Once the last bullet was fired and the remaining slaves were freed, a problem arose so large that how the United States responded could alter race relations in the country for many years. The Southern economy, once thriving under slavery, had been completely torn apart by the scars of war, and it was up to the current president and Congress to help restore it to its former state of economic prosperity. This period of American history is known as Reconstruction and soon after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, the Vice President, was thrust into the spotlight and engineered what is known as Presidential Reconstruction. Raised in a relatively poor Southern white family, Andrew Johnson developed a prejudice against newly freed African Americans because he saw them as a threat to poor Southern whites. This was then revealed through his stubbornness in office, his economic policies and the laws he tried to pass. take office. Andrew Johnson grew up in a home that was less than ideal for raising a child, born in Raleigh, North Carolina to Jacob Johnson and Mary McDonough. Andrew experienced the pain of poverty at the tender age of 3, when his father died and his family plunged into poverty. The youngest of three children, Johnson had to teach himself to read and write. “Unlike the children of the rich, he never had a day of school in his life: his mother was too poor to afford it.” From an early age Johnson, his mother worked as a seamstress and barely earned any money along with his stepfather who was a local Taylor. As the years passed he began to feel the sting of prejudice from upper-class white Americans. In Johnson's teenage years in Raleigh, the son of John Daveraux, a wealthy... middle of paper... ended. Andrew Johnson was thrust into the spotlight as president when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. A man with a relatively poor upbringing, he developed a dislike for newly freed African Americans because of the way they affected poor southern whites, and because of this he fought laws intended to help African Americans, implemented economic reforms, and was " concrete". with its policies. Johnson created an environment where he could have blacks be slaves without the title of slavery. His fight against civil rights or any restrictions in favor of free men was extensive and continued throughout his presidency and I see it as one of the main reasons why civil rights were not introduced much earlier in the United States. Thousands killed and thousands of homes destroyed post-war South got the angel they prayed for Andrew Johnson became president!