Reconstruction Reconstruction is the process of putting a broken system back together again. There were initially three major phases of Reconstruction. The first phase was the Presidential Reconstruction, this phases lasted until about 1866. The second phase is known as the Congressional, this phase lasted from 1867 to 1877. The last phase is the Radical Reconstruction or it is also known als the Military Reconstructon. In the first phase Andrew Johnson announced his plans for reconstruction, this was known as the Presidential Reconstruction phase. Johnson wanted to eliminate most of the Confederates out of politics. He believed that the regular southerners would control postwar South. One of the main problems of this Reconstruction …show more content…
Congress eventually passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867, this act temporarily divided the South into five military districts and this outlined how governments that were based on universal male sufferage were to be organized. This law also required the southern states to ratify the 14th Amendment, this expanded the definition of citizenship and initially granted “equal protection” to former slaves, before they could join the Union. This was apart of the Radical Reconstruction or some call it Congressional Reconstruction. This plan was to punish the South for causing the Civil …show more content…
This would initially keep southerners from revoking the laws if they ever happened to win control of Congress. In June of 1866, Congress proposed the Fourteenth Amendment. The Fourteenth Amendment acknowledges federal and state citizenship for persons born in the United States. It forbade any state to lessen the “privileges and immunities” of citizenship, which targeted a section in the Black Codes. It forbid any state to strip any person of life, liberty, or property without “due process of law.” It outlawed any state to deny any person “the equal protection of the laws.” It eliminated former Confederates from holding federal and state office. It also reduced the representation of a state in Congress and the Electoral College if it denied blacks voting rights. Finally it guaranteed the federal debt, while turning away all Confederate