Failure of Johnsons Radical Reconstruction

Among the results of Radical Reconstruction were both Andrew Johnson's term and opposition to his term, as well as the Southern Resistance which caused it to fail. After President Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, Andrew Johnson became president. As a result of Lincoln's assassination, most Northerners felt that harsher means were going to be necessary. At the very beginning of Johnson's term, he granted 13, 000 pardons in merely 6 months. By doing so, he allowed the ex-Confederate leaders …

…successfully lessen the rights of the freedmen by not extending store creidt, and imposing threatening consequences to the actions of their workers. Most freedmen were not able to gain land ownership due to these restrictions. Although Radical Reconstruction did ratify the 13, 14, and 15th amendments, the opposition towards Johnson and the extreme economic and social restrictions placed on both freedmen and supporters of them caused an overall negative view of Radical Reconstruction, and ultimately its failure.