We arefree

Early stages•The Civil War had originally been fought over the issue of states’ rights, but the January 1, 1863 changed all of that.

Early stages•On that day, President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation became the law throughout the Confederacy, but not the Union.

Early stages•The process that the Emancipation Proclamation started was finally completed in December, 1865, when the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified by the states.

Early stages•This amendment said that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime…shall exist within the United States.”

assistance•Unfortunately for those newly freed slaves, many of them had no idea what to do with their new found freedom.

assistance•The Lincoln administration , who had started the amendment process in February, 1865, in response to these needs organized the Freedman’s Bureau, the first major federal relief agency.

assistance• It gave out clothing, medical

supplies, and millions of meals to both African Americans and whites, and gave many freedmen their first taste of education.

assistance•Unfortunately for many freedmen, the bureau lacked strong support in Congress and was pretty much torn apart by 1869.

Read and answer questions about Lincoln’s Plan for Reconstruction

and the Wade-Davis Bill proposed by the Radical Republicans