The Legacy of Reconstruction

 

During the period of the 1860s, America fought and survived its most devastating war to date: the American Civil War. The aftermath of this war would lead to a series of historical events that would shape the social relationship between white and black southerners for the upcoming years. One of these events was the attempt by the federal government to transform the 11 Southern states that had waved the Confederate flag, which would be known as the Reconstruction era. This era was characterized by a simultaneous victory and defeat of moral American principles that would have an enduring effect over the developing history of the nation.

The most notable moral victory of the Reconstruction was the recognition of individual freedom of black slaves. The federal government abolished slavery, setting free 3.5 million African Americans; in 1866, Congress approved the Fourteenth Amendment, which would be the first constitutional definition of American citizenship, and would grant citizenship to those born in American territory independently of race; and in 1870, Congress would also approve the Fifteenth Amendment, which prohibited the federal and state government from denying suffrage based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” These occurrences allowed African Americans to flourish and develop a society and culture of their own, and even though their conditions were not great compared to their white counterpart, and they had many more challenges to face, they were facing them as free people for the very first time since they were brought into America.

However, there is no shortage of immoralities and painful consequences in this era, namely the infringement of private property. Union generals and federal officials initially confiscated land and redistributed them to former slaves, which was the case of the “Port Royal Experiment,” where Union occupation forced white property owners to abandon the region, and former slaves seized control of the abandoned land. At first, the Freedmen’s Bureau distributed 850,000 acres to former slaves; by 1865 nearly 400,000 acres had been given to ex-slaves. In an ethical sense, the immorality committed by southern slave-owners was not the ownership of land, but the “ownership” of other human beings who should have never been considered property to begin with. By taking land from southern whites and giving them to blacks, the federal government effectively disrespected the right to own property of whites, blacks, and any other race alike. Arguably, this arbitrary redistribution of land accentuated the already-tense relationship between white and black southerners; not only would whites feel resentment toward blacks because they would perceive them as the source of the loss of their property, but also blacks would feel the same resentment toward whites when these lands would be returned to their original owners at a later date. Because of this, the Reconstruction era leaves a legacy of important civil advancements benefiting all individuals (including those of white skin), but it also leaves a frightening precedent of the federal government infringing and redistributing private property.