9. Reconstructing the Country

The war is over, and its time to bring the country together again. President Lincoln has an idea of how he would like this to happen. He calls it the TEN PERCENT PLAN. The premise is that he (Lincoln) wants to go fairly easy on the south and get them back into the the U.S. so we can start healing the wounds of war quicker.

On the other hand, the Radical Republics, as they were known, wanted to go with a much harsher Reconstruction plan. They wanted to punish the south for leaving the country and creating this messy situation we know as the Civil War. Lead by Wade and Davis, the Radicals wanted to make sure the south felt the hurt of Reconstruction since their decisions had resulted in the death of so many Americans, and cost of so much money.

In a terrible twist of fate, John Wilkes Booth shoots and kills Abraham Lincoln, leaving Vice President Andrew Johnson to make the decision of which direction to go with Reconstruction.

Watch the following video.

Take a break

Step 1. You will be divided into pairs and assigned either the Wade-Davis plan, or the 10% Plan.

Step 2. You are assigned to create a 30 second political commercial promoting the plan that you have been assigned.

Things to consider...what type of ad are you gonna run? Are you going to make your plan look really good, or are you going to try to attack the other plan and make it look bad?

What details do you know about your plan, and what details should you do a little research on to find out more?