Reconstruction in Action

The war has just ended and it is time for the civilians to reconstruct their nation, but the war has left much misery behind it. It had destroyed much of the transportation and accumulated a total of 9,000 miles of railroad. It had devoured farm lands and farm building and machinery. Animals that were used in the farm and much of the livestock, bridges and canals all were gone. the value of the southern farm properties had declined of 70 precent.

The civil war has just destroyed many lives. Men, husbands and brothers all died leaving behind their family; their wives and their children. The north has suffered a loss of over 364,000 people and more than 38,000 African American while the south lost 260,000 soldiers and only one fifth of them were white men. The people who have participated to the war are scarred for eternity but we are trying to reconstruct our nation.

After the civil war the African Americans in the south were now free. Over 4 million freed slaves are starting their new life in a poor region with slow economic activities. As slaves they have received inadequate food and shelter but now after a lifetime of forced labor and unreasoned suffering many are homeless, famished and jobless. Some of them though have chosen to continue on working on the plantation of their previous masters, others sought jobs on the West and the cities and on the North as well.

With out our president, Abraham Lincoln who was savagely assassinated we the nation of the United states are having a little of difficulty reconstructing our country and though with our previous Vice President and now President of the Untied States, Andrew Johnson who now all the hopes and future of reconstruction are in his hand.

Andrew Johnson was born in North Carolina. After Lincoln's death it was for the Vice president to take in charge of the nation and of the politics of it.

Before the start of his presidential state Johnson had already pursuit a plan for our nation's construction. It was much similar to the one done by our respected president Lincoln's plan in 1863.

This plan proposed a whole new start of the nation. It offered pardon to southerners who swore allegiance to the Union and the state could then hold elections and rejoin the Union.

The plan for the reconstruction of our nation now is to gather the southerners and the northerners in to one same political unit. The plan to reconstruct our nation is to join the Union.

The Effects of War

The war has many effects on the people or nation could negative and positive. In the civil war of 1861 -1865 the war was negative and positive at the same time. It was negative because lots of people died in the massacre and they were from the same nation. It was positive in making this new nation a stronger and more united than it ever has. The effects of war are also different for people. There are people that gain something from the war and that makes them happy. Military industries for example, the war is something good for them because they sell their products (weapons, guns...) to the army. It is a build up of economy. For other people it is only the ruin of their lives.

Ken Burnʼs Civil War

The movie of Ken Burn's traced the course of the U.S. civil war in 1861 -1865. It was from the abolitionist to the death of the greatest president the United States has ever had, Abraham Lincoln. It also had a bit of the beginning reconstructions. The episode we've watched in class examines the major causes of the American civil war and the leading people on both sides.

Slavery is looked at and it was part of the cause of war but not the actual cause. The abolitionist John Brown's attack on a southern armory at Harper's Ferry speeded things up?

The main cause of the war was the key issue of the states rights and whether or not they could vote to leave the American Union. The first major battle at Manassas was a mortifying defeat for the much stronger Northerners.

Northern advantages V.S. Southern advantages

North Advantages

In several aspects the north was better prepared for an eventual war if occurred. The north had more railroad mileage than the south; more then twice. (N=21,700 miles, S=9,000 miles.) Movement of food, supplies and troops were faster and more effective because of this. There were also more then five times more factories in the north then there was in the south, (N= 110,100; S=20,600) so the union was better able to produce the guns, ammunition and other things needed for the war. The economy was balanced in the north between farming and industry. The North was also much more wealthier than the South.

The Northerners had already their own functioning government with an army and a navy. The population in the north was twice as big than in the south (N=21,5 million; S= 9 million) which abled more people to participate in the war but also enough to stay back and work on the growth of their economy.

South Advantages

The South Confederates though had some advantages too. Most of the nation's military colleges were in the south, and a majority of the trained officers of the nation were southerners and they sided with the confederacy. The southerners also didn't need to initiate in the war to win it, all they needed is to maintain a well built defense. The morale of the southerners was also an advantage because most of them were eager to fight considering the war a struggle for their way of life.

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