Reconstruction After The Civil War

The Civil War between the Northern Union and the Southern Confederacy is a well-known event in United States history. Many remember it as a war of slavery. Some remember it as a war of states ' rights. A few only know it for Abraham Lincoln 's shining moments. What everyone knows is the North reigned victorious over the seceded South. But what happened when the Union tried to reign the rebellious states back into the country? Did the plans for Reconstruction actually re-unite the United States? The nation after the Civil War and Reconstruction was only united legally. The nation was still split on many political and social views, such as the south 's slow adjustment to the aftermath of slavery and current race relations, Congressional and presidential plans for Reconstruction, and political turmoil within parties and the nation.

Slavery is often seen as the key element of the Civil War, though the war did begin as a war for emancipation. The idea that slaves were freed and immediately lived glorious lives in meadows of equality was but a dream of the chained. In fact, the amendments that were supposed to grant them some rights, specifically the 13th, which outlawed slavery, were overshadowed with the South 's imposed Black Codes. The purpose of the Black Codes was to inhibit the freedom of newly freed slaves and force them back into labor conditions much like slavery. Congress retaliated with the 14th, and later the 15th, amendments, which granted African-Americans the right to vote, and prevented discrimination of race or former status as a