Between 1860 and 1877 there were numerous events that amounted to a Revolution. During this time period the United States went through a constitutional and social reform that was Revolutionary. Secession and reconstruction are two events that effected the United States constitutionally. These two events amounted to a revolution in the sense that it changed the United States drastically. With reconstruction and secession came numerous bills and acts that either tried to keep the Union together (like the Crittenden Compromise) or try to have the seceeded states come back to the Union.
Numerous states seceeded from the Union due to beliefs that the federal government were imposing laws they couldn’t on states (Doc. A). Acts like the fugitive slave acts that was not imposed in the Northern states caused great frustration to the South. Lincoln’s reconstruction plan that included the 10% plan and keeping civil war generals away from Congress instilled a Revolution. It also brought about laws and amendments that effected the states socially.
Social developments included the Freedmen’s Bureau, Black Codes, and the KKK. The Freedmen’s Bureau was initially made with a positive connotation but turned out negativly when freedmen weren’t getting the support or the homesteads they were promised (doc. e). A revolutionary change happened when the 15th amendment came out at the end which allowed African Americans to vote (Doc. G)/ But was shortly lived when Congress introduced literacy tests, poll taxes, and the Grandfather clause to not allow African Americans vote after all.
During this time the KKK, a white supremacy group, was known for installing fear in the African Americans to not let them vote (doc. I). The government saw this happening and decided to step in with the Ku Klux Klan Act that protected African Americans from the KKK (Doc. H). Another huge revolutionary came when African American males were being inducted to the congress (Doc. C); never would that have happened if it weren’t for the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th amendment. All these events have helped mold the U. S. All due to these constitutional and social revolution.
