Reconstruction Question

According to the "The American Promise," discuss the difficulties that faced freed people during Reconstruction from 1865-1877. What did freed people expect after emancipation? How did the government leaders and legislation participate in the transition from enslavement to emancipation for freed people? Explain the efforts to aid them. Why did the efforts to aid them fail? Use specific examples from the textbook.

Expectations
-- desire for education
-- equal treatment before the law
-- civil rights
-- land

Legislation
-- 13th Amendment: abolish slavery
-- Freedman's Bureau Acts distributes food and clothing
-- Civil Rights Act of 1866 gave full benefit of laws and end legal discrimination in state laws
-- 14th Amendment makes blacks citizens
-- Military Reconstruction Acts - impose military rule
-- 15th Amendment prohibits racial discrimination in voting
-- Civil Rights Act of 1875 outlaws discrimination in transportation, public accommodations, and juries

Failed
-- South found ways to get around 15th amendment and continue to disenfranchise blacks - literacy, property
-- no state constitution confiscated and redistributed land
-- no state constitution disenfranchised ex-rebels
-- Jim Crow laws aimed at segregation
-- Supreme Court hamper enforcement of 14th and 15th amendment
-- Grant not enforce
-- Congress abandoned reconstruction
-- Northern voters tired of the Negro question
-- Compromise of 1877
-- Failure to protect blacks