Following the American Civil War and testimony before Congress that President Andrew Johnson's self-reconstruction was not allowing newly freed slaves many civil rights, Congress passed four Reconstruction Acts which set forth requirements for civilians to take control over the state governments in formerly Confederate states, instead of the military. Because Virginia's 1850 Constitution supported slavery, which became illegal during the American Civil War, and the delegates drafting the 1864 Constitution under provisional Governor Francis Harrison Pierpont did not represent the entire state, Virginia needed to draft and adopt a new Constitution to end military rule.