They believed that blacks could immediately
enter into community life on an equal footing with other
citizens, Any suggestion that the ex-slave needed help to get
started drew considerable resentment and hostility from liberals
and conservatives alike. With the abolition of the peculiar
institution, the anti-slavery societies considered their work
finished. Frederick Douglass, however, complained that the slaves
were sent out into the world empty-handed. In fact, both the war
and emancipation had intensified racial hostility. The ex-slave
had not yet been granted his civil rights. At the same time, he
was no longer covered by property rights. Therefore he was even
more vulnerable to physical intimidation than before.
As the war drew to an end, Lincoln initiated a program aimed at
the rapid reconstruction of the South and the healing of
sectional bitterness. With only the exclusion of a few
Confederate officials, he offered immediate pardon to all who
would swear allegiance to the Federal Government. As soon as ten
percent of the citizens of any state who had voted in 1860 had
taken this oath, a state could then hold local elections and
resume home rule.
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