Jenica Policarpio

2nd Hour

DBQ Essay: Constitutional and Social developments, 1860-1877

The United States between 1860 and 1877 saw countless changes

in what seemed to be a “trial and error” attempt to get the country back

on track. During these times of battle and reconstruction, drastic

developments occurred in both the North, and the South, socially and

constitutionally. The secession of the Confederate states, the

Emancipation Proclamation, and the added amendments being the

constitutional developments, the Freedmen’s Bureau, KKK, and the

black codes being the social developments of the period, would soon

amount to a revolution.

The constitutional developments that were aiding the cause of the

revolution were greatly due to the great tension arising between the

North and South on the hot issue of slavery. To begin with, the sectional

division at this time has reached its peak. The Election of 1860 has just
concluded, with Abraham Lincoln winning the presidency. The South

was infuriated by the election of a president for whom no Southerner had

voted. Southern states like, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and

others seceded the Union by February 1, 1861. In South Carolina’s

Declaration of Causes of Secession, they stated that “…the powers not

delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to

the states, are reserved to the states…” They emphasized that the North

did not have the right to withheld Southern states from withdrawing the

Union. The secession of these states would then amount to the Civil War

between the Union, and the newly created Confederate States. The war

progressed day by day, and new generals were being named for the

armies. By mid-1862, Lincoln, being pressured by his own party, issued

the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves in areas still in

rebellion beginning January 1, 1863. Because of the recent defeats the

North had experienced, Lincoln waited to announce the Emancipation

Proclamation until the Northern victory at the Battle of Antietam. In

time, the North would finally claim victory of the war that lasted 5 years,
but that is not where trouble ends. The next years would come to be the

hardest part of the war. Trying to rebuild a broken nation and put it back

on solid ground. In the years following, the 13th, 14th, and 15th

amendments gave blacks freedom, citizenship, and voting rights in

America, reverting their position in society. The 13th amendment,

officially abolished slavery. The 14th amendment secured the rights of

the freed slaves like, due process, equal protection clauses among others.

Finally, the 15th amendment which provided that the U.S. government

may not prevent a citizen from voting regardless of race, color, or

previous condition of servitude.

The social developments during the state period occurred mostly

after the Civil War. There was still tension between blacks and Southern

whites, which resulted in the segregation and discrimination blacks

would face in the coming years. To assist the newly freed blacks on

adjusting to their new way of life, Lincoln passed the Freedmen’s

Bureau. The Bureau was supposed to give Homesteads to the free slaves,

but none of the promises by the government were kept. As said in

Document E, “If it does not carry out the promises its agents made to us,

we are left in a more unpleasant condition than our former,” many freed

slaves were upset about the broken promises of the government, leaving

them in worse conditions than prior. In Document I, a picture is shown

depicting the lives of the free slaves. The picture illustrates the worsened

conditions blacks are facing due to the harsh treatment they receive from

the Ku Klux Klan, and the White League, thus making it difficult for

them to exercise their rights as freedmen.

The constitutional and social developments between 1860 and

1877 shaped America of what it has come to be. The revolution these

developments resulted in altered America’s future, for what seems to be

the better.