Andrew Johnson Argumentative Essay

After the Civil War, Andrew Johnson became Lincoln’s successor as a President. Even though he had always been a supporter of the Union, and Lincoln’s right hand in many ways, he was also extremely racist. So, the emancipation that Abraham Lincoln had fought for, wasn’t that important to Johnson when he took presidency, mainly because he never believed the black people could have any role in the Reconstruction. As a matter of fact, when President Johnson started to issue the proclamations that set the beginning of the Presidential Reconstruction, he restored some political and property rights for whites, but completely excluded African-Americans. Additionally, even though he made it a requirement for southern governments to abolish slavery,

White southerners weren’t fond of the fact that the 13th Amendment had abolished slavery because, with slaves’ freedom, came an enormous shortage in labor on the plantations. The newly acquired independence of the African-Americans was cause of alarmism for white southerners. On top of that, those that previously were a responsibility of the slave owner, were now a responsibility of the southern governments. Southerners had to try their best at keeping blacks and mulattos were they belonged. African-Americans couldn’t be placed at the same level as whites, economically, politically and socially. Such codes, were basically a revival of slavery, just with a different name. While certain rights were granted to blacks, such as ownership of property (even though some states barred them from it), legal marriage, and some access to courts, many other rights were still denied to them. The intent was to reaffirm the position of inferiority of the black people. The first state to pass the laws was Mississippi. It accounted for also having the harshest. The purpose was to regain control over the black population, continuing to have supply of free or cheap labor through them, and restoring whites’