Why RECONSTRUCTION Failed [APUSH Review]

Reconstruction in the United States did not have a fairy tale ending but rather, a tragic one. The video will explore both the initial successes achieved by Black Americans and the ultimate failures that led to an incomplete reconstruction.

Early successes included the establishment of the Freedmen's Bureau in 1865, providing aid, land, and education for freed blacks and poor whites. Additionally, over 2,000 Black men were elected to political office, facilitated by groups like the Union League, demonstrating significant political participation.

President Andrew Johnson, a Southerner and former enslaver, actively opposed racial equality. He vetoed congressional legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1866, arguing for states' rights. However, Radical Republicans gained a supermajority in 1867 and took control of Reconstruction.

Radical Republicans passed the Military Reconstruction Act, dividing the South into military districts to enforce racial equality. Subsequent Enforcement Acts, passed during Ulysses S. Grant's presidency, further ensured federal oversight to protect Black voters and prevent marginalization, along with the Civil Rights Act of 1875.

A major failure was the rise of sharecropping. Andrew Johnson rescinded orders granting land to freedmen, returning it to white owners. This left many Black Southerners without land, leading them into sharecropping arrangements with plantation owners. Though seemingly offering independence, it often resulted in deep debt and bound them to the land, resembling slavery.

Another significant failure was the erosion of Black civil rights through Supreme Court decisions. Cases like the Slaughterhouse Cases and United States v. Cruikshank systematically restricted protections guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. The Cruikshank case, following the Colfax massacre, ruled that the 14th Amendment did not protect Black Americans from attacks by private citizens, emboldening groups like the KKK.

The official end of Reconstruction came with the Compromise of 1877, a secret deal following the hotly contested 1876 presidential election. Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was awarded the presidency in exchange for removing federal troops from the South. This allowed "redeemer Democrats" to regain power and dismantle racial equality policies, ultimately leading to a South eerily similar to the antebellum period.