How did the 13th Amendment contribute to the failure of the Reconstruction??????

Question

I don't understand how it could contribute to the failure of it when there is no more slavery anymore.

Answer 1

That's a bit odd. Is there any particular text or textbook you are supposed to be consulting for this that might clarify the question?

Well, I may not understand at all what THEIR point is, but let me toss out a couple of possibilities based on what I DO know.

First, the 13th Amendment itself might be faulted for not including certain protections (or better, I think, we could blame those who INTERPRETED it). Everyone understood that a Union victory would mean the end of slavery, even before the 13th Amendment was introduced (passing Congress in January 1865, ratified by the states by December 1865, after the war's end). Former Confederate states were prepared to accept this, including the amendment.

BUT there were two related problems:
a) the South was afraid of what would happen once slaves WERE freed -- would they become shiftless, wanderers, even troublemakers (some did, more at the start when trying to figure out what to do.... though many who traveled were simply seeking to reassemble their families, split by slave sales).

So, they were trying to figure out how to deal with this

b) Andrew Johnson, though initially tough in his rhetoric, proved very "soft" in his actual Reconstruction program. Many like to compare this to Lincoln, but there was one HUGE difference -- Johnson didn't really care at all about the freedmen. So while he required the South to accept the 13th amendment he allowed/encouraged a "minimalist" interpretation -- the slaves were freed, but with NO real protection of their rights (legal, civil, economic...)

RESULT: Southern states began to pass "black codes" which severely restricted the freedoms of the freedmen, in some ways making their situation as bad as under slavery. Johnson was willing to accept all this

REACTION: BUT much of Congress --and much of the North-- would NOT accept it. Thus began a battle over Reconstruction programs. And the unexpected leniency of Johnson had encouraged many in the South who had been accepting of all terms to RESIST, and look for ways around all the implications of the program.

Hard to say this was the fault of the amendment itself (and there is NO way that the North would have accepted something stronger in 1865 -- the 14th & 15th amendment additions were in response to Southern resistance). But the WAY it was implemented did cause problems.

A SECOND possibility, though at this point unrealistic -- Lincoln's ORIGINAL plan had been more of a GRADUAL, COMPENSATED program of emancipation. He tried to sell loyal border (slave) states on this in 1861-2, hoping then to expand it to Virginia, etc. and lure these states back into the Union. But the loyal states would not accept it and Lincoln eventually concluded, for this and other reasons, on the Emancipation Proclamation -- an IMMEDIATE step. Of course, once the Proclamation was made it is impossible to conceive how its final legal guarantee (that is, the 13th amendment) could have used any sort of gradual program.

It IS, however, possible to understand how a gradual emancipation, as Lincoln had at first envisioned, could have made a transition smoother, allaying Southern fears and reactions because they would not have had to deal with this whole huge uneducated group all at once.

But in all this it is very difficult to see what other options there were... though perhaps, had Lincoln lived, he could have navigated it all more smoothly, both as politically far more competent (and less stubborn) than Johnson... and as one who DID care about protecting the rights of the freedmen.

A REMINDER -- "Reconstruction" in its original sense did not necessarily have anything to do with slavery -- it was simply some program, any program, for restoring the Union, with the Confederate states once again represented and contributing. Obviously, the huge economic and social changes entailed by the 13th amendment (not to mention the 14th and 15th) made this whole process very difficult.

Answer 2

I'm not real clear on it either, but maybe the hostility of former slave owners is the issue. Just read the article linked below, and learned a lot. Even old dogs can learn new tricks.
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