During the reconstruction President, Lincoln’s plans or main topics were to Give Forgiveness to the South, the Ten Percent Plan, Thirteenth Amendment, and Freedmen’s Bureau. However, when Lincoln got reelected to start his second term John Wilkes Booth did not agree with Lincoln’s plans so Booth decided to kill Lincoln. After Lincoln died Vice President Andrew Johnson became the President. Johnson did not agree with all of the things Lincoln was trying to accomplish with the reconstruction. Johnson did agree to accept the end of slavery and to legally forgive the South. However, he did not provide aid to help former slaves (Freedmen) and he gave the states the power of their government.
The Southerners did not agree with all of the reconstruction plans. They fought to keep the African Americans in a place where they felt they were still in slavery. Southerners did not agree with taking slavery and banning it however, with their government control they made it to where law enforcement was able to arrest African Americans and force them to work on Plantations. When voting came around Southerners did everything they could to prevent African Americans from voting. They made Poll Taxes which affected the poor people and they also made Literacy tests which affected the majority of African Americans because before the Civil War they were not given proper education. However, this also affected poor whites so the Southerners made the Grandfather clauses which stated that if before the Civil War your grandfather had full citizenship rights you were exempted from the Poll Tax and Literacy tests. This ensured poor whites could vote and the majority of African Americans were denied voting rights. I think that the reconstruction plans will eventually succeed but before they do the South will fight their hardest to ensure that African Americans feel like they are in slavery because that was the one thing the Southerners did not want to give up.
