What happened while trying to established a reconstruction policy during and after the civil war?

Answer 1

After the Emancipation Proclamation, the slaves were freed in the areas captured by the Union Army. When the Confederate armies surrendered at the end of the Civil War, the solders turned over their guns to the Union armies. However, a large number of Confederate solders were part of units that simply disbanded and those solders took their guns home with them. There were a number of guns waiting shipment. As a result the South was full of guns. Thus, the former solders either remained armed or quickly rearmed.

Slavery had been established by brutality and intimidation. Simply because it was illegal did not mean a number of Southerners intended to give it up. Many blacks remained slaves. Blacks could vote; former Confederate solders could not. Many blacks going to the polls were shot and killed by white men hiding behind bushes.

In this situation, congress started quartering solders in private houses. These solders were not the solders of the Civil War but were taken from the dregs of society. They would steal from the home owner and rape the women. They tried to solve one problem and created a worse one.

The former Confederate Solders created The Ku Klux Klan and other such secret organizations to kill the worst of the worst.

Meanwhile in some places Black People rose to prominent places in the government.

When congress finally ended the quartering of solders in homes and gave former Confederate solders the right to vote, they took it out on black people. Black people lost a number of civil rights. They lost none in theory but did in practice.