When John Wilkes Booth fired the fatal round that ended Abraham Lincoln 's life the course of American Reconstruction was forever and unequivocally changed. Andrew Johnson, Lincoln’s vice president, an unabashed white supremacists took the reigns of the leading the Union out of Civil War years. This executive leadership along with federal law that would not be enforced at a state level coupled with the former confederate leaders maintaining power led to the large scale negative impact of Reconstruction on African American civil rights and race relations. Furthermore African Americans would not be better off post Civil War.
As the smoke from the various battles of the Civil war cleared, Americans were faced with the difficulties of bringing …show more content…
Political power rested in the population of white, southern landowners and legislation reflected this. The above mentioned order by General Sherman was negated by President Johnson as he pardoned most of the owners of the land that the General had seized. Also, Henry McNeal Tanner was expelled, along with any other black men from the Georgia State Legislator when whites won controle. Laws were passed that kept many freed slaves in a system of employment that was little better than slavery. Sharecropping evolved from the previous contract labor system that immediately followed slavery but in the end sharecropping very much resembled slavery. Other, social freedoms were quickly restricted, such as the right for men to vote. Often times numerous technicalities were placed upon voting regulations that it severely limited the ability of the ex-slave population to be able to actually cast their vote. Poll taxes, literacy tests, and voter intimidation became common practices in the South. Many reprieves that came shortly after the end of the Civil War, ended up being temporary as political power still remained in the hands of those who fought for the
As the smoke from the various battles of the Civil war cleared, Americans were faced with the difficulties of bringing …show more content…
Political power rested in the population of white, southern landowners and legislation reflected this. The above mentioned order by General Sherman was negated by President Johnson as he pardoned most of the owners of the land that the General had seized. Also, Henry McNeal Tanner was expelled, along with any other black men from the Georgia State Legislator when whites won controle. Laws were passed that kept many freed slaves in a system of employment that was little better than slavery. Sharecropping evolved from the previous contract labor system that immediately followed slavery but in the end sharecropping very much resembled slavery. Other, social freedoms were quickly restricted, such as the right for men to vote. Often times numerous technicalities were placed upon voting regulations that it severely limited the ability of the ex-slave population to be able to actually cast their vote. Poll taxes, literacy tests, and voter intimidation became common practices in the South. Many reprieves that came shortly after the end of the Civil War, ended up being temporary as political power still remained in the hands of those who fought for the