Was Reconstruction doomed?

I voted "Doomed" also. You cannot legislate people's core beliefs and values - no matter how hard you try. In fact the harder you try, the harder you'll fall. But by "doomed" I don't mean to say that Reconstruction was a complete failure. I just mean that it could never possibly live up to the hopes of its architects. read more

Why Reconstruction was destined to fail The key goals of Reconstruction were to readmit the South into the Union and to define the status of freedmen in American society. The Reconstruction era was marked by political, not violent, conflict. read more

Reconstruction was the period from 1865 - 1877 where the government of the United States tried to put the country together again after the Civil War. In general, historians consider it an unsuccessful effort for several reasons. read more