Southern Reconstruction Government

Southern Reconstruction government was a social, political, and economic experiment that largely failed. For most practical purposes slavery ended with the war, yet emancipation raised new problems that were fully as great. The "Negro Question" centered on the treatment of the AfricanAmerican freedman. Were blacks to be fullfledged citizens with rights and privileges equal to those of any other citizen, or a dependent element in the population, free but not equal? The question had to be answered in some fashion as part of the postCivil War peace settlement. Through reconstruction, the North tried to remake the South in its own image.

Besides the "Negro Question," a related question faced by the North was what to do with the South and its white population. In essence, the South was captured territory, but most Northerners disliked the idea of leaving the South under military control indefinitely because this was anathema to democratic traditions in America: "Reconstruction . . . was a crisisladen experience that generated vast quantities of bitterness, hatred and frustrated hope" (Rozwenc vii). President Abraham Lincoln's answer was to organize provisional civilian governments for those states which were substantially under Union occupation. In 1863, Lincoln announced his "Ten Percent Plan" whereby, if as few as ten percent of the men who had been eligible to vote in any Southern state in 1860 took an oath to support the Constitution and the Emancipation Proclamation, th

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Kitrick 19). Johnson recognized the state governments, which Lincoln had already authorized and set forth a formula for reorganizing the seven other exConfederate states. White supremacy reigned in every area of life, so far as the new state governments were concerned. There was no desire to help the former slaves make even a gradual transition to equality. The only significant help extended to blacks was the aid coming from Northern charitable organizations and the Freedmen's Bureau, a government agency which provided food, clothing, and other help to the newly freed slaves. The new governments even passed laws to hinder AfricanAmericans from rising by themselves. Northerners accused the South of perpetuating slavery; Southerners clearly intended to keep the advantages of slavery under the name of freedom. Most of the new Southern governments passed laws which meant: that blacks, if they were not slaves, were not free either. The laws, called Black Codes, said that black men had to work whether they wanted to or not. If a black man quit his job he could be arrested and imprisoned. Blacks were not allowed to give evidence against whites in court, nor were they allowed to vote. They could be imprisoned or fined if they argue

Category: Government - S