Colby Wyatt

Period 1
Was Radical Reconstruction a Success or Failure?
Overall, radical reconstruction was a failure. Yes, it did grant slaves basic rights, passed
the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, and helped educate over 200,000 African Americans, but
they did not accomplish enough for it to be deemed a success. After the Civil War, black codes
were set up, which were not in favor of the newly freed slaves. Some went back to work for their
masters before emancipation to work for wage, but most felt they were practically back to being
a slave. The Freedmen's Bureau was too quick to act upon trying to integrate blacks. They
should have had an extended plan of social integration to carefully adapt them over an
extended period of time, instead of throwing them right into the free world with no instructions or
help. The Bureau had initially wanted to acquire captured Confederate land for the slaves to
occupy, but the idea was preposterous and was impossible to achieve. Another view of how
reconstruction was a failure was viewing beyond the years of the initial attempt at
reconstruction. Even many years later, blacks were looked down upon and segregated, even
after all the attempts of assimilation. The long-term effect of radical reconstruction plays a part
in its overall failure and the failure of the Freedmens Bureau to assist the freed slaves.