[Non-Sequitur]

Reconstruction, such as it were, was not an easy time for whites...you can surely understand what it was like for the blacks.

Reconstruction was enacted in part because of the southern treatment of blacks. Prior to that every soutehrn state had enacted Black Codes aimed at returning blacks to a state as closely resembling slavery as possible.

People may have wanted to end the practice of slavery but they were not so excited about helping the actual slaves.

Not much arguement there. But indifference to the fate of the freed slave is a bit different than opposition to freeing him in the first place.

[P-40]

But indifference to the fate of the freed slave is a bit different than opposition to freeing him in the first place.

Yes, as a slave he had food, clothing, and shelter. As a free man...well, he was free. Reconstruction, planned starting with the onset of war, had less to do with the treatment of blacks after the war than it did with trying to end the unrest that led to the war in the first place. The violence caused by this poorly conceived plan lasted for decades. Had Lincoln not died, perahps it would have been different.