|
President Johnson's Reconstruction plan consisted of the following criteria for a former Confederate state rejoining the Union. The state could rejoin the Union once it had written a new state constitution, elected a new state government, repealed its act of secession, and canceled its war debts. The final requirement was that every state in the South had to ratify the 13th amendment which abolished slavery.
In March of 1865, the Freedmen's Bureau was established. The Freedmen's Bureau was an agency established by Congress at the end of the Civil War that helped and protected newly freed black Americans. Food, medical care, wages, good working conditions, and education were provided by the Freedmen's Bureau. The hope of many freedmen died, however, when Congress refused to take land from Southern whites. Black codes, laws passed in 1855 and 1856, limited African Americans' rights and freedoms. The black codes served three general purposes. Limiting the rights of freedmen, helping planters find workers to replace their slaves, and keeping freedmen at the bottom of the social order in the South were the main goals. Most codes called for segregation of blacks and whites in public places. |