olished slavery. To the Radical Republicans, Johnson’s plan seemed no better than Lincoln’s because it failed to address the needs of former slaves in three prominent areas: land, voting rights, and protection under the law. Confederates states, however, readily committed to the conditions put forth in the Presidential Reconstruction plan, and were readmitted to the Union. A few years later, the Reconstruction Act of 1867 was passed, which did not recognize the governments formed under Lincoln and Johnson’s plans. Through the Reconstruction Act, Tennessee was the only former Confederate State recognized as having been readmitted to the Union because it had ratified the Fourteenth Amendment. In order for the rest of the former Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union through the Reconstruction Act, each state had to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment, also. The Republicans introduced the Fifteenth Amendment after the election of 1868 because they feared that Pro-Confederate Southern whites might try to place limits on black suffrage. In order to prevent this, the Fifteenth Amendment states that no one can be kept from voting because of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Through the different plans that were proposed by the three different Presidents in office during the Reconstruction period, the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments were passed, which were great successes of the Reconstruction period. Reconstruction was also successful in helping to improve the lives of former slaves. After the Civil War, African Americans were allowed to make everyday decisions and take control of their lives. While in bondage, slaves were not allowed to travel without permission, attend school, marry legally, or live and work as they chose. When slaves were first freed, they faced the decision of whether to stay where they were or not. The majority of African Americans took ad...
