Question

What was the greatest failure of the reconstruction period?

Answer 1

Federal and state governments failed to

secure the rights guaranteed to former slaves

by constitutional amendments.

Step-by-step explanation:

- Radical Republican governments were

unable or unwilling to enact land

reform or to provide former slaves

with the economic resources needed

to break the cycle of poverty.

- State Republican parties could not

preserve black-white voter coalitions

that would have enabled them to stay

in power and continue political

reform.

- Racial bias was a national, not just a

southern, problem. Northerners

became more absorbed in westward

expansion and industrialization than

with the problems of the former

slaves.

- The Supreme Court undermined the

power of the 14th and 15th

Amendments.

At the end of Reconstruction, former slaves

found themselves once again in a

subordinate position in society. The historian

Eric Foner concludes: “Whether measured by

the dreams inspired by emancipation or the

more limited goals of securing blacks’ rights

as citizens…Reconstruction can only be

judged a failure.”

Answer 2

Explanation: The American Civil War preserved the Union and freed the slaves. However, during Reconstruction, a lack of political focus on the effort failed to solve the sectional wounds, and the elimination of the freed slaves' newly gained civil liberties failed to bring about long-term racial integration.