What was the central issue in the struggle over which Reconstruction plan to implement?

Answer 1

After the end of the American Civil War, there were no firm reconstruction plans in place. Therefore, several influences and plans shaped the period. The Davis Bend experience allowed blacks to own and their own cotton farms. Freed men and women off the South Carolina coast choose subsistence farming. The Banks Plan, a step above slavery, forced hard labor and no freedom or compromise. Lincolnâ??s Ten Percent Plan admitted southern states back into the union only if they agreed to recognize the abolition of slavery and give black men the right to vote. Radical Republicans called for redistribution of land and guaranteed civil rights for blacks in the Wade-Davis bill. After Lincolnâ??s assassination, Johnson, a man unsympathetic to the former slaves, favored amnesty and restoration of property to white southern plantation owners. Reconstruction ended when voters, tired of the topic and associated corruption, showed zero tolerance for continuance.

Answer 2

The central issue in the struggle over which Reconstruction plan to implement was how to reintegrate the Southern states into the Union following the Civil War. There were disagreements between President Abraham Lincoln and the Radical Republicans in Congress over the timing and extent of granting political rights to formerly enslaved individuals, and whether to enact a more lenient or punitive approach towards the Southern states. These debates ultimately shaped the Reconstruction plans, such as Lincoln's Ten Percent Plan and the Radical Republicans' Wade-Davis Bill.