Goals Of The Reconstruction Era

The Reconstruction Era lasted from 1865 until 1877 and during this time southern America was in shambles and trying to come to terms with the fact that they had lost the Civil War. To make matters even worse for the south, slavery was now abolished due to the thirteenth amendment that was ratified by December 1865 and made the south bankrupt. The thirteenth amendment along with many new laws such as the Civil Rights Act of 1866 was all a part of the North’s new goals. Northern America wanted to bring the union together and give African Americans equal rights in order for America to achieve the overall goal of becoming an interracial-democracy. This new idea of a democracy infuriated white southerners and they decided to subvert these new goals throughout the next one hundred years leading into the Civil
And in April 1864 a proposed constitutional amendment passed Senate and the “House of Representatives concurred in January 1865. The amendment then made its way to the states, where it swiftly gained the necessary support.” Many southerners did not accept this new proposal of a thirteenth amendment because it made slaves officially free. White southerners wanted to keep African Americans as property and did not want African Americans to be viewed as equal citizens to whites. One white southerner named John Wilkes Booth took matters into his own hands and “shortly after 10 pm on April 14, 1865, Booth shot the President in the head at point-blank range.” Abraham Lincoln never lived to see the thirteenth amendment ratified in December 1865. The assignation of Abraham Lincoln was a wakeup call for radical republicans and a clear indication that the south was against the new goals for America would not go down without a fight. On April 15 Vice President Andrew Johnson was sworn in as President with a new list of goals for