JOHNSON'S RECONSTRUCTION PLAN
ERIC HAYES
OVERVIEW
Johnson's Reconstruction Plan has an overview of three main parts. The three parts are that each state had to withdraw their secession and swear loyalty to the union, they each had to ratify the 13th amendment, and there would be no pardon to high ranking confederates or people who own over $20,000 worth of land.
FREEDMEN'S BUREAU
Freedmen's Bureau was created by congress to assist former slaves and also poor whites living in the South, post Civil War. Over four million slaves gained freedom from the Union Victory of the Civil War. Although the South was a mess from the war and the plantation based economy was in ruins due to the loss of slaves. The Freedmen's Bureau gave these people food, shelter, medical assistance, schooling, and types of legal help. It also gave the assistance to former slaves on getting their own land, they mostly gave out taken or abandoned land from the war. This plan was eventually stopped from giving out all benefits due to lack of funds and volunteers to help. Around 1872 the entire bureau was shut down due to racism and pressure from white southerners. Johnson's response to this program was differed throughout the time it was in affect. Johnson originally vetoed the plan because he said it interfered with the states rights and put a preference to one group of citizens over the other, along with financial issues and other problems the country could face. In that same year, Congress over powered Johnson's veto and passed the bill. This entire time Johnson was in a fight with Republicans over lenient policies of the Reconstruction and this is what helped the Bureau end.
CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1866
The Civil Rights Act of 1866 said that "all persons born in the United States", were "hereby declared to be citizens of the United States." The legislation gave all the people “full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property.” Radical Republicans, who believed the federal government had a role in shaping a multiracial society in the postwar South, most of that had to do with the 13th Amendment, this bill abolished slavery. President Johnson did not like the extreme power the legislation was holding over the country.The Civil Rights Bill of 1866 was the opening to a huge fight over the Congress and the former Confederate President over the future of African-American civil rights.
BLACK CODES
Black Codes are a set of rules that apply toward people of color, with more than 1/8 African blood in them. There were 6 basic rule categories set forth in South Carolina. The main three categories of rules are their Civil Rights, Labor Contracts, and Vagrancy. The Civil Rights category refers mostly to African-Americans having the right to their own property, contracts, labor, the right to sue and be sued, and lawful protection. It was also seen that marriage,interracial, between white and black is unlawful and voided. The Labor contract category focuses on African-Americans who were willing to work for white masters and it gave them the right to contracts to ensure wages. The third main category is Vagrancy, this showed that all involved in vagrancy could be imprisoned with hard labor.
OPINION
I believe that slaves should be free. It was wrong and inhumane to have slavery in the first place. Every person should be free!