Rehearsals for Reconstruction Summary and Analysis

The Emancipation Proclamation complicated some of the questions that arose out of the war, Foner explains in a section of Chapter 2 entitled "Dilemmas of Wartime Reconstruction." Uppermost among these dilemmas were the questions of how former Confederate states might be allowed back into the Union and the status of the millions of former slaves. After the proclamation, it was clear that recognizing the abolition of slavery would be a requirement for southern states, but it was not clear what role free blacks might take in the post-war society.

Lincoln implemented what became known as the "10 percent" plan. White southern men could take an oath of allegiance to the Union and pledge to accept the abolition of slavery. If a number of loyal southerners in any state reached 10 percent of the number of votes cast in 1860, this minority...