First And Second Reconstructio

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time
the Congress was divided politically on issues that grew out of the
Civil War: Black equality, rebuilding the South, readmitting Southern
states to Union, and deciding who would control government.1 Socially,
the South was in chaos. Newly emancipated slaves wandered the South
after having left their former masters, and the White population was
spiritually devastated, uneasy about what lay ahead. Economically, the
South was also devastated: plantations lay ruined, railroads torn up,
the system of slave labor in shambles, and cities burnt down. The
economic condition of ex-slaves after the Civil War was just as
uncertain; many had left former masters and roamed the
highways.2
Amid the post Civil War chaos, various political groups were
scrambling to further their agendas. First, Southern Democrats, a
party comprised of leaders of the confederacy and other wealthy
Southern whites, sought to end what they perceived as Northern
...

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slavery with the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. But
Southern Democrats in their quest to restore their rule in the South
brought back slavery in all but name, by passing Black Codes as early
as 1865. Both Moderate Republicans and Radical Republicans in Congress
reacted. Joining together in 1866, they passed a bill to extend the
life and responsibilities of the Freedmen's Bureau to protect newly
freed slaves against the various Black Codes. President Johnson vetoed
the bill, but Radical and Moderate Republicans eventually were able to
pass it.7
The Black Codes and President Johnson's veto of all
Reconstruction legislation that was ...

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