Reconstruction (jun 16, 1865 – oct 24, 1877)
Description:
Reconstruction refers to the time period during which the US attempted to rebuild after the devastation of the Civil War and readmit the states of the Confederacy into the Union. Reconstruction, unfortunately, was not as effective or efficient as it could have been, because Lincoln, Johnson, and Congress all had separate ideas about how to reintegrate the South into the North. Lincoln preferred a more lenient approach, announcing his Ten-Percent Plan in 1863. This plan decided that all Confederates would announce their allegiance to the Union, except for high-ranking officers and those accused of crimes against prisoners of war. If ten percent of Confederates within a state pledged allegiance, that state would be permitted into the Union. Johnson, Lincoln's successor as President, advocated for preventing high-ranking Confederate officers and wealthy landowning elites from being able to vote, but at the same time believed that whites should run the Southern states. Congress drafted the Fourteenth Amendment, which stated that all US citizens cannot be denied any rights or privileges, and passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867, which divided the South into five military districts and required states to ratify the 14th Amendment and allowed African American men the right to vote in order to reenter the US. There were some successes of Reconstruction that improved the quality of life for African Americans, but extreme hatred from the whites prevented any real progress and kept the blacks inferior to them.
Added to timeline:
Civil War Memorial Project Timeline
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