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Reconstruction Dbq

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The Reconstruction, one of the roughest and controversial era in American history, took place after the Civil War between 1865 and 1877. This began the process of bringing the Nation back together and giving former slaves equals rights by three new Constitutional amendments. From the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, Lincoln’s goal was the restoration of the Confederate states to the Union. In 1863, Lincoln proposed the Ten Percent Plan that granted amnesty to those Confederate states which swore an oath of allegiance to the Union. It would have given a general pardon to all southerners excluding high-ranking Confederate army officers and government officials. The plan required 10% of the voting population to take the oath and the abolition …show more content…

They were often called carpetbaggers because sometimes they carried their belongings in luggage called carpetbags. The carpetbaggers were welcomed at first, as southerners had the urgency for northern investment to get the devastated South back on its feet. The northerners became unpleasant to be with, as many southerners saw them low-class and greedy immigrants trying to get rich off of their troubles. Though some carpetbaggers undoubtedly lived up to their reputation as opportunists, many were inclined by an honest desire for reform and concern for the civil and political rights of freed …show more content…

Andrew Johnson had only been vice-president for 42 days when he became president. He seemed supportive of the penal measures against the Confederates in the past, believing that they were to blame for the Civil War. However, Johnson was even more lenient to the Confederates even pardoning leaders and members. He was constantly clashing with the Radicals in the Congress solely on the status of the freed slaves and whites in the South. Many former Confederates were in denial to accepting both social changes and political domination by former slaves. The planter elite were afraid of their lost land, but were assured by Johnson that land redistribution from the planters to the freed slaves did not happen. He ordered that confiscated or abandoned lands controlled by the Freedmen's Bureau would not be redistributed to the free slaves but to be returned to pardoned

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