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Concept
Reconstruction era
Summary
The Reconstruction era was a period in American history following the American Civil War (1861–1865) and lasting until approximately the Compromise of 1877. Its main goals were to rebuild the nation after the war, reintegrate the former Confederate states, and address the social, political, and economic impacts of slavery.
During this period, slavery was abolished, Confederate secession was eliminated, and the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments (the Reconstruction Amendments) were added to the Constitution to grant equal civil rights to the newly-freed slaves. In 1866, Congress federalized the protection of civil rights in response to violent attacks against Black people in the South, and ex-Confederate states were required to guarantee freedmen's civil rights before rejoining the Union.
Republican coalitions in most ex-Confederate states aimed to transform Southern society. The Freedmen's Bureau and the U.S. Army played vital roles in establishing a free labor economy, protecting freedmen's legal rights, and creating educational and religious institutions. "Carpetbaggers" from the North and supportive white Southerners ("Scalawags") were involved in Reconstruction efforts.
Opposing suffrage and rights for freedmen were the "Redeemers"; Southern Bourbon Democrats; President Andrew Johnson (1865–1869), and the Ku Klux Klan, which terrorized and murdered freedmen and Republicans throughout the former Confederacy.
President Ulysses S. Grant (1869–1877) supported congressional Reconstruction protecting Black people, but faced declining support in the North with Liberal Republicans joining Democrats in calling for a withdrawal of the Army from the South. In 1877, as part of a congressional compromise to elect a Republican as president after a disputed election, federal troops were withdrawn from the South.
Reconstruction had significant shortcomings, including the failure to protect freed Black people from Klan violence before 1871, as well as issues of starvation, disease, death, and brutal treatment of Union soldiers.
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