Civil War Reconstruction

The period after the Civil War was a very difficult time in the United States’ history. This time was known as the Reconstruction period and it was a very controversial time. There were many issues that had to be addressed such as what to do with the free blacks in the south and how states would be readmitted to the Union. This era saw the rise of the Radical Republicans. The government was going through changes, southerners were going through changes, and blacks were going through changes. Whites in the south were left without people to work their plantations. Slavery was indeed a very important topic during this time. Many of the reconstruction plans that were proposed required states to prohibit slavery in order to be readmitted to the Union.

When the Civil War ended in 1865, there was no definite plan for reconstructing the Union. This was a very serious matter. President Lincoln had begun thinking about this while he was in office. In 1863 he proposed his Ten Percent Plan. This policy would allow seceding states to return to the Union if ten percent of their prewar voters took an oath of loyalty to the Union and if the state would prohibit slavery. Although the plan forced states to prohibit slavery it did not force them to grant equal rights to blacks. The Ten Percent Plan was a good idea but some Republicans felt that it was not strict enough. This paved the way for the Wade-Davis Bill. This bill required the majority of a state’s prewar voters to pledge loyalty to the Union and that blacks were seen as equal in the eyes of the law. These plans led to controversy. Some people felt that because the constitution never mentioned succession, the states never actually seceded the Union so they didn’t need to be formally readmitted. Others felt that the states from the South had given up their rights once they left the Union so they must be readmitted.

Upon the close of the Civil War, Congress was not in session. They would not meet again until December. This left the burden of developing a reconstruction plan on the shoulders of President Andrew Johnson. So in May of 1865 Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan was unveiled. Under this plan, Johnson gave pardons and restored property rights to former white landowners if they pledged loyalty to the Union and the Constitution....

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...win Stanton. President Johnson was tried for impeachment but the Senate could not convict him.

During this time many things were done to help free blacks in the South. The thirteenth amendment prohibited slavery. The Freedmen’s Bureau was created to assist blacks with things such as education and finding homes. The Homestead Act which gave blacks preferential treatment to get public land in the south. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 defined what civil rights were entitled to citizens. The fourteenth amendment which prohibited states from violating the rights of their citizens. The fifteenth amendment which guaranteed every male citizen the right to vote regardless of race. Although the government did all these things to help the black man, it was still tough living in this era. The Ku Klux Klan were at the height of their power. If was hard for blacks to farm because they could not get supplies on credit. There were not many opportunities for free blacks other than work for very small wages on a white persons farm or move to the city and work in a factory. This is what led to the migration of blacks from the farms to the cities and from south to north.