The Congressional Reconstruction Period

Reconstruction is during which the United States began to rebuild the Southern society after they lost to the civil war. It lasted from 1865 to 1877, and it was initiated by President Lincoln until his assassination in 1865. President Johnson continued Lincoln’s agenda to continue the Reconstruction. Throughout the process of Reconstruction, one of its main purpose was to guarantees for equal rights for all people, especially for the African Americans. Even though slavery was abolished after the civil war, many Southerners were still against the idea of equal rights for all black people, such as the Republicans.

Reconstruction Era: Congressional Reconstruction During the Reconstruction Era President Abraham Lincoln introduced the “10 percent plan”. Abraham Lincoln’s plan included allowing Confederate states to rejoin the union once 10 percent of the people swore an oath of loyalty. His plan also included for states to formalize the 13th Amendment to eradicate slavery. Radical Republicans led by Thaddeus Stevens thought that the Reconstruction Plan that was put forth by Abraham Lincolns was too lenient on the Confederate States.

A few days after the civil War ended, President Lincoln was assassinated and never had the chance to implement his Reconstruction plan.   The Reconstruction Era occurred in the period of 1865 to 1877 under the reign of President Andrew Johnson who was the predecessor of President Lincoln.  Congress was not scheduled to convene until December 1865, which gave Johnson eight months to pursue his own Reconstruction policies. Under his Reconstruction policies, the former Confederate states were required to join back into the Union and heal the wounds of the nation.

Presidential and Congressional Reconstruction: After the war had ended the North needed to take the task of reconstruction of the south. Even before the war had ended Lincoln issued the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction in 1863. This was an oath that southerners had to take which said “Southerners could be pardoned and reinstated as U.S. citizens if they took an oath of allegiance to the Constitution and the Union and pledged to abide by emancipation.

During the Reconstruction Era of the United States, many influential people played a huge role in the nation's ability to regenerate. President Abraham Lincoln, foresaw all of the damage done due to the Civil War. Although the damage had already been done, the accomplishment of the abolishment of slavery was established. Lincoln, had a strong desire to change the country, he did this by announcing his plans for the Reconstruction Era. Through this, he developed the Ten Percent Plan, which stated that a southern state could be readmitted into the union once ten percent of the voters agreed.

The period of Reconstruction can be described as the period after the Civil War in which the states formerly part of the Confederacy were brought back into the United States. The period of Reconstruction began in 1865 shortly after President Lincoln's reelection, and came to an end in 1877 when President Hayes withdrew the last federal troops from the South and the Republican government collapsed. While reuniting the Union, Reconstruction sought to enhance Black rights and freedoms in order to establish a truly free country after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, and the Thirteenth Amendment which was ratified in 1865. However, despite these important new Constitutional rights and protections for the freed African Americans, the promise

Sources Analysis Freedom During the Reconstruction era, the idea of freedom could have many different meanings. Everyday factors that we don't often think about today such as the color of our skin, where we were born, and whether or not we own land determined what limitations were placed on the ability to live our life to the fullest. To dig deeper into what freedom meant for different individuals during this time period, I analyzed three primary sources written by those who experienced this first hand. These included “Excerpts from The Black Codes of Mississippi” (1865), “Jourdan Anderson to his old master” (1865), and “Testimony on the Ku Klux Klan in Congressional Hearing” (1872).

Hello, Robert~~ Good post this week. The Union won the Civil War, which gave liberty to be some 4 million slaves, but African Americans are facing new obstacles and negative attacks while from 1865 to 1877 as called the Reconstruction era.” The 13th Amendment officially revised by the issue of late 1865, prohibits the institution of slavery, before and after the South African liberation 'state was still many unresolved. Restrictive nature of the Code and a wide range of black resistance to enforcement is a lot of anger at the North, claims that it violates the fundamental principles of free labor ideology code (Black Codes, 2010).

Reconstruction was a period of time dedicated to rebuilding the nation after the Civil War. The war ended with the South being defeated and their economy being devastated. Many Southerners struggled after the war with rebuilding their land and lives. The President and Congress had to decide the terms for which the former Confederate states would be permitted to join the Union. President Lincoln’s plan for reuniting the country was found in the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction.

24 November 2015 The Real Death of Reconstruction There is no easy way to decide who can be held accountable for the end of the Reconstruction Era. Attempts to rebuild the South ceased to exist in 1877, just over ten years after the Confederacy surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant in Appomattox Court House, Virginia. It seemed as though everything was on the right track in 1876, the one hundred year anniversary of The United States. That was, however, until the South waged conflict against black and white citizens of The United States.

The Reconstruction era ending was among the years of 1873 to 1877 under the leadership of Lincoln, Johnson, Grant, and Hayes. There were a few main events that ended the Reconstruction era, one of these being the change from Republican power to Democratic power of the House. A depression in the economy was intense throughout the country in 1873. Focus turned away from the south, northern voters became less captivated in the Reconstruction of the south and more focused on the economy in the north.

The American civil war led to the reunion of the South and the North. But, its consequences led the Republicans to take the lead of reconstructing what the war had destroyed especially in the South because it contained larger numbers of newly freed slaves. Just after the civil war, America entered into what was called as the reconstruction era. Reconstruction refers to when “the federal government established the terms on which rebellious Southern states would be integrated back into the Union” (Watts 246). As a further matter, it also meant “the process of helping the 4 million freed slaves after the civil war [to] make the transition to freedom” (DeFord and Schwarz 96).

After the Union won the major battles that is when Lincoln had put the ten percent plan on the table, this plan was when ten percent of the state’s eligible voters pledge oath to US then they could join the Union. To begin with, there are a few reasons why one would say that reconstruction in the south was a failure. One of these reasons being that, even after the civil war in the South’s government passed laws to limit the rights of the free African Americans. In document C we can see this is evident where it states “No negro or freedmen shall be allowed to come within the limits of the town of Opelousas without special permission of his employers. Whoever breaks this law will go to jail and work for two days on the public streets, or pay a fine of five dollars.”

The Reconstruction period lasted from 1865 to 1877. The thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendment were created during the twelve years of rebuilding the country. All of the amendments were made to protect former slaves and their rights but on paper they did not have any rights. The reconstruction period had its successes and failures.

One system that was put into effect was the Reconstruction. Although, some say it was a failure, there has been some research that labels it a success. The Reconstruction period began in 1865, after the Civil War ended. President Lincoln and many congressional leaders began to puzzle over how to restore the people of the South into the Union, which would welcome the “10 percent plan” or in other words, a blueprint for the Reconstruction.