On Lincoln's death, Vice President Andrew Johnson became President and held that Reconstruction was the job of the President, not Congress. Unlike Lincoln who knew how to Compromise, Johnson was a stubborn man. His policies were based on what he thought was Lincoln's goals. They included charity toward the former Confederates and the creation of new government

Congress was not in session when Johnson took over as President and did not meet until December, which effected the South economically. During these eight months, nothing was progressing. For example, nothing was done about the black voting rights. Some states also refused to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment which abolished slavery. Southern states started to pass laws, limiting the freedom of African Americans. These laws, called black codes, aimed to return former slaves to plantation labor. In Mississippi, one law said that each person had to have a written proof of employment. In some states, children could be forced to work by their former owners, without their parent's approval. With Johnson as President and the Black codes in the southern states, Reconstruction wasn't making a good start towards it's goals in economic terms.

Reconstruction ended in 1877 and was effective in reaching its goal which was to improve the South socially, politically, and economically. Although the South did not fully recover, many of the problems that arised after the Civil War were solved. The Confederate states met various requirements for readmission, and all rejoined the Union by 1870. Congress passed laws and proposed constitutional amendments to protect the rights of the former slaves and to give them the vote. Newly formed state governments in the South began to rebuild the ruined regions. Other problems remained, however. Most Southern whites refused to accept the blacks as equals, and the living and working conditions of the blacks improved only slightly. The Reconstruction governments also failed to win enough support from Southern whites to survive without aid from the North. Most Southern whites considered these governments illeagal, and some whites used violence to prevent blacks from voting. The South suffered from economic inequality, mainly caused by sharecropping. With the lack of economic power,the African Americans lost political power as well. Most of them still worked for the whites. In the 1890's Jim Crow lawswhich made segregation began to rule southern life. But overall, Reconstruction didn't totally recover the South, but it did help to improve the South and was an important part in U.S. history since it still effects our lives today.

In 1867, Freedmen's Bureau agents began to register voters in the South. About 735,000 blacks and 635,000 whites were registered to vote. The voters then chose new delegates to the new state conventions. Three -fourth of them were Republicans. Almost half these Republican delegates were whites who had supported the North and they called the Southern planters, "scalawags." Nearly one-fourth of the Republican delegates were white Northerners who moved south after the war. Many Southerners thought that these Northerners had only come for their gain, and called them "carpetbaggers." African Americans made up close to one-third of the Republican delegates. These delegates wrote new constitutions based on Northe

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Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)