02/14/11

It Aint Over ‘Til The Fat Lady Sings!

Fat Lady Singing

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.

02/13/11

Fight for freedom after freedom

This picture was a democratic election campaign. In just under a year for the first time in history a president, Johnson, was placed on trial. Democrats openly appealed to racism during the election while Republicans concentrated on Reconstruction.

After the emancipation proclamation granted freedom to most slaves, the Freedman’s Bureau was organized by the government in an attempt to aid blacks whether it be in their attempt to attain an education, labor, etc. However, as was inevitable there was considerable resistance to granting freedmen and “freedoms.”