Lincoln's Reconstruction plan was to get the Southern states back in the Union as long as they outlawed slavery. He never got around to do this himself, as he was assassinated. When Andrew Jackson became President he didn't want harsh laws to the South since he had a bias towards them, Congress would not allow this though. Former slaves took this opportunity to learn how to read and write as they could get jobs this way. In the South though, being a former slave was still difficult. Southern states had a thing called Black Codes, which restricted African Americans from getting jobs, land, going to school, and voting. The Black Codes were later demolished as the Constitution came around and had three amendments that specifically made the Black Codes illegal.