Reconstruction: Its Benefits, Drawbacks and Legacy - Essay Example

Section/# Reconstruction: Its Benefits, Drawbacks and Legacy Whereas American society had grown in something of a predictable way up to and including the period of the Civil War, the way in which American society grew post-Civil War has been something of interest to political scientists, historians, sociologists and others for decades. This is of course a function of the rapid and break-neck change that the American society underwent as a function of the emancipation and ultimate freedom of the former slaves, the rise in Western expansion, and the dawn of the industrial age. All of these factors introduced systemic shocks into the American consciousness and developed a uniquely new dynamic that has continued to defined and exert an influence on identity and social formation up to and including the current time. As a function of understanding this unique period of American history, this brief essay will analyze this period with relation to the experience that different formerly marginalized groups had. The groups included within the analysis will include women, Native Americans, African Americans, and the various new immigrants that landed on American soil as a result of systemic and societal changes throughout Europe and the rest of the world.1 Finally, the essay will seek to answer the question of whether or not there was a gap with regards to the level of democracy that the system promised and what was actually realized within the masses of citizens of the republic. With regards to the experience that post-Reconstruction brought to women, this was a period in which the emancipation and ultimate freedom that the former slaves had realized served to entice the women’s suffrage movement to begin to stir.2 The result of this stir was also due to the fact that many former anti-slavery advocates were women and it was realized that defined and sustained political action by such groups could make a discernable and lasting impact on the future of politics within the nation. As a function of this, suffragists and other individual issue groups began to ply the political channels in the United States. Although it took many decades for this movement to eventually be heard, the realization of political power that was born from the end of slavery served to embolden this group of shareholders to demand a more active and integrative political process within the nation. Similarly, due to the changes that the end of slavery had afforded to recently freed African Americans, there were many positive and negative externalities that soon existed for this demographic. Firstly, with regards to the positive changes, an amendment to the Constitution made it possible for black men to have a voice in the way that the nation grew and expanded. This of course helped to provide a previously disenfranchised group of individuals with a small portion of the political power that they should have held all along. Sadly, this and the end to slavery were some of the only positive factors that integrated themselves with the African American experience in the Post-Reconstruction era. The fact of the matter was that in an era in which the civil rights of African Americans should have flourished the most, a litany of Jim Crow laws popped up all over the country which practically relegated these individuals to a form of second class citizenship. Unable to eat, drink, or even wait in the same waiting rooms as whites, African Americans saw many of the hopes and dreams of equality that they had held after the conclusion of the Civil War and the beginning of the Reconstruction fade into something of an unrealistic dream.3 Similarly, with regards to the employment outlook and opportunity that existed for these recently freed slaves; this too was a difficult if not impossible. Sharecropping came to represent a new form of enslavement whereby the landed aristocracy was able to subjugate the lower classes into a type of generational and perpetual servitude.4 With regards to Native Americans, their plight was perhaps the worst of all during the post-Reconstruction period. As a function of the rapid expansion and development of the American frontier, these already relegated groups of people were pushed further and further, uprooted again and again, and eventually found themselves and their progeny occupying the least desirable and most worthless tracts of land that the American continent had to offer. This meant that as the American West continued to be differentiated and settled, the theft of formerly Native American lands reached a fever pitch and ultimately resulted in Native Americans being pushed from one corner of the American West to another; all based upon the all important needs of settlement and immigration. Finally, the plight of the immigrant will be the last which will be expounded upon herein. Although this plight was difficult, it represented a much more optimistic reality than did the plight of African Americans or Native Americans during the same period. Ultimately, the immigrant was one who was viewed as culturally and ethnically inferior; much like African Americans or Native Americans were viewed during the same time period. However, unlike the Native Americans or the African Americans, the immigrant was able to have the opportunity to differentiate himself/herself and pull themselves up from their lowly station in life. This was of course made possible by acquisition of the language, learning useful skills, gaining employment, and ultimately realizing the American dream.5 This was partly due to the fact that the immigrant, once familiar with English “looked” like what an American should; according to the standards of that time. Finally, there most certainly existed a gap between the promise of democracy that was peddled to the masses and what actually existed. As has been discussed, the existence of poll taxes, Jim Crow, the lack of women’s suffrage, and the way in which Native Americans were displaced and dehumanized represented many of the aspects of despotism; the very opposite of the promise of democracy that different political leaders touted as strongly existing within the American system.6 As a function of the complete disrespect and lack of concern for disenfranchised groups within the American society, it cannot be definitively stated that the reality on the ground matched the high promises that demagogues of that time so actively spouted. References Darity, William. 2008. "Forty Acres and a Mule in the 21st Century." Social Science Quarterly (Blackwell Publishing Limited) 89, no. 3: 656-664. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed February 25, 2013). Marler, Scott P. 2004. "Fables of the Reconstruction: Reconstruction of the Fables." Journal Of The Historical Society 4, no. 1: 113-137. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed February 25, 2013). Mashaw, Jerry L. 2010. "Federal Administration and Administrative Law in the Gilded Age." Yale Law Journal 119, no. 7: 1362-1472. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed February 25, 2013). Robinson, Angelo Rich. 2002. "Race, Place, and Space: Remaking Whiteness in the Post-Reconstruction South." Southern Literary Journal 35, no. 1: 97. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed February 25, 2013). Seo, Jungkun. 2011. "Wedge-issue dynamics and party position shifts: Chinese exclusion debates in the post-Reconstruction US Congress, 1879-1882." Party Politics 17, no. 6: 823-847. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed February 25, 2013). Van Nuys, Frank. 2005. "How the Vote Was Won: Woman Suffrage in the Western United States, 1868-1914." American Historical Review 110, no. 1: 163-164. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed February 25, 2013). WIDMER, RANDOLPH J. 2010. "The Rise, Fall, and Transformation of Native American Cultures in the Southeastern United States." Reviews In Anthropology 39, no. 2: 108-126. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed February 25, 2013). Read More