This is my speech-ish thing for my history class about Reconstruction being a failure if anyone wants to read it: Joseph Fort Newton once said, “Men build too many walls and not enough bridges.” That’s exactly what I believe, and that belief is what spurs me to believe that the Reconstruction was a failure. In 1865, the United States of America had already built too many walls. The Civil War left the country in a state of shock and turmoil. Naturally, building bridges would be the next step, and that’s what America did. However, the methods the country used actually kept those walls and halted the bridges. The bridges were being destroyed, blockaded, and manipulated, and the walls were only getting stronger and multiplying. At first, the Reconstruction efforts were going well, and the foundation of the bridges was being made. The Freedmen’s Bureau was founded by the government, and this helped newly freed men find assistance. However, and this was the main thing: The United States failed to break down the walls. Racial and selfishly-motivated corruption succeeded in shutting down the Freedmen’s Bureau. This great bridge that the United States had been building crumbled, and the wall regained its full force. Additionally, the country failed to account for the strengthening of the walls. In the country’s attempt to build more bridges, many other people were trying to reinforce their walls. In response to the fifteenth amendment, which promoted Black suffrage, the walls turned from drywall to concrete. To prevent African-Americans from voting, people forced them to pay poll taxes and take literacy tests. The former slaves did not have the money and means to pay and pass these hurdles, so they were not able to vote. Now, instead of the bridge crumbling, it got blockaded. Walls were put up there, too, so no one could cross the bridge. In essence, this is the same as the bridge crumbling, only worse: You can see the bridge and the opportunity, yet you just cannot cross it. There’s another problem with bridges, and that is that no one needs a bridge to get around. There is always another way. Slavery was banished due to the aftereffects of the Civil War, but there was still a way to get labor from those people. Since many slaves were poor, they needed work, money, and food, which some farmers were happy to provide, but at a cost. Instead of using slaves to get money and resources, these farmers paid, but it was on their terms. The farmers ended up taking most of the crops that were farmed, and leaving the African-American people without much at all. These farmers just went right around the bridges. Also, walls were being doubled, tripled, and multiplied by the dozen. The Ku Klux Klan began tossing walls left and right to create fear and boundaries. They terrorized and threatened Black people and anyone associated with them. This created even more walls, which severely outnumbered the bridges. Based on the sheer difference between the numbers of walls and bridges, it can ultimately be said that Reconstruction was a failure- there were just too many more walls. The walls did whatever they could do to be more and do more than the bridges, and that is what made Reconstruction a failure. There is, however, a glimmer of hope. Walls can have doors in them. Walls can be climbed over and hammered through. If that could have happened more, Reconstruction could have been more of a success. Ultimately, I strongly believe that the Reconstruction was a failure, and that more walls were built than bridges.
