Reconstruction

Part I: Introduction

At the close of the Civil War, Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson successively urged a quick and lenient restoration of the South to the Union, demanding only its renunciation of secession and slavery. To that end, they appointed Unionist provisional governors in each southern state (Lincoln in Union-occupied states during the war, Johnson in the remainder after the war) to reorganize their states and prepare them for readmission. Accordingly, new governments were organized in the southern states, including North Carolina. But the radical and moderate Republicans controlling Congress feared that such a quick restoration would bring to power a coalition of northern Democrats and former Confederates that would perpetuate slavery in substance if not in name and restore the conditions that had led to war. Hence they insisted on stricter conditions for southern readmission and refused to seat the new senators- and representatives-elect from the South.

Keep reading  > Part II: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Beginning of Congressional Reconstruction