Reconstruction of the Union following the Civil War - Research Paper Example

The Reconstruction also brought several black members to Congress and to all other government positions including the sheriff and the judge. Moreover, the Reconstruction brought with it the formulation of certain laws that protected and underlined the rights of black people in the American society (“Reconstruction: The Second Civil War”). The first problem associated with the Reconstruction is that the first reconstruction plans were themselves problematic. Lincoln’s 10 percent policy was not accepted by Radical Republicans for they said it was too easy for the Confederate states to use to gain readmission and that the plan was not enough in terms of protecting the former slaves.

Because of this deficiency, Congress passed its own Wade-Davis Bill, which tried to limit the political participation of white Confederates and proposed the equality of the blacks before the law, but Lincoln did not sign the bill into a law (“Reconstruction”). . Many of the problems concerning the Reconstruction actually had their roots from selfish political agenda of certain politicians both from the North and the South. Another problem with the Reconstruction is that it brought with it certain disagreements among blacks and whites on the newly institutionalized laws of equality and emancipation of the Negro slave.

This resulted in several complications about the ownership of land and about the new sharecropping practices such as those experienced by the landlady Butler when negotiating with her former slaves as to how much of the proceeds of the plantation would go to her and how much would go to the black worker. In fact, she could sense so much animosity among her former slaves that is why she always slept at night with a pistol beside her. The complications and tension also extended to the state governments, such as that of Georgia, where the white lawmakers defied the command of the Northern States by banning black people from taking part in the state government.

Although this was remedied, hatred and tension have developed between blacks and whites (“Reconstruction: The Second Civil War”). There was also the problem of the impending Negro rule or the supremacy and dominance of blacks. Certain influential black leaders during the time of the Reconstruction like the preacher Tunis Campbell has encouraged blacks to fight for their rights by instilling in them a hatred towards whites and the idea that the whites were always taking advantage of blacks.

Campbell has also inspired blacks to complain to their masters about what is supposed to be rightfully theirs (“Reconstruction: The Second Civil War”). Another problem with the Reconstruction is the group of white Republicans who want to settle down