At the time of the writing of the major documents of the United States, the foundations were laid that would eventually be further built upon during the Reconstruction Era. The dark times of the Reconstruction were grisly and both dangerous for many. However, the years following the Civil-War would lead to a more free union and eventually the constitutional protection of the most basic rights for whites as well as blacks. The immediate precedent that had to be set came directly after the end of the Civil War. It came at the hands of the sixteenth president of the United Sates, Abraham Lincoln. His Emancipation Proclamation freed blacks in the fractured states and laid the groundwork of black freedom for all of the Union. Even though this freedom