Reconstruction...Path to destruction??

When thinking about Reconstruction, image of an improving and developing nation come to mind. Yet, Eric Foner describes it differently in his book. The period of time after the civil war, known as the Reconstruction, was marked a time of instability and greater inequalities to the newly "freed" African American. It seems surprising that a nation, specifically in this case the Union, would fight a war to abolish slavery, and then to not truly grant these freedom's to African Americans. For example, African Americans, although free, were not granted the right to vote. In 1863, President Lincoln passed the Ten Percent Plan of Reconstruction which basically admitted Confederate states into the Union if 10 percent of its voters would take an oath of allegiance to the US and abolish slavery for good. Many northern abolitionist were enraged at Lincoln's lenient ways and for not enforcing black suffrage and equal rights. Though, Lincoln's main concern was not of the African Americans, but mostly of getting the Confederate States back into the Union. By administering Black suffrage and equal rights, the Confederate states would not consider signing into the Union. Although the Reconstruction has its good intents, it resulted in creating an even greater issue, the institution of racial inequality.