Congressional Reconstruction

Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan:
Johnson Abraham former vice President proposed a slight different plan that was more generous after Abraham Lincoln’s death. He pardons southerners who swore allegiances to the Union. He permitted each state to hold a constitutional convention without Lincoln’s 10 percent. He forced states to void secession, abolish slavery, and repudiate the Confederate debt. He also permitted to hold elections and rejoin the Union.

Black Codes:
Black Codes are laws that restricted freedmen’s rights. These black codes established virtual slavery with provisions. The black codes consisted of curfews, when black people could not gather after sunset. Vagrancy laws Freedmen convicted vagrancy laws, not working could be fined, whipped, or sold for a year’s labor. In addition to labor contracts were freedmen had to sign agreements in January for a year work. Those who quit in the middle of a contract often lost all the wages they had earned. Finally Land Restrictions, freed people could rent land or homes only in rural areas. This restriction forced them to live on plantations.

14th Amendment:
All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
This law means that all persons that are born in the United states territory with full and equal rights should get protected under the law.

15th Amendment
The 15th Amendment to the Constitution granted African American men the right to vote by declaring that the "right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
This law guarantees African Americans the right to vote, to hold public office, to serve on juries and testify the court.

Radical Reconstruction:
After sweeping the elections of 1866, the Radical Republicans gained almost complete control over policymaking in Congress. Along with their more moderate Republican allies, they gained control of the House of Representatives and the Senate and thus gained sufficient power to override any potential vetoes by President Andrew Johnson.

Carpetbagger:
North republicans who moved to the postwar south became known as carpetbaggers. Southerners gave them this insulting name, which referred to a type of cheap suitcase made from carpet scraps. The name implied that these northerners had stuffed some clothes into a carpet bagger and rushed in to profit from southern misery. Carpetbaggers were often depicted as greedy men seeking to grab power or make a fast buck. However, historians point out that carpetbaggers were honest and educated men.

Scalawag:
Scalawags is originally a Scottish word meaning "scrawny cattle". It was used to name white southern republican because they were believed to be traitors. The scalawags usually included Wigs which were opposed to the secession and farmers who resented the planter class. Many southerners resented the scalawags, carpetbagger and freedmen’s power. They also thought reconstruction legislatures were incompetent. But it is believed that these officials were no worse than in other regions of the country at that time.

The Civil War Times Newspaper

RECONSTRUCTION LIMITED EDITION
The War has brought misery for some and freedom for others.
Our streets are devastated, two thirds of our shipping industries and 9000 miles railroad have been dismantled. Farm lands, farm buildings, and farm machinery have been erased. Factories, ports, cities, bridges, and canals are lay smoldered in the streets of our nation.
The loss of life touched virtually every family. The practice of organizing military units with troops from the same town meant that communities no longer have any surviving young men; all of them have died in the same battle. Of the 3.5 million men who fought in the Civil War, on both sides, 620,000 died. One in ten Confederate soldiers had come from North Carolina. Of the 125,000 North Carolinians who fought for the Confederacy and the 8,000 who joined the Union army, 20,000 died in combat. Another 20,000 succumbed to injuries. Many of the survivors were affected both physically and mentally.
4 million black southerners are freed and start new lives in poor and slow economic regions. Since they are poor they receive food and shelter, however inadequate. Most of the black people are homeless, jobless, and hungry. However, others remained in their plantations or sought new jobs in the west.
Our plantation owners have lost their slave labor worth about 3 billion dollars. In addition, the Captured and Abandoned Property Act of 1863 allowed federal government to seize 100 million dollars in southern plantation and cotton. Because Confederate money became worthless, some farmers couldn’t afford to hire workers, thus they had to sell their property.
Our white laborers are without any jobs because of job competition from freedom. Our poor white families migrated to frontier lands such as Mississippi and Texas to find new opportunities.
Abraham Lincoln has left us one month ago on April 14, 1865, he had done immense amount of things for the reconstruction, and he denied pardons to all confederates military government officials who had killed African American war prisoners. He permitted each state to create a new constitution after 10 percent of the voters in the State had sworn allegiances. He offered a pardon to any confederate who took an oath of allegiance to the Union and accepted the federal policy on slavery.
Johnson his former vice President proposed a slight different plan that was more generous after Abraham Lincoln’s death. He pardons southerners who swore allegiances to the Union. He permitted each state to hold a constitutional convention without Lincoln’s 10 percent. He forced states to void secession, abolish slavery, and repudiate the Confederate debt. He also permitted to hold elections and rejoin the Union.
After the Civil War, the country needed to be fixed and rebuilt. A period of Reconstruction followed the war. The reconstruction was important for different reasons, it would allow the nation to find a new United States which would be cleaner and better organized, it would give another chance for the United States to really become united. The last reason is that it would allow the population to find new homes and be able to live in a peaceful area.

The Southerners had many difficulties that it faced; black southerners had economical conflicts because they were without any jobs or shelter. The southern plantation owners had lost immense amount of money because of the Captured Abandoned Act, finally poor white southerners had work problems they lost their job and there was too much competition for jobs.
Freed slaves faced many challenges, they were found out without any shelter, nor job and no family. They looked for their family that they were separated from and they never found them. Slaves in the South still had rules to follow. They had curfew which means they could not gather after sunset, if they were found not working they could be charged a fine or whipped, they had labor contracts which means they had to sign agreements in January to work for the whole year. Black could only buy or rent homes that were in rural areas which meant that they had to work on plantations.