today we're looking at reconstruction plans
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questions down in the description so immediately following the civil war the nation entered into a
time period known as reconstruction as the country tried to rebuild itself after four years of civil
war the war came to an end in april of 1865 and as the union was celebrating they also began to
debate how to re-admit to the union these southern states that had seceded four years earlier
just as the debate began the assassination of president lincoln occurred on april 14 1865 the
nation again was thrown into upheaval as several plans to reunite the country were put forward but
before his death both lincoln and congress had proposed plans to reunite the country
lincoln proposed what became known as the 10 percent plan as long as 10 percent of the voters
within a state that seceded took a loyalty oath to the union then the state could form a new state
government and adopt a new state constitution that banned slavery within that state so lincoln
wished to be very lenient on southern states and offer amnesty or basically forgive southerners
that were willing to take an oath of loyalty to the union lincoln really saw no benefit and
taking revenge on the south for what had happened he simply wanted the nation to be whole again
many say that john wilkes booth who of course assassinated lincoln
believing he was doing the south a favor actually was the biggest enemy the south ever had because
by killing lincoln he killed any hope of having a peaceful reconstruction of the country as for
congress's plan before lincoln was assassinated it was much more severe and really sought to punish
the south for what had happened during the war congress was controlled by the radical republicans
and were really led by thaddeus stevens who was a member of the house of representatives
and was from pennsylvania stevens was a staunch abolitionist and really believed the entire south
really had to be torn apart and rebuilt before it could be brought back into the union in july of
1864 before the civil war was even over congress had passed the wade davis bill which set forth
many requirements for readmittance among these were over 50 percent of the state's white males
must swear and owe the oath of allegiance to the union which they called this oath the ironclad
oath which was much more strict in its wording and included things like swearing that you had
never fought against the union during the war in addition only white males who swore that oath
and had never fought for the confederacy could vote in elections within the state to establish
a new state government and then any former confederate could not hold any public office
and then lastly all new state constitutions had to of course ban slavery lincoln and the radical
republicans in congress could not see eye to eye on how to bring states back into the union
fortunately though they did see eye to eye on banning slavery in all states in the
u.s constitution on january 31st 1865 the 13th amendment was passed abolishing the institution
of slavery in america ratifying or approving the amendment became another requirement
for readmittance of a state into the union that both lincoln and congress agreed upon
just a few months later after the 13th amendment was passed of course the confederacy surrendered
and then lincoln was shortly there after assassinated upon lincoln's death
vice president andrew johnson who was a southerner from tennessee became the new president of the
united states he favored an even more lenient plan than lincoln had endorsed johnson's plan called
restoration or the presidential reconstruction plan allowed states to be readmitted once they
ratified or approved the 13th amendment but then southerners could take a very simple loyalty oath
and become citizens again and be forgiven of any actions they took against the union
during the war confederate leaders would have to personally request a pardon from johnson himself
which he kind of gave out very easily and so southern states began to follow johnson's plan
and by the end of 1865 all former confederate states except texas were ready to be readmitted
this very lenient approach generated a lot of tension between president johnson and the
radical republicans in congress but worse was that there was no restrictions on who could be voted
into public office and so many former confederate leaders returned to leadership positions within
the united states government for example the former vice president of the confederacy alexander
stevens was voted back into the u.s senate and despite the fact that slavery had been abolished
former confederate states began to pass laws within their own states that heavily discriminated
against former enslaved african-americans since state since states could not pass laws
and concerning slavery they called these laws black codes these codes included laws such as
african americans and whites could not intermarry african americans could not serve on juries or or
could not testify in court against a white african-americans could not own land and also
required african-americans to sign contracts with landowners to work on that land and if they did
not have one of these contracts they could be declared as a vagrant and could be arrested for
that this system was really an effort to keep african-americans enslaved even though slavery
was abolished in the 13th amendment by 1866 the radical republicans had really caught on
to what was happening and eliminated the black codes and also basically eliminated johnson's
restoration plan and started reconstruction over again from scratch but we'll have to cover that
in another bell ringer so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching