In the words of President Abraham Lincoln during his Gettysburg Address (Doc. A), the Civil War itself, gave to our Nation, “a new birth of freedom”. The Civil War had ended and the South was in rack and ruin. Bodies of Confederate soldiers lay lifeless on the grounds they fought so hard to protect. Entire plantations that once graced the South were merely smoldering ash. The end of the Civil War and the abolishment of slavery, stirred together issues and dilemmas that Americans, in the North and South, had to process, in hopes of finding the true meaning of freedom. Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States during the beginning era of Reconstruction, had plans to free slaves and grant them freedoms like never before. In 1863, before …show more content…
Although former slaves were allowed to attend schools, some whites believed that they were not as capable of learning as the white man. Robert E. Lee, in an interview before Joint Committee on Reconstruction (Doc. B) answered a question on the black mans capability to learn. He stated, “I do not think that he is as capable of acquiring knowledge as the white man is”. But, long denied the right to learn, many African-Americans, both young and old, took advantage of teachers willing to set up schools to teach former slaves. Many former slaves then ran for and were elected to public office. Former slaves were not without white allies though. Albion Tourgee, a pioneer civil rights activist, in his speech at Lake Mohonk Conference on the Negro Question (Doc D), presented the only equalitarian position, lobbying for federal aid to education and denouncing white racism. Many freedmen, without an education, found themselves struggling with new forms of bondage: sharecropping and terror. Sharecropping allowed former slave some feeling of self-worth, however, their ultimate goal was to become land owners. Many blacks would rent land from their former masters, thus keeping them indebted to the white landowners. Henry Black recounts his days as a slave as well as a sharecropper in Henry Black & the Federal Writer’s Project. (Doc. F) He tells of rules still …show more content…
It ended too soon to complete the transformation of the South. The cause was forfeited not by Republicans, who welcomed the African-American votes, but to the elite North who had concluded that the formal end of slavery was all the freed man needed and their unpreparedness for the ex-slaves to participate in the Southern commonwealth was evident. Racism, severe economic depression, an exhausted North and troubled South, and a campaign of organized violence toward the freed man, overturned Reconstruction. The North withdrew the last of the federal troops with the passing of The Compromise of 1877. The freed slaves continued to practice few voting rights until 1890, but they were soon stripped of all political, social and economic powers. Not until the civil rights movement in the 1950’s and 1960’s were the freedoms that were fought for by our Republican forefathers nearly 100 years before, finally seen through to
Abraham Lincoln is known as the President who helped to free the slaves, lead the Union to victory over the confederates in the American Civil War, preserve the union of the United States and modernize the economy. The Emancipation Proclamation, issued through Presidential constitutional authority on January 1st, 1863, declared that all slaves in the ten remaining slave states were to be liberated and remain liberated. The Emancipation Proclamation freed between three and four million slaves, however, since it was a Presidential constitutional authority and not though congress, the Emancipation Proclamation failed to free slaves in Border States like Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri. Essentially, states that were under Federal Government and loyal to the Union did not have their slaves liberated; Lincoln even stating “When it took effect in January 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation freed 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves.” Some argue Lincoln issued this Proclamation in an attempt to satisfy the demands of Radical Republicans, members of a group within the Republican Party. Radical Republicans were a group of politicians who strongly...
Readmission to the union was a dividing factor between Republicans in politics. Lincoln advocated for the "Ten Percent Plan". This demanded that only ten percent of voters in a state take an oath to uphold the values presented in the constitution in order to rejoin the union. Lincoln would then pardon all but Confederate government figures and rights of citizenship would be readmitted. Radical Republicans opposed this plan, claiming that it was too lenient. They then passed the Wade Davis Bill. This bill required that a majority of the population take an oath stating that they had never supported the Confederacy. The Wade Davis Bill also required more rights for freedmen including the right to vote, hold office, own property and testify in court. Lincoln, wanting an easy transition into a unified country, used a pocket veto so he could continue with his plan. Lamentably, Lincoln was assassinated months after his decision and his successor, Andrew Johnson, took on the role of president. Johnson, having grown up in a poor southern household, sympathized with the south yet, abhorred the planter class. In his Reconstruction plan he issued a blanket pardon to all southerners except important confederate figures who would have to personally meet with the pres...
Reconstruction efforts were paralyzed by the Republicans after the death of Lincoln. The Republicans were many capitalists originating the North. Their actions were principally geared towards overthrowing the black leadership in South and retain the white sovereignty that existed before. The Southern whites did not defend the blacks instead backed the northern capitalists in the mission of transforming black government in South to White state (Foner Par
His idea was known as the ten percent plan in which ten percent of a states qualified voter would take a loyalty oath to be readmitted into the Union. This would allow the south to get back into the main stream and find some solutions to its many problems. Unfortunately for Lincoln and unfortunately for America, Lincoln would be assainated only one month after the south surrendered. This presented America with one more hurdle to overcome, and that hurdle was to initially be jumped by the newly appointed President Johnson.
After the Civil War, America went through a period of Reconstruction. This was when former Confederate states were readmitted to the Union. Lincoln had a plan that would allow them to come back, but they wouldn’t be able to do it easily. He would make 10% of the population swear an oath of loyalty and establish a government to be recognized. However, he was assassinated in Ford’s Theater and Andrew Johnson became the president; Johnson provided an easy path for Southerners. Congress did their best to ensure equal rights to freedmen, but failed because of groups who were against Reconstruction, white southern Democrats gaining control within the government and the lack of having a plan in place for recently freedmen.
Reconstruction was needed and the period following the civil war, the reconstruction period, fostered many significant results and achievements especially for Constitutional amendments. While mending a broken country, the reconstruction period still left many fresh wounds. There was great successes and championships for former slaves and the blacks rights, but their was still lingering thoughts and acts of discrimination towards these groups. Reconstruction produced three amendments defending the people 's rights, yet discrimination towards blacks was peeking to new heights. Laws were not enough to change the hearts and minds of the people, which was at the core of the issue. With the unfortunate loss of the nation’s leader, it would be almost a hundred years later until America had leaders strong enough, in the nineteen sixties, that could change the ideas of racism and
After the Civil War, the victorious Union enacted a policy of Reconstruction in the former Confederate states. Reconstruction was aimed at creating as smooth a transition as possible for the southern states to re-enter the Union as well as enacting economic and social changes. However, several factors brought about its failure, and as a result the consequences can be seen in the race problems we still have today. In 1862, President Lincoln had appointed temporary military governors to re-establish functional governments in occupied southern states. In order for a state to be allowed to re-enter the Union, it had to meet the criteria, which was established to be that at least 10 percent of the voting population polled in 1860 must denounce the Confederacy and swear allegiance to the Union again. However this was not good enough for Congress, which at the time was dominated by Radical Republicans who fervently called for social and economic change in the south, specifically the rights of blacks. They were especially concerned with guaranteeing black civil and voting rights, and criticized Lincoln for excluding this in the original plan for Reconstruction.
After the Civil War, the South needed to rejoin the North to become a United States. President Abraham Lincoln was very lenient with the idea of restoring the states with the Union. He developed a plan called the Ten-Percent Plan, which proclaimed that ten percent of the southern states’ population needed to pledge to be loyal to the United States. After Lincoln’s assassination, President Andrew Johnson took over. He was much more lenient towards the South than Lincoln was, giving the South the right to regulate their actions. For example, African Americans could be controlled, but still couldn’t be bought nor sold. Slavery technically ended, but the new sharecropper sy...
In 1860, Lincoln favored an indulgent Reconstruction policy. He strongly believed that Southern Unionists, also former Whigs, could become focused of new, loyal state governments in the South. His Reconstruction plan, according to his announcement on December 1863, offered a general pardon to white Southerners who would initiate to the assurance of allegiance to the government and accept abolition of slavery. His plan also offered an extension of African American suffrage who were educated, owned property, or who
During the year of 1865, after the North’s victory in the Civil War, the Republican Party began to pass national legislation in order to secure free blacks’ rights.
America faced many problems after the civil war, including the political re-entry of the formerly rebellious states, how to revive the economy of the South, and how to support the 4 million freed slaves. In the beginning of reconstruction, Lincoln believed it was his responsibility to solve these problems. He came up with the 10% plan; this plan entitled amnesty to the Confederates by taking an oath and if 10% or more took the oath than statehood would be re-established. This
The Union victory after the Civil War in 1865 gave 4 million slaves their freedom, but rebuilding the South during the Reconstruction (1865-1877) created new obstacles for African Americans. Under the Presidency of Andrew Johnson in 1865 and 1866, the southern states passed ‘black codes’ to control the labour and behaviour of former slaves and other African Americans. Opposition in the North over these codes decreased support for the Presidential Reconstruction and led to the triumph of the more radical wing of the Republican Party. During Radical Reconstruction, which began in 1867, newly freed African Americans gained a voice in government for the first time in American history, winning election to southern state legislatures and even the
The main points in his plan were “1- A general amnesty would be granted to all who would take an oath of loyalty to the United States and pledge to obey all federal laws pertaining to slavery. 2- High Confederate officials and military leaders were to be temporarily excluded from the process. 3- When one tenth of the number of voters who had participated in the 1860 election had taken the oath within a particular state, then that state could launch a new government and elect representatives to Congress” (United States History). Congress wanted the south to be punished and they rejected any representatives that were from the south. Lincoln’s plan was based more on equality and he didn’t focus enough on how the people were currently feeling about the situation and each other. Andrew Jackson had a plan similar to Lincoln’s and Congress also refused to house representatives from the south under his
Because Lincoln believed that the South had never legitimately separate from the Union, his plan for Reconstruction was established on forgiveness. Lincoln announced the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction in 1863, to reveal his motive to reunite the once reunited states. Lincoln anticipated that the proclamation would
During the Reconstruction period, the political power of freedmen changed quite often. The most obvious example would be the 14th and 15th amendments passed by the governments. The 15th amendment gave black men the right to vote but this amendment was later undermined by other other policies, mainly in the south. The people in the South didn’t want to give blacks the right to vote so they did everything they could to prevent it. They first created a poll tax which required everyone who wanted to vote to pay $2. They wanted to make it too expensive for black people, who at the time made about $50 a year so they hard a hard time affording the tax. The Southerners then created the literacy test which required voters to take a test proving that they could read. Most black people couldn’t read at all because they didn’t have a good education system. Some black people paid the tax and pass the test which didn’t make the Southerners happy so they created the Grandfather Clause which didn’t allow people to vote if their father or grandfather couldn’t vote before 1867. This completely stopped any black person from voting because the 15th amendment was only passed in 1870 so now no black people were allowed to vote. The 14th amendment gave protection to freedmen with equal rights. This was misinterpreted and ending up hurting the freedmen. This can be shown with the Plessy vs. Ferguson Supreme court