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In the spring of 1865, the Civil War ended with the Confederacy defeated, Southern cities burned to ash, and four million formerly enslaved people finally free.
The massive challenge of rebuilding the Southern states and integrating freed people into American society was called Reconstruction.
A fierce battle immediately broke out in Washington: should bringing the South back be quick and forgiving, or should it require deep social change and full civil rights?

Lincoln's Ten Percent Plan

President Abraham Lincoln believed the Southern states had never legally left the Union, so his priority was rapid healing and reconciliation.
In 1863, he announced the Ten Percent Plan, which offered a full presidential pardon to Confederates who swore an oath of allegiance to the Union and agreed to end slavery.
As soon as just 10% of a state's 1860 voters took that loyalty oath, the state could form a new government and send representatives back to Congress.
When an assassin killed Lincoln in April 1865, his vice president took control — but would the new president stick to that gentle plan?

Johnson's Leniency and the Black Codes

Following Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, President Andrew Johnson implemented his own lenient Presidential Reconstruction plan, believing the process was strictly an executive duty.
Johnson offered amnesty to most white Southerners who pledged allegiance, requiring states only to revoke secession ordinances, repudiate Confederate debts, and ratify the 13th Amendment.
Because Johnson required nothing else, the newly restored white Southern governments immediately passed Black Codes, state laws designed to keep African Americans in near-slavery conditions through curfews, labor contracts, and travel bans.