Essay On The Period Of Reconstruction

Reconstruction was a significant period of the American history that rebuilt the United States during the end of the 19th century. After the Civil War ended, this challenge was brought into the country to rebuild especially the significant problems in the South, such as slavery and rights. During the period of Reconstruction, there were divided into two presidential periods: President Abraham Lincoln and President Andrew Johnson. These two influential persons had the same purpose, which involved with restoring the South into the Union, but different thoughts and actions. Reconstruction did not only rebuild the United States, but it also brought intense struggles that led to the power of government, individual rights, and race relations in a long-term. As Lincoln’s speech during the Civil War, people had …show more content…
In contrast Lincoln’s purpose, Johnson was “openly hostile to former slaves and deeply skeptical of radical plans to provide freemen with political rights” and these freemen were only white people (Gillon, pg.574). During the year of 1865, Johnson decided to execute his own plan about restoration. He ratified The Thirteenth Amendment and declared that “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime…, shall exist within the United States” (Gillon, pg.574). His plan and policy seemed to be supported by the southern leaders, but in the reality, they did not. They passed new laws Black Codes to restrict the economic opportunities of freemen and prevent former slaves from leaving plantations. And some states tried to limit African Americans’ peace, including owning land. In these laws, “[l]ocal officials who caught freemen off plantation without a current labor contract…arrested and charged them with vagrancy, a crime that carried a fine, imprisonment, or involuntary servitude” (Gillon,