The after effects of the Civil War - Historum

10thNJelykm2CT · June 24th, 2006, 03:29 PM

kahn · June 26th, 2006, 10:18 AM

your images didn't work dude.

snow · June 25th, 2009, 06:13 AM

My take on the after effects of the Civil War is (as a northerner) -

1) The South is being guarded by the Union Army. Not exactly the best way to say welcome back to the family. But on the other hand, I am sure that there are numerous people in the Old Confederacy that would not change unless by some kind of force.

2) The elevation of former slaves to U.S. citizen. Also, this is going to be strongly opposed in the South by a good number of people. From the small actions of a regular everyday citizen to the more drastic actions of the KKK.

3) The question in Washington of how to deal with readmission. Just after the end of a war, people still have hard feelings toward the other side. Naturally. This may be playing a role in the Radical Republicans' view of readmission.

4) Everybody hates Johnson. There is nothing that unites the two sides together except for the fact that everyone hates Andrew Johnson. He's a Southerner so the Northerners are suspicious. He's also a Northern leader so the Southerners hate him. In this kind of environment, there is no way that he will ever accomplish anything.

Add all of these together and you get a pretty intense place. There's a reason for everyone not to like some other group.

**tjadams** · June 25th, 2009, 06:53 AM

~Having a police state in the defeated South, surely would & did, rankle many of the population. It wouldn't end till the political presidential deal of 1877 to remove those troops.
~Johnson was indeed on a slippery political & career slope. Was he to carry out Lincoln's more generous policy towards the South? He was lenient. Was he to follow the Radical Republicans and their blood thirsty calls for the South to pay servery? Or was he to be his own man and look to getting reelected as president? He was no Lincoln and didn't have Lincoln's power base.
~The South's economy was devastated; it's male population shredded for years to come & a way of life for many, was gone. The aftermath of war, no matter the century, is always hardest on the civilian population.