Homework: Reconstruction Plans - Wartime, Presidential, Congressional

This homework assignment delves into the Reconstruction era following the American Civil War, contrasting Wartime, Presidential, and Congressional reconstruction plans. It highlights Lincoln's Wartime reconstruction focused on repatriation and amnesty, President Johnson's plan which freed slaves but denied political rights and land ownership, and the Congressional reconstruction that aimed to protect black rights but faced resistance. The assignment also examines the failure of land redistribution, the emergence of sharecropping as a form of economic exploitation, and the oppressive nature of the Mississippi Black Code, which restricted black freedoms and perpetuated racial inequality. These historical analyses help students understand the complexities and challenges of the Reconstruction period. Desklib is a valuable resource for students, providing access to a wide range of study materials, including past papers and solved assignments, to aid in their academic success.

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HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT # 1
Student Name:
Student Number:

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Question A
The wartime, presidential and congressional reconstruction had a specific purpose for
fulfilling in the context of the occasion they were exercised. However, some of the stark
differences resulted in conflicts after their execution. Wartime reconstruction, as the name
suggests, took place during the warfare when Lincoln decided that blacks needed to
repatriate. It was a major part of the Proclamation of Amnesty and the Southern whites
vowed for union and abolish slavery. However, it excluded the high-ranking military and
Confederate officials (Sivaram, 2015). Thus, the main aim was simplifying stop wars.
Unlike this, President Andrew Johnson devised the Presidential reconstruction in 1865 at the
end of the Civil War. This freed the Blacks of slavery but they without granting them
political roles. Even the lands were given back to pre-war owners and the Confederates
reinstated their political power due to which Blacks had no hope for economic autonomy
(U.S. History, 2019). This reconstruction plan caused great resentment among the North. The
Blacks had limited occupation and no right to vote which again forced them to be bonded
laborers for plantations.
The Congressional reconstruction brought in mass killings of ex-slaves and adopted the
restrictive Black Code. Congress seized power from Johnson, but the new government
affirmed black rights and equal protection through law. Congress also passed several laws to
restrict presidential power working against its reconstruction program.
Question B
Land redistribution failure resulted from the nation's detainment to provide full citizenship to
the blacks. A common phrase, ‘forty acres and a mule’ echoed throughout after the
Government failed to redistribute the land among the blacks after the Civil War. The federal

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government confiscated more than ten thousand landowners who were blacks (Facing
History, 2020). Forceful eviction and lack of provisions existed for acquiring land. Southern
Homestead Act resulted in higher pricing of lands that were impossible for blacks and
yearlong labor contracts through the Black Code, cultivated betrayal.
Sharecropping is a technique in which families rented land from the owners and cultivated
for a year to pay a certain amount of crops in return. It did not ensure economic freedom to
the blacks but entrapped them.
It was the economic exploitation of the blacks who had no money or land but expected
autonomy. It only made them free owners of land to cultivate but not rich. The high-interest
rates of sharecroppers and landowners led them towards economic dependency and
ultimately poverty. Nevertheless, this freedom was more than times of slavery. Now they
could take out time to take their mules for grazing while women devoted more time to their
families and especially children and reduced cultivation work.
Question C
The Mississippi Black Code appeased the South who wanted to keep the blacks in the right
place, politically and economically. It was the revival of exploitation of blacks in disguise
when the four statutes of the reconstruction plan of 1865 stated that blacks can have legal
marriages, limited access to court and own property (Lewis, 2018). However, their cases
would not be tried if all the officials were whites in those courts. Additionally, if blacks
opposed or failed to sign labor contracts, they had to suffer detention or laborers.
Apprentice Law stated that black children of vagrants under the age of 21 years for makes
and 18 for females had to work for whites without their will.

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Vagrancy law was to keep a consistent flow of laborers. A vagrant was referred to individuals
who were fit to work, was unemployed but moved places in supports of their families this law
was made on baseless grounds of loitering. This allowed the police to arrest and levy fine,
suspicious of their ill motives.

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Reference List
Facing History (2020). The Reconstruction Era and the Fragility of Democracy.
https://www.facinghistory.org/reconstruction-era/presidential-reconstruction
Lewis, S. A. (2018). The disenfranchisement of ex-felons in Florida: A brief history.
https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1846&context=facultypub
Sivaram, A. (2015). The President's Wartime Detention Authority: What History Teaches Us.
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1014&context=applebaum_award
U.S. History (2019). 35a. Presidential Reconstruction. US History. Org.
https://www.ushistory.org/us/35a.asp