As America began to recover from the Civil War, it faced three questions. First, how would he South be rebuilt? Second, how would blacks be reincorporated back into society? Third, how would the Southern States be reincorporated into the Union? But for these questions to be answered America would have to endure great turmoil caused by a human obstacles. Out of all the aspects of reconstruction that led to turmoil, President Johnson was the biggest. President Johnson was the one most responsible for the turmoil and disruption in America's reconstruction after the Civil War.
During the first eight months of his term, President rushed through his own policies for reconstruction of the South. These included handing out thousands of pardons, including all rebel leaders in 1868. Congress created the Freedmen's Bureau which not only taught 200,000 blacks how to read but also steeled former slaves on forty-acre plots of land taken from the Confederates. Johnson viewed the Bureau as a "meddlesome federal interloper" and had it killed off. With this blow no only did Johnson impede the reconstruction of the South but also slowed the reincorporation of blacks back into society.
Johnson was terrible for the integration of blacks into society. He allowed the South to set up black codes which essentially maintained slavery under another name. These codes "mocked the ideal of freedom." Because of his codes, most former slaves became sharecroppers but sank into a "morass of virtual peonage and remained there for generations. These codes were designed to create a "subservient labor force" instead of what they should be doing which is to reintegrate blacks back into society; to make them citizens. Republicans moved immediately to stop the president. In opposition to Johnson, Congress established a military Reconstruction program to enforce political and civil rights for southern blacks. Also Congress" Freedmen's Bureau Bill provided shelter and provision for ex-slaves and protection of their rights in court, as well as the Civil Rights Act, defining all persons born in the U.
