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Reconstruction Policy after the Civil War Essay

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Post-civil war the torn nation juggles wide ranges of emotions as they attempt to piece together the shattered unity but didn’t know how to go about doing so. President Lincoln had great plans for the reconstruction but was killed before he could put them into action. He was murdered by John Booth at Ford Theater and passed the next morning. Lincoln’s Vice-president, Andrew Johnson, took over and became the new president. Johnson and Congress argued about how to go about the reconstruction and in the end Congress enacted their own laws and amendments that strengthened the federal government. Freedmen weren’t truly free after the Civil war ended, free in name only. Ex-Confederates were less than the Northerners and didn’t get the rights…show more content…
Unfortunately harsh methods used by the government, if anything, slowed the integration of the south. The south wouldn’t want to pledge their loyalty to people that treated them like the dirt stuck to the bottom of their shoes. Lincoln seemed to realize and was eager to provide a simple but effective solution and the 10% plan was born. The Freedmen of the United States weren’t truly free. Freedmen was a title only and did nothing to guarantee the treatment of former slaves when they stepped out into the world of a free man. African Americans were looked down upon, not property anymore but as less than human. The end of the civil war bought about the end of slavery and the beginning of “equality”. To properly integrate the freedmen jobs, homes, and small amounts of property should have been shared with them. Mixing African Americans and whites would have strengthened the presence of both, something that neither side should try to deny. With the end of the Civil War slaves were free but such an action was impossible to accept right away. Ex-slaves were overjoyed at their newfound freedom but were quickly shot down when they realized that freedom was something they didn’t yet have. Integration of blacks would take much more than a law against slavery, blacks being looked upon as property was deeply ingrained into society and was something they couldn’t just stop. Integration shouldn’t have been handled in such a passive manner but with actual effort that
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