The end of the Civil War brought many changes to the United States. The
reconstruction period changed some things, but barely had an impact on social equality
and political dismay. The government however, started black suffrage, but it did not help
to remake the south or to gaurntee human rights. After the civil war, many important
With the assassination of Lincoln, Andrew Johnson became president, and started
the reconstruction of the south. Unlike Lincoln's plan, Johnson pardoned rebel leaders
and gave them high ranking positions in office. While Johnson was in office, he created
the black codes. The black codes were just revised slave codes, with the word freedman,
taking place of the word slave. New laws were made as well, to restrict blacks, they
include having to carry passes, observing curfews, and to give up hope of ever
entering a desirable position. Northern congressmen weren't too pleased with Johnson's
actions, so they decided to look into his plan a little deeper. The ending result being
congress playing an active roll in the reconstruction of the south.
With congress now in charge of the reconstruction, they made a few changes.
They added the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendment. The fourteenth gave citizenship to
all freedmen, and the fifteenth added in 1869 gave men the right to vote, regardless of
race, color, or previous servitude. They also added the reconstruction act of 1867, which
divided the south into 5 military districts, and to join back into the union, they had to
have congressional approval of the new state constitutions, and they had to accept the
Fourteenth Amendment. Though faced with strict rules to rejoin the union, many
southerners resisted the reconstruction. Some prevented from freeing their slaves, while
others denied giving them land. Southerners hated the "carpetbaggers," which was the
slang term they used for northerners s...