EOTO Reaction

 After hearing some of the EOTO presentations from the Reconstruction era I was very impressed by the presentations and a lot of the information that was presented in them. I would say that I also was very impressed with the presentations to set the stage for the Reconstruction era and how these events would shape the future and impact all around the US.

After the Civil War ended, there were 4 million freed African-American men, women and children in the United States of America. These 4 million people had no possessions, and property. So to deal with this the United States government had decided to create an agency called the Freedmen’s Bureau to redistribute Confederate lands to new freedmen. 

By doing this they were doing this to provide shelter, food, and reunite slaves with long lost families who were separated during the Civil War. This Bureau was originally only supposed to last a year but Congress had overwhelmingly voted to continue this bureau since Congress had seen how well this worked. President Andrew Johnson had vetoed continuing this program and Congress had chosen not go through the process of overruling him and his veto. I had also learned about the fact that Andrew Johnson was giving pardons to Confederate leaders. 

A part of the EOTO’s that stood out to me was the backstory and history behind the Klu Klux Klan. I had not known much about the Klu Klux Klan other than they were against black people and the freedom of black people. The Klan was formed in 1886 in Tennessee which is something I had also not known previously. This stood out to me since all some people wanted was simple freedoms and Reconstruction. 

The KKK’s main target in going after African Americans was the Freedom Bureau I had mentioned earlier since the Freedom Bureau was trying to help African Americans get back on their feet. The KKK’s message and protests did some damage however the group started to fall apart a little while later. The KKK would later accept defeat as the main parts of the group would later slip away and African Americans would later get full freedom back.

Overall, the EOTO’s were very interesting and very informative. There were a lot of different and unique subjects that were discussed that I learned more in depth information about the Reconstruction era and some of its key events and actions. 

Image Source:

https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/emancipation/m-4363/