Reconstruction refers to the post-Civil War period of rebuilding the United States. It was a time of great pain and endless questions. The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 signed by President Abraham Lincoln freed slaves in the Confederate states and later all slaves were free under the Thirteenth Amendment of 1865. Even though by law slaves were free, it appeared that they were still in bondage because they were still treated cruelly and unfairly. Houston Hartsfield Holloway wrote, "We colored people did not know how to be free, and white people did not know how to have a free colored person near us." Freed slaves could fight in wars but their full citizenship remained in question. Black people were seen as impure and evil and white people believed that they were not and would never be equal to them. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Reconstruction was a success in that it restored the United States as a unified nation: By 1877, all former Confederate states had drafted new constitutions, recognized the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, and pledged allegiance to the U.S. government . Reconstruction also finally resolved the debate over states' rights versus federalism that had been a problem since the 1790s. Reconstruction failed with many deaths of freedmen, Republican legislation ultimately failed to protect former slaves from white harm. The U.S. Supreme Court made this anti-progressive movement stronger with decisions in the Slaughterhouse cases, the civil rights cases, and United States v. Cruikshank that effectively repealed the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and the Civil Rights Act of 1875 When President Rutherford B. Hayes removed the Cowardly troops from the South in 1877, former Confederate officials and slave owners almost immediately returned to power. With the help of a conservative Supreme Court, these newly powerful Southern white politicians allowed Black Codes, voter qualifications, and other anti-progressive laws to reverse the rights that Black people had won during Reconstruction. The sharecropping system, in a sense a legal form of slavery that forced blacks to work on lands owned by white farmers, and became a useful system since the bureau let them free without money... With little economic power and without money, land or homes, blacks ended up having to fight for civil rights alone, as northern whites lost interest in Reconstruction by the mid-1870s. By 1877, Northerners were fed up with Reconstruction, scandals, radicals, and the fight for black rights. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Of course the Republican Party doesn't have to. Popular, tight monetary policies in response to the Depression, such as the Resumption Act of 1875, paved the way for the Democratic Party to make huge political gains, catalyzing the end of Reconstruction. The Resumption Act reduced the amount of money circulating in the economy in an attempt to eliminate the inflation caused by the depression of the 1920s. Although the act created good economic conditions for the future of America, it brought difficult times to both the North and the South in the near future. The law was sponsored by Republicans, so Democrats were able to exploit its unpopularity to gather support for their party.:.