Reconstruction

Reconstructing the Union

Toward the end of the Civil War, Congress passed, and the states not in rebellion ratified, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which officially abolished the institution of slavery. After the war ended, as the federal government worked to bring the Southern states back into the union, the experience of slavery and the place of newly freed slaves and all African Americans became the most significant issues of the time. The massive number of free blacks in the South created a social and political problem for a society that had long assumed those individuals would forever be slaves, separate from and subservient to the white race. While the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, it said nothing about the political or legal status of the newly freed blacks.

In 1865, many Southern states reorganized and created new state constitutions. These constitutions established legal regulations known as “Black Codes,” which deprived freed blacks of political, social, and civil rights. For example, the Mississippi Black Code of 1865, which served as a model for other Black Codes, provided for a system of apprenticeship and vagrancy laws that essentially re-created a slave system. Black citizens found without employment could be fined $50, and when unable to pay, they could be forced to work for anyone who paid their fine. Black apprentices could not leave their “masters” or be enticed away, and those who tried to leave could be made to work for an employer for a designated period. With such laws, Southern states meant to maintain their system of black subservience to white power, despite the Thirteenth Amendment and the victory of the North in the Civil War.

Northern Republicans in Congress argued that these policies were contrary to the principles expressed by the Constitution and embodied in the words and ideas of slain President Lincoln. President Andrew Johnson, who assumed office in April 1865 following Lincoln's assassination, preferred lenient policies toward the Southern states and cared little about the rights of the newly freed slaves.

Presidential and Congressional Reconstruction

Two views of Reconstruction developed after the Civil War. Presidential Reconstruction favored amnesty for former Confederate officials if they swore allegiance to the Union, and it advocated limited civil, social, and political rights for the freedmen. Congressional Reconstruction, on the other hand, called for limited involvement by former Confederate officials, often excluding them from all political rights, including the right to vote or hold public office. Congressional Reconstruction empowered the Freedmen's Bureau, a government agency that had been established during the war to assist newly freed slaves, to confiscate former Confederate land holdings and distribute “forty acres and a mule” to every newly freed male slave as a way to provide economic independence.

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