Reconstructionafterthecivilwar

Reconstruction After the Civil War Introduction You may think of reconstruction as, lets say, "the act of reconstructing." But the topic of this page isn't at all about "re-doing construction," its about what happened after the Civil War and how it changed the lives of Americans.

Did you know Reconstruction was one of the most controversial eras in American History? Yes! So lets begin by simply stating that the Reconstruction Era had TWO uses, 1. it covered the entire nation in the period of 1865-1877 following the Civil War. 2. it covered the transformation of the Southern United States from 1863-1867, which is restoring the states that used to be the confederacy. media type="file" key="mobile.m4v" width="300" height="300" align="right"

You see, at the end of the civil war, the south was defeated and the land was in ruins. The Union had invaded and the physical damage that was done was ENORMOUS. Along with that, the social/economic order founded on slavery had completely collapsed, with nothing to replace it. Now the 11 Confederate states had to some how find a way to restore their positions in the union, AND the role of emancipated slaves in the southern society had to be defined.

*The video to the right talks about the racial problems during reconstruction



Resources: http://history1800s.about.com/od/1800sglossary/g/reconstructdef.htm dictionary.com http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/reconstruction/introduction.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstruction_era_of_the_United_States http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Reconstruction+era+%28United+States%29 discoveryeducation.com