Reconstruction Video Reaction

During Reconstruction, America could finally become what it always wanted to be. It left a legacy of hope and violence. To this day we are still haunted by Reconstruction. 

Abraham Lincoln freeing the slaves was not the end of the story, but it was just the beginning. During the Civil War, many slaves fled the South and joined the Union Army. 

The slaves changed what a military victory would be. It was obvious that the North and South saw Reconstruction differently. After they were free, slaves would put an information wanted paragraph in newspapers. They were trying to find their loved ones. 

Some of them would walk to where they last saw a loved one to try and find them again. 

During Reconstruction, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated and Vice President, Andrew Johnson became president.

Johnson grew up a poor man in the South. He hated the rich white plantation owners in the South. Johnson enacted The Freedman Bearu. This was supposed to protect former slaves and keep the peace between white southern men and African Americans. 

The Freedman’s Bearu was given 850,000 acres of land. This was meant for the freedmen to have. Many thought this was the blueprint for Reconstruction. 

Johnson said that if they wanted to be pardoned, they would have to call the White House and come talk to Johnson in person. Many Southerners who Andrew Johnson hated, came and begged him for forgiveness and to be pardoned. 

Johnson ordered that all The Freedmans Bearus land be the confederates again. This meant that all the Freedmen who owned land in these areas would have to sign a labor contract with white owners, possibly their old owners.

The South was devastated by the Civil War. Their land was destroyed, along with their economy. Many former confederates would cling to their ideas that they were right and just in their actions.

In 1865, Mississippi created The Black Codes. These rules only affected African Americans. These rules forced African Americans to sign labor contracts.

If they didn’t sign a contract, they could be arrested or their kids could be taken from them.

Slave owners would take kids and teach boys how to work in the field, and girls how to do housework. This gave them an excuse to get around calling them slaves. 

Following this, the Union army was shrinking while it should have been growing. 

Confederates were brought into Congress. The clerk skipped every rebel person in Congress. If the clerk didn’t call your name, you were not a part of Congress. 

The democrats in Congress erupted and said that this was a revolution. 

Many freedmen who lost their land moved to cities. Memphis was a very populated and racially aggressive area. 

The riots in Memphis were an awful time. White men shot any black man they saw in the city. They would board up black people's homes and trap kids, women, and men inside. They would then set the house on fire. 

As people would run out and try to escape, they would shoot them. By the third day of the riots, the Union army could finally control the Confederates. 

In the end, all-black schools, and churches were burned to the ground, and 48 African Americans were killed. 

The survivors went to the White House and gave a testimony to the Congressmen. Congress finally realized that they had to write the rules for African Americans into the Constitution so they could be treated equally.

It’s said that if Reconstruction went smoother, there might not have been the 14th Amendment. 

In the Election of 1868, Republican Ulysses S. Grant ran against Democrat Horatio Seymour. 

Grant was loved by a lot of people. Freedmen loved him because he treated them like human beings. Half a million black men voted in that election.

Grant won the election. With this, a ton of Freedmen entered Congress. Some of these men were enslaved a few years before this.