Reconstruction virtually ended when the fat lady sang in Ford’s Theater. A single bullet to the back of the head killed the hopes and dreams freed slaves. President Abraham Lincoln was assasignated on the night of April 14, 1865. Lincoln’s death left Andrew Johnson to be president.
In January 1865 General Sherman issued Special Field Orders, No. 15, which is known to most as 40 Acres and a Mule. It was an order that gave freed black slaves land. Approximately 10000 freed slaves had settled on 400,000 Acres of land when new President Johnson reversed the order and forced freed blacks to return the land.
Also Established in 1865 was the Freedman’s Bureau. The Freedman’s Bureau created schools & hospitals, negotiated labor contracts, leased or sold confiscated lands to the freed men, and tried to protect former slaves from their masters in the South. President Johnson vetoed the bill for its extension in 1866.
The final straw for a reconstruction period that barely got anything done was in 1877 with the corrupt bargain. The corrupt bargain was basically a deal that exchanged the presidency for an unsupervised south. This is likely what lead to Jim Crow laws and other laws of that nature.
Reconstruction ended at the very beginning, with Lincoln’s Death.
Nice picture.
Great picture but I would argue that it isn’t a primary document. Thus intrinsically the picture has no value. However I must say that you had a wonderful description, and had it been a historic picture of the night when President Lincoln was assassinated, this would’ve been a very creative and informative piece, which is still is minus the primary document’s value.
Interesting picture~! It’s hard to relate a well-built Viking lady singing a song to the end of reconstruction period in the US. Yet they are closely related. Your post gives me more understanding of the end of construction through a very intresting point of view.
I think it may not be an 100% primary document by a strict definition, BUT it does help us to restore the first-hand experience of the historic scene(which is main function of a primary document), and also utilizes quite a bit of humor.
being as the picture doesn’t actually have much to do with the event, because it isn’t from the scene itself I would agree that it cant really be considered a primary document, but I do like the metaphor you used it to bring forth – Lincoln’s assassination was undoubtedly a watershed moment of this particular time period in American History.