Historical Turning Point

HISTORICAL TURNING POINT DURING THE YEARS 1865-1900

Priscilla Kabinde

HIS 105

Strayer University

Dr V. Black

April 28, 2013

According to Encyclopedia Britannica a “turning point” may be defined as an event or set of events that had it not occurred or happened as it did, would have prompted a different course in history, and it is an exceptionally idiosyncratic, and their delineation also shifts over time as perspective change and events become more distant, e.g. the Civil War, World War I and II.

The Civil War ended in 1865 and after the war, the south mostly needed to much help and reconstruction. During the years 1865-1900 the Reconstruction had to be done, the Southern needed help their land, infrastructure and the economy needed put together again, and the refugees needed assistance to settle in. Reconstructions changed the United States in several important ways. One of the changes was in to the Constitution, congressed passed three amendments to the Constitution during this period. “The first was the 13th amendment, which was to end slavery in the United States and give the black people equal and voting rights. The next was the 14th amendment which said every person born or naturalized in the United States is a citizen of the United States or the states that they live in and no states has the right to limit them. The last was the 15th amendment which said freed all the Negros, the 14th and 15th amendments where to protect their rights, but these laws alone did not success in doing so, it took another century until Martin Luther King Jr and other civil rights leaders come to make them reality” (ThinkQuest).

Reconstruction changed the economy of the South by letting the white-land owners to break their lands into small portions and rent them to black farmers. These lands came with seeds, tools, and enough supplies to last them a year. In exchange the owner would get a large share of crops raised by the tenant farmers. This system was...