History Of Reconstruction After Civil War

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After the Civil War, the federal government began a program known as reconstruction. Reconstruction refers to the period following the Civil War of rebuilding the United States. During and after this period, blacks made substantial gains in their political power and many were able to move from abject poverty to land ownership. Although African American were freed by the end of the Civil War, they were not directly given legal and political rights under President Andrew Johnson. Throughout the first years of reconstruction, blacks formed equal rights Leagues in the South to demand equality under the law, including the right to vote, and to fight oppressive black codes laws that restricted the lives of newly freed African Americans in numerous