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Reconstruction Dbq

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After the war Republicans had considerable power and the Democratic party was in shambles, which led to them having their own objectives and visions of Reconstruction. (Nash, et al., 2007., p. 468) Congressional Republicans feared losing their power and attempted to set the tone of Reconstruction by passing a civil rights bill in 1866, refused to seat members from the former Confederacy, and investigated conditions in the South, which led to the passage of the Reconstruction acts that divided the South into five districts. (Nash, et al., 2007., pp. 472-473, 476) Republicans also moved against President Johnson as they reduced the expanded power of the executive branch and eventually impeached him. (Nash, et al., 2007., p. 476) Democrats also had a vested interest in Reconstruction as after the war the party was in shambles and had to grapple for the power to push their interests over the Congressional Republicans. This power contest led to unsavory tactics in the South such as the Mississippi Plan, which was devised as an intimidation tactic to force people to vote Democratic. (Nash, …show more content…

They were free from slavery and had new opportunity, but were often met with limited ability to pursue those opportunities as well as being met with outright resentment and violence from the white population in the form of gangs like the Ku Klux Klan. However, despite all the violence and resistance they faced the freepeoples had a significant interest in how Reconstruction policies affected them as now they had the ability to marry legally, which created legitimacy for children and access to land titles. (Nash, et al., 2007., p. 471) The creation of the Freedman’s Bureau was also another policy that attempted to benefit them, but it’s resources being stretched too thin and too often turned disadvantageous for them in terms of contracts giving rise to sharecropping and tenant farming. (Nash, et al., 2007., pp.

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