Putting the Pieces Together

Americans needed to begin to put the past behind them, come together, and plan for the future in the spring of 1865. But Abraham Lincoln, the man best equipped to lead them and who had hoped to restore the country as smoothly and peacefully as possible, had been assassinated.

- H.S. Stout and D.H. DeFord

That summer, Lincoln’s successor, President Andrew Johnson, took action while Congress was not in session. He pardoned anyone who swore allegiance to the United States, no matter what the person’s role in the Confederacy had been. He allowed former Confederate leaders to keep their political power. They, in turn, tried to return former enslaved people to a system that looked a lot like slavery. Southern leaders passed Black Codes, which were laws that restricted the new freedoms of African Americans.

When Congress convened in December, Republicans took over Reconstruction. A few lawmakers demanded revenge on the South, but most congressmen wanted to “bind up the wounds” of the nation. They understood that slavery, in every form, had to end for the country to move forward.

Editorial artist Thomas Nast created this hopeful view of life for emancipated enslaved people.