Reconstruction of the United States after the Civil War
The Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 freed African Americans in rebel states, and after the Civil War, the Thirteenth Amendment emancipated all U.S. slaves wherever they were. As a result of this free African Americans faced the problem of hostile whites around them preventing them to prosper. Despite the defeat of the Confederacy the nation was still unprepared to deal with the question of full citizenship for its newly freed black population. The Reconstruction was the time after the Civil War (1865-1877) when the United States was reorganizing the southern states and providing the means to accepting them back to the Union. Also to define how whites and blacks could live together, peacefully. These two major problems were placed on the weight of the soldiers of Andrew Johnson. Johnson became president after Abraham Lincoln. He was born in to a poor family, so he taught himself how to read and married a wife who taught him how to write. Before his presidency, he was the only senator from a confederate state to remain loyal to the Union. He hated wealthy slave owners. Before Abraham Lincoln's assassination, he made it clear that he wanted a lenient Reconstruction plan. In December 1863, he announced his Proclamation of Amnest
The Radicals wanted to punish the South for the Civil War and wanted to protect the rights of the newly freed slaves by passing a number of laws, establishing government agencies, and enforcing reconstruction policies with martial law in the South So in 1866, moderates and Radicals overrode the president's vetoes of the Civil Rights and Freedmen's Bureau acts. Lincoln wanted to let plantation owners keep their property, rather than divide up plantation property and give the land to former slaves. This forbids a state from denying the vote to anyone because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. In July 1864, the Radicals responded to the Ten-Percent Plan by passing the Wade-Davis Bill. " One more important step needed to be taken before African Americans could fully participate in American society: they needed the right to vote. y which is also known as the Ten-Percent Plan. The Radical Republicans were led by Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts and Representative Thaddeus Stevens. Johnson was found "not guilty", but his reputation and influence were damaged for the remainder of his term. Lincoln's Reconstruction plan was designed to make an easy, peaceful reentry of the former Confederate states into the Union. Lincoln's plan would let white southerners control the reconstruction process. In 1868, Congress impeached Johnson for violating the Tenure of Office Act, a law which Congress passed to prevent Johnson from firing members of his own cabinet without Congressional approval. It also stated that for a new state government to be formed, a majority of the vote should be recognized not only ten percent. Lincoln's plan was carried out by President Andrew Johnson. These states could only be readmitted back into the Union under three conditions: 1) each state declare its secession illegal 2) swear allegiance to the Union 3) ratify the 13th amendmentJohnson's plan was not very different from Lincoln's. One of the laws passed was Freedmen's Bureau which helped former slaves and poor whites in the south by giving them food, hospitals, teacher training, and setting up hospitals and grammar schools.
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Acceptance Essays
