After civil war

1. Camilo Acosta
17/2/17
Mr. Patterson
Civil war aftermath
The civil war was one of the worst wars of the American history. Many families were
destroyed and many people died because of discrimination. About 620,000 people died in this
war, this is about 2% of the population of the United States in those times and if this percentage
was plugged in today's population, about 6,000,000 men would have died. The Civil war was a
terrible war, but even today there is still discrimination. Of Course slavery ended, but this didn't
meant that black people were accepted, they were harassed, and not only that, this war left the
country's south devastated and three new amendments were created after this war, but after
time passed it came more common that black people became rich. In document 4, it's clear that
the growth of the black people's economic role was very big. It growed about 10 times with what
it began with.
One of the most significant aspects that the Civil war left was the social aspect. Slaves
were “free” but in a sense they were still slaves. Black people were no longer forced to work but
they were abandoned by the state. For example, Black people were prohibited to read and this
caused most of the ex-slaves to be analphabets. This became significant because after they
were freed, they had no knowledge on how to manage lands or work as an owner, also, most of
the slaves were extremely uneducated because of this. Another problem Black people faced
after the Civil war was the hatred of the people in the south who did not accept black people. In
document 2, the is quote that clearly reflects this, “They were hated because they were slaves,
they were hated because they were now free, and hated because of those who had freed the.”
This is very sad thing because even though they were politically free, they were never seen as

2. equals. Many people went to extremes and created a terrorist group called the Ku Klux Klan and
the worst part was that the state didn't punished this group of people.
In the political aspect after the Civil war, the only thing that can be said is that everything
was upside down. The government was not organized and black people's rights were being
violated. “A disenfranchised citizen is a pariah in the body of the politics.” In this quote it's clear
that one on the worst punishments anyone could receive is being, disfranchised, this means not
allowed to vote, and as you could vaguely imagine, this is terrible. Black people would mainly
have no political power and this is specially more significant if its taken into account that they
are supposed to be free but are seen as outcasts, and without power there is no way to stop
this. Black people were deprived not just to vote, but to have someone in the politics who has
the same interests and this is the real problem. It was impossible of them to stop what was
happening but then came the amendments. The 14th amendment was a light of hope for black
people. “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities
of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or
prosperity, without due process of law ; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal
protection of law.” This basically summarizes what the black people were fighting for and this
was the thing they were fighting for.
The economy after the Civil war was completely disorganized. Everything was centered on
the North and the South's economy was destroyed. Since the cities were destroyed the South
were desperate to recover. “Instead of a south devoted to agriculture and politics, we find a
south wide-awake to business, exited even astonished at development of its own immense
resources in metals, marbles, coal, timbers, fertilizers, eagerly laying lines of communication,
rapidly opening mines, building furnaces, foundries, and all sorts of shops utilizing the native
riches.” In this quote, the desperation becomes very clear and the south changed their ideals to

3. try to get more money to reconstruct their homes and everything that was destroyed. This war
completely changed the economic orientation. The South who had previously been the producer
of things like cotton, without slaves were no longer interested in this kind of business.
In conclusion, the Civil war destroyed the United States. The war born out of hatred and
discrimination left nothing but the same. Many people lost their lives, cities were destroyed, the
economy was unbalanced, resentment from the confederates and the beliefs. One example of
hate that combines the three aspects was the Ku Klux Klan. They are more that social because
they were not punished for what they did, more than political because they killed black people
just because they were extremely racist, and we haven't covered this yet but they also played a
role in the economic aspect. “They refused to enact any laws to suppress Ku Klux disorder.”
This quote show that the politics part was terrible and didn't even care if black people lived or
died. This is one of the many examples the Civil war left terrible things.