essay questions for civil war reconstruction

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Reconstruction

By: History.com Editors

Updated: January 24, 2024 | Original: October 29, 2009

Reconstruction (1865-1877), the turbulent era following the Civil War, was the effort to reintegrate Southern states from the Confederacy and 4 million newly-freed people into the United States. Under the administration of President Andrew Johnson in 1865 and 1866, new southern state legislatures passed restrictive “ Black Codes ” to control the labor and behavior of former enslaved people and other African Americans. 

Outrage in the North over these codes eroded support for the approach known as Presidential Reconstruction and led to the triumph of the more radical wing of the Republican Party. During Radical Reconstruction, which began with the passage of the Reconstruction Act of 1867, newly enfranchised Black people gained a voice in government for the first time in American history, winning election to southern state legislatures and even to the U.S. Congress. In less than a decade, however, reactionary forces—including the Ku Klux Klan —would reverse the changes wrought by Radical Reconstruction in a violent backlash that restored white supremacy in the South.

Emancipation and Reconstruction

At the outset of the Civil War , to the dismay of the more radical abolitionists in the North, President Abraham Lincoln did not make abolition of slavery a goal of the Union war effort. To do so, he feared, would drive the border slave states still loyal to the Union into the Confederacy and anger more conservative northerners. By the summer of 1862, however, enslaved people, themselves had pushed the issue, heading by the thousands to the Union lines as Lincoln’s troops marched through the South. 

Their actions debunked one of the strongest myths underlying Southern devotion to the “peculiar institution”—that many enslaved people were truly content in bondage—and convinced Lincoln that emancipation had become a political and military necessity. In response to Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation , which freed more than 3 million enslaved people in the Confederate states by January 1, 1863, Black people enlisted in the Union Army in large numbers, reaching some 180,000 by war’s end.

Did you know? During Reconstruction, the Republican Party in the South represented a coalition of Black people (who made up the overwhelming majority of Republican voters in the region) along with "carpetbaggers" and "scalawags," as white Republicans from the North and South, respectively, were known.

Emancipation changed the stakes of the Civil War, ensuring that a Union victory would mean large-scale social revolution in the South. It was still very unclear, however, what form this revolution would take. Over the next several years, Lincoln considered ideas about how to welcome the devastated South back into the Union, but as the war drew to a close in early 1865, he still had no clear plan. 

In a speech delivered on April 11, while referring to plans for Reconstruction in Louisiana, Lincoln proposed that some Black people–including free Black people and those who had enlisted in the military –deserved the right to vote. He was assassinated three days later, however, and it would fall to his successor to put plans for Reconstruction in place.

Andrew Johnson and Presidential Reconstruction

At the end of May 1865, President Andrew Johnson announced his plans for Reconstruction, which reflected both his staunch Unionism and his firm belief in states’ rights. In Johnson’s view, the southern states had never given up their right to govern themselves, and the federal government had no right to determine voting requirements or other questions at the state level. 

Under Johnson’s Presidential Reconstruction, all land that had been confiscated by the Union Army and distributed to the formerly enslaved people by the army or the Freedmen’s Bureau (established by Congress in 1865) reverted to its prewar owners. Apart from being required to uphold the abolition of slavery (in compliance with the 13th Amendment to the Constitution ), swear loyalty to the Union and pay off war debt, southern state governments were given free rein to rebuild themselves.

As a result of Johnson’s leniency, many southern states in 1865 and 1866 successfully enacted a series of laws known as the “ black codes ,” which were designed to restrict freed Black peoples’ activity and ensure their availability as a labor force. These repressive codes enraged many in the North, including numerous members of Congress, which refused to seat congressmen and senators elected from the southern states. 

In early 1866, Congress passed the Freedmen’s Bureau and Civil Rights Bills and sent them to Johnson for his signature. The first bill extended the life of the bureau, originally established as a temporary organization charged with assisting refugees and formerly enslaved people, while the second defined all persons born in the United States as national citizens who were to enjoy equality before the law. After Johnson vetoed the bills—causing a permanent rupture in his relationship with Congress that would culminate in his impeachment in 1868—the Civil Rights Act became the first major bill to become law over presidential veto.

Radical Reconstruction

After northern voters rejected Johnson’s policies in the congressional elections in late 1866, Radical Republicans in Congress took firm hold of Reconstruction in the South. The following March, again over Johnson’s veto, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867, which temporarily divided the South into five military districts and outlined how governments based on universal (male) suffrage were to be organized. The law also required southern states to ratify the 14th Amendment , which broadened the definition of citizenship, granting “equal protection” of the Constitution to formerly enslaved people, before they could rejoin the Union. In February 1869, Congress approved the 15th Amendment (adopted in 1870), which guaranteed that a citizen’s right to vote would not be denied “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

By 1870, all of the former Confederate states had been admitted to the Union, and the state constitutions during the years of Radical Reconstruction were the most progressive in the region’s history. The participation of African Americans in southern public life after 1867 would be by far the most radical development of Reconstruction, which was essentially a large-scale experiment in interracial democracy unlike that of any other society following the abolition of slavery. 

Southern Black people won election to southern state governments and even to the U.S. Congress during this period. Among the other achievements of Reconstruction were the South’s first state-funded public school systems, more equitable taxation legislation, laws against racial discrimination in public transport and accommodations and ambitious economic development programs (including aid to railroads and other enterprises).

Reconstruction Comes to an End

After 1867, an increasing number of southern whites turned to violence in response to the revolutionary changes of Radical Reconstruction. The Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist organizations targeted local Republican leaders, white and Black, and other African Americans who challenged white authority. Though federal legislation passed during the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant in 1871 took aim at the Klan and others who attempted to interfere with Black suffrage and other political rights, white supremacy gradually reasserted its hold on the South after the early 1870s as support for Reconstruction waned. 

Racism was still a potent force in both South and North, and Republicans became more conservative and less egalitarian as the decade continued. In 1874—after an economic depression plunged much of the South into poverty—the Democratic Party won control of the House of Representatives for the first time since the Civil War.

When Democrats waged a campaign of violence to take control of Mississippi in 1875, Grant refused to send federal troops, marking the end of federal support for Reconstruction-era state governments in the South. By 1876, only Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina were still in Republican hands. In the contested presidential election that year, Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes reached a compromise with Democrats in Congress: In exchange for certification of his election, he acknowledged Democratic control of the entire South. 

The Compromise of 1876 marked the end of Reconstruction as a distinct period, but the struggle to deal with the revolution ushered in by slavery’s eradication would continue in the South and elsewhere long after that date. 

A century later, the legacy of Reconstruction would be revived during the civil rights movement of the 1960s, as African Americans fought for the political, economic and social equality that had long been denied them.

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Reconstruction

KEY IDEA:  POST-CIVIL WAR ERA (1865 – 1900): Reconstruction resulted in political reunion and expanded constitutional rights. However, those rights were undermined, and issues of inequality continued for African Americans, women, Native Americans, Mexican Americans, and Chinese immigrants.

CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING:  Federal policies regarding westward expansion had positive effects on the national economy but negative consequences for Native Americans.

CONTENT SPECIFICATION: Students will examine the effect of federal policies on Native Americans on the Great Plains, including reservation policies, the Dawes Act (1887), and forced acculturation efforts (Carlisle Indian School).

Following the U.S. Civil War, the United States entered a period of Reconstruction . Federal policies revolving around economic and political reform resulted in expansion of the economy, as well as an expansion of constitutional rights .  However, those rights were undermined, and issues of inequality continued for African Americans, women, Native Americans, Mexican Americans, and Chinese immigrants. 

Unit 4 - Reconstruction - Unit Plan

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• Part 3 Civic Literacy Essay Task 

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U.S. History

Framework Aligned Unit Assessment Bank developed in partnership with CUNY Debating US History: Stimulus Based Multiple Choice - Unit 4

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Framework Aligned Unit Assessment Bank developed in partnership with CUNY Debating US History: 11.4 Civic Literacy Document Based Essay Task

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End of Unit Assessment: Unit 4 Synthesis Task

Students will analyze the reconstruction era from the perspectives of different groups including: industrialists, women, African Americans, Native Americans, and immigrants.

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Unit Introduction and Vocabulary See 4 items Hide 4 items

These curricular resources introduce students to the concepts and vocabulary they will encounter in the unit.

Global History I

Unit Introduction and Vocabulary: Vocabulary Opener

Unit Introduction and Vocabulary: Vocabulary Review Activity

Unit Introduction and Vocabulary: Unit 4 Vocabulary Chart - Student Facing

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Building Context See 2 items Hide 2 items

This curricular resource will help students chronologically analyze events from 1865 to 1900. 

Building Context: Unit 4 Essential Questions Introduction

Students will review images to unpack themes and essential questions from unit 4. 

Building Context: Timeline of American History: 1865 to 1900

Students will complete two timelines: Reconstruction (1865 - 1877) and Rise of Industrial America (1876 - 1900).  

Reconstruction - New Visions for Public Schools in collaboration with Facing History and Ourselves See 22 items Hide 22 items

This set of curricular resources was developed in collaboration with Facing History and Ourselves .  The resources are based on a unit developed by Facing History known as The Reconstruction Era and The Fragility of Democracy.  More information as well as a link to download a free PDF of the Facing History unit is available here.

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Reconstruction - New Visions for Public Schools in collaboration with Facing History and Ourselves: Timeline of Reconstruction Policies

What were the major legislative policies of Reconstruction? Students will analyze the causes and effects of major legislation. 

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Reconstruction - New Visions for Public Schools in collaboration with Facing History and Ourselves: End of Civil War

What can we learn by comparing and contrasting views from the Union and the Confederacy regarding the end of the Civil War? What do the differences suggest about the challenge of reuniting the country after the devastating war?  

This curricular resource asks students to compare and contrast points of view and perspective with regards to the end of the Civil War.  

Reconstruction - New Visions for Public Schools in collaboration with Facing History and Ourselves: Devastation of War

What impact did the Civil War have on the United States? What needed to be rebuilt at the end of the war? Who is responsible for rebuilding after the Civil War? 

Students will compare and contrast images, as well as review a data table.  

Reconstruction - New Visions for Public Schools in collaboration with Facing History and Ourselves: New Names

What were some of the immediate effects of freedom and the end of the Civil War on formerly enslaved African Americans?

Students will examine primary and secondary sources.  

Reconstruction - New Visions for Public Schools in collaboration with Facing History and Ourselves: Emancipation Legislation

How did federal legislation, including the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment, define freedom or equality for formerly enslaved African Americans at the end of the Civil War?

Students will analyze primary sources. 

Reconstruction - New Visions for Public Schools in collaboration with Facing History and Ourselves: Defining Freedom: Document Analysis Jigsaw

What is freedom? What does it mean to be free? What did it mean to formerly enslaved African Americans to be free?  

Students will analyze different primary sources. 

Reconstruction - New Visions for Public Schools in collaboration with Facing History and Ourselves: Freedmen's Bureau

How did the Freedmen’s Bureau define and provide for freedom and equality for African Americans?

Students will analyze what freedom meant from the perspective of the Freedmen's Bureau. 

Reconstruction - New Visions for Public Schools in collaboration with Facing History and Ourselves: Plans for Reconstruction

After the Civil War, how could America simultaneously heal and provide justice to all its citizens?

Students will participate in a forced choice debate.  

Reconstruction - New Visions for Public Schools in collaboration with Facing History and Ourselves: Healing vs Justice Document Analysis

After the Civil War, how can America simultaneously heal and provide justice to all its citizens?

In order to access the curricular resources linked below, you must fill out this form:  https://goo.gl/YDuhB8

Reconstruction - New Visions for Public Schools in collaboration with Facing History and Ourselves: Whose land is it?

Students will analyze primary sources to examine closely land redistribution after the Civil War.  

Reconstruction - New Visions for Public Schools in collaboration with Facing History and Ourselves: Sharecropping

Students will examine multiple perspectives on sharecropping. 

Reconstruction - New Visions for Public Schools in collaboration with Facing History and Ourselves: Black Codes

Students will analyze the black codes. 

Reconstruction - New Visions for Public Schools in collaboration with Facing History and Ourselves: Evolution of Reconstruction

This graphic organizer helps students compare Presidential Reconstruction to Radical Reconstruction.  

Reconstruction - New Visions for Public Schools in collaboration with Facing History and Ourselves: Defining Citizenship

How did legislation define citizenship for newly freed men and women during Reconstruction?

Reconstruction - New Visions for Public Schools in collaboration with Facing History and Ourselves: Debating Radical Reconstruction

Why did President Johnson oppose the Radical Reconstruction plan? Why did Radical Republicans support Radical Reconstruction? ​

Students will analyze primary source documents. 

Reconstruction - New Visions for Public Schools in collaboration with Facing History and Ourselves: Interracial Democracy

What were the consequences of Radical Reconstruction? How did interracial democracy look for the United States during Radical Reconstruction?

Reconstruction - New Visions for Public Schools in collaboration with Facing History and Ourselves: Carpetbaggers

Who were the carpetbaggers? How were they viewed and portrayed?

Reconstruction - New Visions for Public Schools in collaboration with Facing History and Ourselves: Reactions to Interracial Democracy

What was the backlash against Radical Reconstruction? Why was there backlash against Radical Reconstruction?

Reconstruction - New Visions for Public Schools in collaboration with Facing History and Ourselves: Ku Klux Klan and Backlash against Reconstruction

Students will analyze a video clip, and a mix of primary and secondary source documents to analyze the origins and activities the Ku Klux Klan in the 1860's.  

Reconstruction - New Visions for Public Schools in collaboration with Facing History and Ourselves: Redemption Violence

Students will analyze primary and secondary sources to better understand Redemption Violence. 

Reconstruction - New Visions for Public Schools in collaboration with Facing History and Ourselves: Images of African Americans

Students will analyze images and text to better understand how leaders like Frederick Douglass used photography to combat the backlash against Reconstruction. 

Reconstruction - New Visions for Public Schools in collaboration with Facing History and Ourselves: How do we remember Reconstruction?

Students will analyze a video clip, a Langston Hughes poem, and an excerpt of writing by W.E.B. DuBois to better understand the legacy of Reconstruction. 

Effects of Reconstruction See 4 items Hide 4 items

These curricular resources explore the effects of Reconstruction. 

Students will analyze Jim Crow laws, a cartoon related to the Jim Crow era, and write a speech protesting their legality.

Effects of Reconstruction: Literacy Tests and Poll Taxes

Students will analyze a political cartoon about the use of Literacy tests in the South and examine primary source document related to poll taxes.  

Effects of Reconstruction: Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Which SCOTUS case established the idea of separate but equal? How did this legal standard impact American society?

Identify and discuss:

• one social, one political, AND one economic change in American society that occurred as a result of the Civil War or the period of Reconstruction

Women's Rights Movement See 3 items Hide 3 items

This curricular resource explores the early Women's Suffrage Movement.  

Women's Rights Movement: United States v. Susan B. Anthony (1873)

Students will analyze primary sources and participate in a historical conversation.  

Students will engage in a historical conversation. 

Women's Rights Movement: Impact of Reconstruction on Women's Rights

Students will analyze three primary sources and create a timeline.  

Westward Expansion See 5 items Hide 5 items

These curricular resources explore the causes and effects of westward expansion. 

Westward Expansion: Causes and Effects of Westward Expansion

Students will be able to analyze documents to determine whether or not they represents causes or effects of Westward Expansion. 

Westward Expansion: Legislation for Westward Expansion

Students will examine an image and connect it to either the Pacific Railway Act and / or the Homestead Act 

Westward Expansion: American Progress - a painting by John Gast

Students will analyze John Gast's painting American Progress & analyze the effects of manifest destiny.

Students will examine primary source documents to analyze the causes and effects of the Dawes Act.  Students will complete a cloze reading paragraph.  

Westward Expansion: "Kill the Indian, Save the Man": Carlisle Indian Industrial School

Inquiry Question How did the US try to force Indigenous people to assimilate?

Learning Objective Students will be able to analyze the impact of US assimilationist policies by evaluating the reliability of different sources concerning the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. 

Impact of Westward Expansion on Immigrants See 2 items Hide 2 items

These curricular resources explore the causes and effects of westward expansion on Chinese immigrants and Mexican Americans. 

Impact of Westward Expansion on Immigrants: Chinese Exclusion Act

This curricular resource asks students to view the Chinese Exclusion Act from multiple viewpoints. 

Impact of Westward Expansion on Immigrants: DBQ: Effects of Westward Expansion on Native Americans, Women, and Chinese Immigrants

Students will examine documents related to westward expansion and its impact on Native Americans, Women, and Chinese Immigrants. 

Unit Synthesis Task See 1 item Hide 1 item

This curricular resource provides students with an opportunity to synthesize what they learned in the unit before completing the End of Unit Assessment.

Civil War and Reconstruction Toolkit

The American Civil War was fought from 1861-1865, and followed by the period of Reconstruction, generally accepted by scholars to have ended in 1877. The following collections include documents essential to gaining and understanding of how the war began, progressed, and ended, and how Reconstruction was conceived and attempted.

Guiding Questions

• What did Americans think about slavery and emancipation as a constitutional matter, and how did their disagreement over the institution and its possible elimination shape the coming of the Civil War and its prosecution?
• How did Americans understand secession and the problem it posed for the viability of self-government?
• How did Lincoln and Americans understand the nature of the federal union and Constitution in relation to state sovereignty?
• What problems did Reconstruction pose for Presidents and Congresses both during and after the Civil War, and to what extent did the federal structure of the American union, along with the 13 th , 14 th , and 15 th Amendments, complicate the return of peaceful self-government to the United States?

Suggested answers

Essential Documents

• Fragment on the Constitution and Union , 1861, Abraham Lincoln
• South Carolina Declaration of Causes of Secession , 1860
• “Corner Stone” Speech , 1861, Alexander Stephens
• The War – Its Cause and Cure , 1861, William Lloyd Garrison
• Message to Congress in Special Session , 1861, Abraham Lincoln
• Letter to Horace Greeley , 1861, Abraham Lincoln
• Final Emancipation Proclamation , 1863, Abraham Lincoln
• Gettysburg Address , 1863, Abraham Lincoln
• Resolution Submitting the Thirteenth Amendment to the States , 1865, Abraham Lincoln
• Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln , 1876, Frederick Douglass
• Documents in Detail: Gettysburg Address
• Moments of Crisis: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
• Documents in Detail: Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address
• American Controversies: Did Lincoln Violate the Constitution?
• Great American Debates: Secessionists vs. Unionists
• American Minds: Frederick Douglass
• Documents in Detail: Lincoln’s Fragment on the Constitution and Union
• Special Webinar: What Can We Learn from the Election of 1860?
• Special Webinar: Heroes of the Civil War
• Enduring American Questions: Did Slavery Cause the Civil War?
• Documents in Detail: “Cornerstone” Speech
• Documents in Detail: Final Emancipation Proclamation

Lesson Plans

• On the Eve of War – A one-day lesson focused on the relative strengths and weaknesses of the North and the South on the eve of the American Civil War
• Battles of the Civil War – Help students learn the essentials about important battles of the war in this two-day lesson
• Abraham Lincoln and Wartime Politics – This in-depth 3-4 day lesson explores Lincoln’s handling of the war as a political event
• Abraham Lincoln on the American Union – a four-lesson arc examining the president, his ideas, and his actions
• The Battle over Reconstruction – a three-lesson mini-unit on the tumultuous years after the war
• Making Sense of Secession – a week-long sequence of lessons exploring Southern justifications – constitutional, legal, and moral – for secession
• Civil Rights, Andrew Johnson, and the Radical Republicans – a 3-day lesson sequence helping students understand the foundation of the post-Civil War Civil Rights movements

Receive resources and noteworthy updates.

Reconstruction: Inquiry High School Lesson Plan

Grades: High School

Approximate Length of Time: 3 hours excluding the final essay

Goal: Students will be able to discuss and cite the outcomes of the reconstruction period – 1863-1877.

Objectives:

• Students will be able to complete questions, finding key information within primary and secondary sources.
• Students will be able to address a question about a historic event, providing evidence from primary and secondary sources.
• Students will be able to identify ways in which historic events impact current events.

Common Core Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.2 Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary specific to domains related to history/social studies.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.6-8.1 Write arguments focused on discipline-specific content.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.6-8.2 Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific procedures/ experiments, or technical processes.

NCSS Standards for Social Studies:

1—Culture 2—Time, Continuity, and Change 3—People, Places, and Environment 5—Individuals, Groups, and Institutions 6—Power, Authority, and Governance 10—Civic Ideals and Practices

Description:

This is an inquiry lesson where students will do research to answer the inquiry question concerning the reconstruction period following the civil war. Students will develop a hypothesis, search for evidence in multiple primary and secondary sources, and complete a graphic organizer. Through this process students will develop a strong answer to the inquiry question posed at the beginning.

Inquiry Question:

What are the outcomes of the period known as Reconstruction?

• Primary Source Documents Packet
• Some of the secondary sources are links, be sure to allow access to the internet for these documents and videos
• Final Essay
• Highlighters
• The PowerPoint will act as a guide for the lesson. The PowerPoint is so detailed, it can even be done independently by students.
• There are videos within the PowerPoint that should be queued-up ahead of the lesson presentation.
• Documents within the Primary Source packet and Secondary Source packet will be referred to through-out the PowerPoint. Some of the documents are required reading, while others are noted in the PowerPoint as ‘provided,’ meaning the document has been provided but is not required reading. The provided documents might be useful for more in-depth understanding or for research purposes. Students may wish to look over and cite these documents for their essay.
• For each document guiding questions are provided, it is up to the teacher as to whether or not these need to be answered. The questions help focus students’ attention and guide in the formation of their own document related questions.
• Students should provide citations to documents as they complete the storyboard, this will act as an organizer/outline for their final essay.

Conclusion:

Students will answer the inquiry question either orally or in essay form (Essay is provided). They should use evidence from their primary and secondary sources. They can use the documents, their notes, the storyboard, and their answered questions. Students can do additional research to bolster their argument.

Assessment in this Lesson:

• Completed storyboard.
• A complete answer to the inquiry question with citations from the provided documents.

6 Primary Sources from the American Civil War

Antietam 360: Natural and Man-made Features Middle School Lesson Plan

The Civil War Animated Map: Traditional Middle School Lesson Plan

Slavery, Abolition, Emancipation and Freedom

• Explore the Collection
• Collections in Context
• Teaching the Collection
• Advanced Collection Research

Reconstruction, 1865-1877

Donald Brown, Harvard University, G6, English PhD Candidate

No period in American history has had more wide-reaching implications than Reconstruction. However, white supremacist mythologies about those contentious years from 1865-1877 reigned supreme both inside and outside the academy until the 1960s. Columbia University’s now-infamous Dunning School (1900-1930) epitomizes the dominant narrative regarding Reconstruction for over half of the twentieth century. From their point of view, Reconstruction was a tragic period of American history in which vengeful White Northern radicals took over the South. In order to punish the White Southerners they had just defeated in the Civil War, these Radical Republicans gave ignorant freedmen the right to vote. This resulted in at least 2,000 elected Black officeholders, including two United States senators and 21 representatives. In order to discredit the sweeping changes taking place across the American South, conservative historians argued this period was full of corruption and disorder and proved that Black Americans were not fit to leadership or citizenship.

Thanks to the work of a number of Black and leftist historians—most notably John Roy Lynch, W.E.B. Du Bois, Willie Lee Rose, and Eric Foner—that negative depiction of Reconstruction is being overturned. As Du Bois famously wrote in Black Reconstruction in America (1935), this was a time in which “the slave went free; stood for a brief moment in the sun; and then moved back again toward slavery.” During that short time in the sun, underfunded biracial state governments taxed big planters to pay for education, healthcare, and roads that benefited everyone. There is still much more to be unpacked from this rich period of American history, and Houghton Library contains a wealth of material to further buttress new narratives of that era.

Reconstructing Reconstruction

While some academics, like those of the Dunning School, interpreted Reconstruction as doomed to failure, in the years immediately following the Civil War there were many Americans, Black and White, who saw the radical reforms as being sabotaged from the outset. Writer and civil rights activist Albion W. Tourgée published his best selling novel Bricks Without Straw in 1880. Unlike most White authors at the time, Tourgée centered Black characters in his novel, showing how the recently emancipated were faced with violence and political oppression in spite of their attempts to be equal citizens.

In this period, two of the most iconic amendments were implemented. The Fourteenth Amendment ratified several crucial civil rights clauses. The natural born citizenship clause overturned the 1857 supreme court case, Dred Scott v. Sandford , which stated that descendants of African slaves could not be citizens of the United States. The equal protection clause ensured formerly enslaved persons crucial legal rights and validated the equality provisions contained in the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Even though many of these clauses were cleverly disregarded by numerous states once Reconstruction ended, particularly in the Deep South, the equal protection clause was the basis of the NAACP’s victory in the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). The Fifteenth Amendment guaranteed another important civil right: the right to vote. No longer could any state discriminate on the basis of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. At Houghton, we have proof of the exhilarating response Black Americans had to the momentous progress they worked so hard to bring about: Nashvillians organized a Fifteenth Amendment Celebration on May 4, 1870. And once again, during the classical period of the Civil Rights Movement, leaders appealed to this amendment to make their case for what became the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The Reign of Kings Alpha and Abadon

Lorenzo D. Blackson's fantastical allegory novel, The Rise and Progress of the Kingdoms of Light & Darkness ; Reign of Kings Alpha and Abadon (1867), is one of the most ambitious creative efforts of Black authors during Reconstruction. A Protestant religious allegory in the lineage of John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress , Blackson's novel follows his vision of a holy war between good and evil, showing slavery and racial oppression on the side of evil King Abadon and Protestant abolitionists and freemen on the side of good King Alpha. The combination of fantasy holy war, religious pedagogy, and Reconstruction era optimism provide a unique insight to one contemporary Black perspective on the time.

It is important to emphasize that these radical policy initiatives were set by Black Americans themselves. It was, in fact, from formerly enslaved persons, not those who formerly enslaved them, that the most robust notions of freedom were imagined and enacted. With the help of the nation’s first civil rights president, Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877), and Radical Republicans, such as Benjamin Franklin Wade and Thaddeus Stevens, substantial strides in racial advancement were made in those short twelve years. Houghton Library is home to a wide array of examples of said advancement, such as a letter written in 1855 by Frederick Douglass to Charles Sumner, the nation’s leading abolitionist. In it, he argues that Black Americans, not White abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison, founded the antislavery movement. That being said, Douglass was appreciative of allies, such as President Grant, of whom he said: “in him the Negro found a protector, the Indian a friend, a vanquished foe a brother, an imperiled nation a savior.” Houghton Library also houses an extraordinary letter dated December 1, 1876 from Sojourner Truth , famous abolitionist and women’s rights activist, who could neither read nor write. She had someone help steady her hand so she could provide a signed letter to a fan, and promised to also send her supporter an autobiography, Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Bondswoman of Olden Time, Emancipated by the New York Legislature in the Early Part of the Present Century: with a History of Her Labors and Correspondence.

In this hopeful time, Black Americans, primarily located in the South, were determined to use their demographic power to demand their right to a portion of the wealth and property their labor had created. In states like South Carolina and Mississippi, which were majority Black at the time, and Louisiana , Alabama, and Georgia , with Black Americans consisting of nearly half of the population, the United States elected its first Black U.S. congressmen. Now that Black Southern men had the power to vote, they eagerly elected Black men to represent their best interests. Jefferson Franklin Long (U.S. congressman from Georgia), Joseph Hayne Rainey (U.S. congressman from South Carolina), and Hiram Rhodes Revels (Mississippi U.S. Senator) all took office in the 41st Congress (1869-1871). These elected officials were memorialized in a lithograph by popular firm Currier and Ives. Other federal agencies, such as the Freedmen’s Bureau , also assisted Black Americans build businesses, churches, and schools; own land and cultivate crops; and more generally establish cultural and economic autonomy. As Frederick Douglass wrote in 1870, “at last, at last the black man has a future.”

Black Americans quickly took full advantage of their newfound freedom in a myriad of ways. Alfred Islay Walden’s story is a particularly remarkable example of this. Born a slave in Randolph County, North Carolina, he only gained freedom after Emancipation. He traveled by foot to Washington, D.C. and made a living selling poems and giving lectures across the Northeast. He also attended school at Howard University on scholarship, graduating in 1876, and used that formal education to establish a mission school and become one of the first Black graduates of New Brunswick Theological Seminary. Walden’s Miscellaneous Poems, Which The Author Desires to Dedicate to The Cause of Education and Humanity (1872) celebrates the “Impeachment of President Johnson,” one of the most racist presidents in American history; “The Election of Mayor Bowen,” a Radical Republican mayor of Washington, D.C. (Sayles Jenks Bowen); and Walden’s own religious convictions, such as in “Jesus my Friend;” among other topics.

Black newspapers quickly emerged during Reconstruction as well, such as the Colored Representative , a Black newspaper based in Lexington, KY in the 1870s. As editor George B. Thomas wrote in an “Extra,” dated May 25, 1871 : “We want all the arts and fashions of the North, East and Western states, for the benefit of the colored people. They cannot know what is going on, unless they read our paper.... Now, we want everything that is a benefit to our colored people. Speeches, debates, and sermons will be published.”

Reconstruction proves that Black people, when not impeded by structural barriers, are enthusiastic civic participants. Houghton houses rich archival material on Black Americans advocating for civil rights in Vicksburg, Mississippi , Little Rock, Arkansas , and Atlanta, Georgia , among other states, in the forms of state Colored Conventions and powerful political speeches . For anyone interested in the long history of the Civil Rights Movement, these holdings are a treasure trove waiting to be mined. Though the moment in the sun was brief, the heat exuded during Reconstruction left a deep impact on progressive Americans and will continue to provide an exemplary political model for generations to come.

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Major problems in the Civil War and Reconstruction : documents and essays

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Post-Civil War Reconstruction in the American History Essay

Post-civil war reconstruction (1865-1877).

• Late 19th century industrialization
• Reform movements in the 19th Century

Life in the United States in the 1920s

Depression and new deal in the 1930s, united states in world war ii and the cold war that followed, reform and revolution in the 1960s, conservative reaction in the 1970s and 1980s, works cited.

Prior to the American Civil War of the 1860s, the American economy, particularly the Southern States, was driven by agricultural production. New markets in Europe were the driving force behind this economy. The cash crop of the day was cotton, and the import countries included France, New England and Britain. Initially, agricultural production was organized in small scale, but with increasing demand, it was transformed to large scale production.

Consequently, there was growing need for labor in these large plantations of the south. In effect, it sparked slave trade and slavery that provided for cheap labor. This was how Trans-Atlantic Trade was borne and hence Black oppression.

Slavery was the main recipe for the American Civil War of the 1865. While the White Northerners were opposed to it, their Southern counterparts embraced it. In the post-Civil War, a Northern victory meant that the Blacks were disenfranchised as Emancipation Proclamation was declared.

The 13 th , 14 th and 15 th amendments were passed giving Blacks suffrage rights as well as protecting them. As a result, the Blacks enjoyed a brief spell (before 1977) of partial equality with their White counterparts. In a conclusion, the above literature underscores the fact that the foreign affairs influenced the American domestic issues a great deal.

Late 19 th century industrialization

The 19 th century in the US represents an era in the American history when mechanization of production was intense. Factories were mushrooming allover accelerating the growth of metropolitan cities. The then factories were typified by machines driven by shafts, belts and wheels, with the driving force being steam engines thanks to James Watts. Also, the layout of the factories was such that the machines lay randomly on the flow.

There was no systematic production and hence there was a natural feel to streamline the system. Within a short time in the mid 19 th century, America was, deep, into industrial revolution where division of labor, specialization and mechanization were the buzzwords. The essence was to promote mass production thanks to assembly lines.

This idea was adopted from shipbuilding industry based in England. Also, it was during this period that the need to standardize machinery parts for the sake of interchangeability came to light. This was adopted from France by Thomas Jefferson. These two ideas metamorphosed American industries which came to be termed as “American system of manufacturing” (Backer 3)

Industrial revolution changed societies as skilled laborers were rendered obsolete. For instance, Blanchard’s fourteen-assembly, gun making machine in 1926 rendered skilled workers redundant. On the other hand, Henry Ford developed cheap automobile and further enhanced mobility.

Reform movements in the 19 th Century

In the United States, the reform movements of the 19 th century were entirely politically driven. These movements which include abolitionism, temperance and religious movements functioned to change the American society a great deal. Importantly, some of these movements were global, spanning way beyond the American border. For instance, abolitionism was a global movement to stem slave trade.

Ideally, abolitionism had its roots way back in the mid 16 th century when the Spanish government enacted the first law rendering slavery illegal. However, this was not actively enforced. Then a century on, the English Quakers condemned slavery terming it ‘un-Christian.’ In the 18 th century, abolition was one of the core themes fronted by the ‘First Great Awakening,’ a movement signed by 13 colonies.

These anti-slavery campaigns would later spread to the US such that in the wake of the 19 th century, most Northern States had abolished slavery altogether. Consequently, the Northern Blacks were granted freedom, nevertheless, racism and discrimination would not end until the mid 20 th century.

The 1920s in the American history is a period when America was beaming with life, and as such, to many, this period would come to be referred to as the ‘Roaring Twenties.’ Social and cultural life was changing among the American citizens. Remarkably, there was the enactment of the 18 th Amendment which rendered alcoholism illegal.

Prohibition played to the advantage of the Christian faith, bringing joy to evangelists who envisioned restoration of values to a society characterized by loose morals. Ironically, violence became even more pronounced. For instance, the KKK gang resurfaced, disguising under names like Wizard and Dragon.

This group was against Catholicism, African Americans, Jews, and immigrants who fled from oppression in their home countries. To this end, immigrants who were fleeing Eastern Europe were viewed as inferior by the natives and hence suffered discrimination.

Importantly, with a stable economy, the US was able to use its financial muscle abroad, executing the Dawes Plan in post-WWI, and financed German when it was unable to pay reparations to both Britain and France.

The Great Depression came in the aftermath of the WWI in the year 1929 during President Hoover’s era. This was an era in the American history when the economy lay in ruins, crippling financial institutions and industries, subsequently causing an unsurpassed unemployment rate hitherto.

The people back then would hardly forget the ‘Black Tuesday’ when the stock market came crushing down. Vitally, the economic recess was experienced not only in the US but also in Europe. As such, states went ahead to cushion their industries against collapse by increasing tariffs on imported goods. This did not auger well with the US where the situation aggravated.

Consequently, Hoover’s successor, President Roosevelt, came in with his New Deal ideas to relieve the citizens, recover and reform the financial systems. This improved the economy with industries and agricultural sector receiving stimulus package to boost production and employment.

The WWII was triggered by German’s aggression on the Poles. However, the US did not engage in the war initially owing to its foreign policy. America was by then committed to its isolationist policy with President Roosevelt devoted to improving the US economy following the Great Depression. Nonetheless, the US changed its foreign policy with the industrial production embracing artillery manufacture.

As such, the US was gearing up for an imminent war that was later sparked by Japan. Back home, the citizens were committed to the war, evident by their willingness to persevere with rationing on the basic commodities (Reischauer 12). The US would later launch its atomic bombs on Japan killing tens of thousands and hence marking the end of the war. In a nutshell, the Axis forces (German, Italy and Japan) were defeated by the Allies (US, Soviet Union, Great Britain, France).

The end of WWII marked yet again the beginning of a new era that was the Cold War, pitting the US and the Soviet Union. The former was wary of the spread of communism by the later, which was spreading like a bushfire across Europe. This influenced America’s domestic policies where ‘Compliance Law’ came to force to expunge communism.

The 1960s was a decade when reforms were fought in earnest on the American soil. Most of these reforms were fronted by the students with most of their agenda driven by the need for a change in lifestyle. On the other hand, mainstream politicians were campaigning for an end to poverty, the need for government to extend care to the elderly, and the need for the state to offer equal education opportunities across all age groups.

Furthermore, in this dilemma, there was the American foreign policy and the Vietnam War which sparked more protests. To this end, the aggression meted on the Vietnamese greatly influenced the peoples’ behavior back home. A series of protests by students and by civil rights groups orchestrated by Martin Luther Jr. were the hallmark of the sixties.

Consequently, the fruits of their struggles were realized with the congress enacting a number of legislations including “Civil Rights Acts of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Medicare and Medicaid among others” (Leuchtenburg 5). Also, the government put to an end the Vietnam War in the early seventies.

The two decades stretching from the 1970s to the 1980s was the period in the American history when conservatives (Republicans) were in control of the congress with a brief interruption of Democrat rule. The 70s was the era of Nixon, Ford and Carter, with the later being a Democrat. The 80s came to be known as the ‘Reagan Era,’ a Republican.

Significantly, this era was one characterized by competing ideologies from conservatives who were worried of the diluting social values among the American society. Conservatives preferred Republicans who embraced the rule of law and supported Christianity no wonder they enjoyed a long spell in power.

Vitally, they were worried of the foreign influence, for instance, the threat posed by totalitarian governments viewed in most parts of Europe. Nonetheless, they managed to restore sanity in the society and allayed foreign threat.

Backer, Partricia. Industrialization of American Society . Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009. Print.

Leuchtenburg, William. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal. New York: Harper and Row, 1963. Print.

Reischauer, Robert. Countdown to Reform . New York: The Century Foundation Press, 1998. Print.

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IvyPanda. (2020, January 22). Post-Civil War Reconstruction in the American History. https://ivypanda.com/essays/history-of-the-united-states-since-the-civil-war-2/

"Post-Civil War Reconstruction in the American History." IvyPanda , 22 Jan. 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/history-of-the-united-states-since-the-civil-war-2/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'Post-Civil War Reconstruction in the American History'. 22 January.

IvyPanda . 2020. "Post-Civil War Reconstruction in the American History." January 22, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/history-of-the-united-states-since-the-civil-war-2/.

1. IvyPanda . "Post-Civil War Reconstruction in the American History." January 22, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/history-of-the-united-states-since-the-civil-war-2/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Post-Civil War Reconstruction in the American History." January 22, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/history-of-the-united-states-since-the-civil-war-2/.

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#8 ESSAY QUESTION

The Reconstruction Amendments, or the Civil War Amendments, are the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, adopted between 1865 and 1870. The amendments were a part of the implementation of the Reconstruction of the American South which occurred after the Civil War. Explain in detail what each of the Reconstruction Amendments said and established. (4 points)

The Thirteenth Amendment, adopted in 1865, abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. This amendment was a major milestone in American history as it officially ended the institution of slavery in the United States.

The Fourteenth Amendment, adopted in 1868, addressed citizenship rights and equal protection under the law. It granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, including former slaves, and prohibited states from denying any person equal protection under the law. This amendment aimed to ensure that all citizens had equal rights and protections under the law. The Fifteenth Amendment, adopted in 1870, addressed voting rights and prohibited states from denying the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude. This amendment aimed to ensure that African American men were guaranteed the right to vote, although it did not explicitly address other forms of voter discrimination such as literacy tests or poll taxes. Overall, the Reconstruction Amendments played a crucial role in expanding civil rights and protections for all Americans, particularly for African Americans who had been enslaved and disenfranchised prior to the Civil War. These amendments laid the groundwork for future civil rights legislation and the ongoing fight for equality and justice in the United States.

in a small para

The thirteenth amendment abolished slavery, the fourteenth granted citizenship and equal protection under the law, and the fifteenth ensured voting rights regardless of race. together, these reconstruction amendments were instrumental in expanding civil rights and protections for all americans, particularly for formerly enslaved african americans. they marked a significant step towards equality and justice in the united states, laying the foundation for future civil rights legislation and the ongoing fight for equal rights for all citizens..