played a vital role in the bringing together of America. President Johnson wanted to reprieve the formerly Confederate states. He believed in organizing a new government and electing new representatives for states. This was contrary to the bringing together of America. Thus his opponent, the Radical Republicans came into action. Their plan was to fully represent the southern states’ government and also used military force to do so. They also passed the Civil Rights Acts to give slaves full rights. They wanted to grant suffrage to freedmen. This political party of republicans showed that the president was overpowered and thus could not disagree otherwise as the republicans fully gained the support of the people in their cause. Because of their success in this, they were able to put together America by the use of military force, which almost always does the job as we can see the Civil War settling any social issues about slavery. The fact that people began to not only include slaves as people, but to give them rights as well was a leap for American men, especially in the South. This was all part of the effort for unity. So as we can see from the efforts of the Radical Republicans and the Freedmen’s Bureau, there is much cooperation between the Citizenry and the Congress in the unity of America pose-Civil War.