Analyze the development of Reconstruction policy and its impact in South Carolina, including Presidential and Congressional Reconstruction plans,...

Right after the end of the Civil War, South Carolina created a constitution in 1865 that instituted Black Codes and limited the civil rights of freed slaves, who were tied to their former plantations and denied freedom of movement. In addition, under Presidential Reconstruction, President Johnson decreed that lands in federal hands had to be returned to their former white owners. Freed slaves were denied the right to vote or to be represented in the...

Right after the end of the Civil War, South Carolina created a constitution in 1865 that instituted Black Codes and limited the civil rights of freed slaves, who were tied to their former plantations and denied freedom of movement. In addition, under Presidential Reconstruction, President Johnson decreed that lands in federal hands had to be returned to their former white owners. Freed slaves were denied the right to vote or to be represented in the state legislature. 

In 1867, the Congress took over Reconstruction, and the former Confederacy was divided into five military districts. South Carolina held a new constitutional convention, of which African-Americans made up about 71-76 of the 124 members. The new government established free public education and declared political equality for all. In addition, the new government removed the property requirements for voting. The Freedman's Bureau in South Carolina existed from 1865-1869, and it was responsible for providing medical and other help to former slaves, making sure former slaves were treated justly, overseeing contracts between former slaves and landowners, and establishing schools. 

However, the South Carolina legislature, with its large African-American component, was roundly dismissed by many whites in the state and outside of the state as incompetent and corrupt. By the early 1870s, the Freedman's Bureau was no longer in operation in the state, and violence in South Carolina was rampant, and Wade Hampton, a former Confederate solider, won the governorship of the state. By 1877, Reconstruction on a national level ended with the Hayes-Tilden Compromise.