American History: Political Movements and Policies from 1865 to 1930s

This essay discusses the significance of American movements from 1865 to 1930s and points out the driving factors to change the American society extensively. It covers the abolition of slavery, citizenship rights, and women's rights.

Running Head: AMERICAN HISTORY
AMERICAN HISTORY
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1AMERICAN HISTORY
Political movements and the policies are considered to be of great value in course of
reshaping the socio-political life in US. In this context, the aftermath of the Civil War was
identified as the inception of a liberation for not only slavery but also it had direct impact to the
racial discrimination and the rights of the women. Therefore, it can be argued that the aftermath
of the Civil War in 1861 had immense significance in course of studying the history of America.
In this regard, the purpose of this essay is to deliver a better understanding of the American
movements from 1865 to 1930s and points out the driving factors to change the American
society extensively.
Abolition of slavery was identified as one of the best part in the history of America.
According to Sanso-Navarro, Sanz and Vera-Cabello (2015) the abolition of slavery was an
outcome of the Civil War, initiated in the year of 1861. It can be stated that the leading Republic
Party was strongly against the practice of slavery, still existed in the Southern part of the country.
Abraham Lincoln detested slavery and intended to abolish the practice in order to solidify the
equal rights of all the citizens. Moreover, at that time the vision was to create a Confederate
States of America that required the annexation of Southern part into the fold. Moreover, through
the research of college.cengage.com. (2019) it can be seen that the slaves of the Southern
territory also participated into the purpose to earn their rights as the citizens of America. As a
result of that the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in America permanently.
In addition to this, it can be stated that the role of the Northern government was not
limited to abolish slavery only. In this regard, the 14th Amendment provided the citizenship rights
to the former slaves and as a result of that it became an important step to establish the equal
rights for the people. According to West (2014) abolishing slavery was not the end of the
government initiatives to stop helping the former slaves. Incorporating them into the mainstream

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society was also considered to be one of the important task that the government envisioned for a
better environment for all the citizens including the slaves. As a result of that the 14th
Amendment in 1868 tried to give citizenship rights to all persons who born or naturalised in
United States including the slaves. Furthermore, to procure more rights for the former slaves the
new Republican government started to provide the right to vote for the male slaves in 15th
Amendment of 1870s.
As a matter of fact, the practice of gender discrimination was still existed in the American
society where women got limited access to the rights and privileges. However, the fight for
safeguarding women’s right was initiated in the early half of 1860s (Schultz, 2018). The first
strike was hit by the Working Women’s Protective Union in New York City with the purpose to
create some effective measure for the benefit of the women workers. At the same year, the
National Labour Union started supporting equal pay for equal work. As a result of that it was
identified as the cornerstone to build equal rights for the women colleagues. Based on the article
of Iversen (2014) it can be argued that the role of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union
(WCTU) was highly significant. Founded in the year 1873, the organisation started reforming the
position of the women in society through encourage them for higher education and professional
possibilities. As a result of all such measure in the year 1920 the American women got their right
to vote which was considered to be one of the major stands in the history of social transformation
in United States (Morris, 20177).
From this discussion, it can be argued that the role of the government and the political
movements since 1860s up to 1930s had a great and significant impact on the American society
where the social cohesion and issues regarding gender discrimination or slavery had been

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eradicated. Therefore, it can be concluded that the role of movements and protests in the
American society led to the phase of modernity incorporating new and liberal approaches.

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Reference
college.cengage.com. (2019). Black Testimony on the Aftermath of Enslavement. Retrieved
from http://college.cengage.com/history/wadsworth_9781133309888/unprotected/ps/
black_testimony.htm
Iversen, J. S. (2014). The Antipolygamy Controversy in US Women's Movements, 1880-1925: A
Debate on the American Home. Routledge.
Morris. K. (2017). “More reputation than she deserves”. Remembering Suffrage in Wyoming.
http://libdatab.strayer.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=a9h&AN=*******98&site=eds-live&scope=site Johnson, J. M. (2015).
Following the Money: Wealthy Women, Feminism, and the American Suffrage
Movement. Journal of Women's History, 27(4), 62-87.
Sanso-Navarro, M., Sanz, F., & Vera-Cabello, M. (2015). The impact of the American Civil War
on city growth. Urban Studies, 52(16), 3070-3085.
Schultz, K. M. (2018). U.S. History since 1865, HIST, 2(5)
West, B. (2014). Historical re-enacting and affective authority: Performing the American Civil
War. Annals of Leisure Research, 17(2), 161-179.