Reconstruction era

The Reconstruction era was a period in U.S history, which lasted from the end of the American Civil War in May 1865 until the Compromise of 1877.

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Reconstruction era
1865–1877
The ruins of Richmond, Virginia; newly-freed African Americans voting for the first time in 1867;[1] office of the Freedmen's Bureau in Memphis, Tennessee; Memphis riots of 1866
Location	United States (Southern States)
Including	Third Party System
President(s)	Abraham Lincoln Andrew Johnson Ulysses S. Grant
Key events	Freedmen's Bureau Assassination of Abraham Lincoln Formation of the KKK Reconstruction Acts Impeachment of Andrew Johnson Enforcement Acts Reconstruction Amendments Compromise of 1877
Chronology Civil War era Gilded Age

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Slavery
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Opposition and resistance 1926 Slavery Convention Abolitionism U.K. U.S. Abolitionists Anglo-Egyptian Slave Trade Convention Anti-Slavery International Blockade of Africa U.K. U.S. Colonization Liberia Sierra Leone Compensated emancipation Freedman manumission Freedom suit Slave Power Underground Railroad songs Slave rebellion Slave Trade Acts International law Third Servile War 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution Timeline of abolition of slavery and serfdom Abolition of slave trade in Persian gulf [fa]
Related Common law Indentured servitude Unfree labour Fugitive slaves laws Great Dismal Swamp maroons List of slaves owners last surviving American enslaved people Marriage of enslaved people (United States) Slave narrative films songs Slave name Slave catcher Slave patrol Slave Route Project breeding court cases Washington Jefferson J.Q. Adams Lincoln 40 acres Freedmen's Bureau Iron bit Emancipation Day
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Part of a series on the
Nadir of American race relations
Violence in the 1906 Atlanta race massacre
Historical background Reconstruction era Voter suppression Disfranchisement Redeemers Compromise of 1877 Jim Crow laws Segregation Anti-miscegenation laws Convict leasing
Practices Common actions Expulsions of African Americans Lynchings Lynching postcards Sundown town Whitecapping Vigilante groups Black Legion Indiana White Caps Ku Klux Klan Red Shirts
Lynchings Michael Green Nevlin Porter and Johnson Spencer Eliza Woods Amos Miller George Meadows Joe Vermillion Jim Taylor Joe Coe People's Grocery Ephraim Grizzard Alfred Blount Samuel J. Bush Stephen Williams Frazier B. Baker and Julia Baker John Henry James Sam Hose George Ward David Wyatt Marie Thompson Watkinsville Ed Johnson William Burns Walker family Laura and L. D. Nelson King Johnson John Evans Jesse Washington Newberry Six Anthony Crawford Ell Persons Jim McIlherron George Taylor John Hartfield 1920 Duluth James Harvey and Joe Jordan
Massacres and riots Opelousas massacre Rock Springs massacre Thibodaux massacre Spring Valley Race Riot of 1895 Phoenix election riot Wilmington insurrection of 1898 Pana riot Robert Charles riots Evansville race riot Atlanta Massacre of 1906 Springfield race riot of 1908 Johnson–Jeffries riots 1912 racial conflict in Forsyth County 1917 Chester race riot East St. Louis riots Elaine massacre Red Summer Chicago race riot of 1919 Washington race riot of 1919 Ocoee massacre Tulsa race massacre Perry race riot Rosewood massacre
Reactions Anti-lynching movement Exodusters movement Great Migration Back to Africa movement
Related topics Black genocide Civil rights movement (1865–1896) Civil rights movement (1896–1954) Mass racial violence in the United States
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Following the American Civil War, many questions were raised as to how the United States would rebuild and reunify a divided nation, while simultaneously establishing a new social order that promoted civil rights and equal representation of formerly enslaved peoples in the South. Overall, there were three main civic goals during the Reconstruction era:

1. Rebuild the infrastructure of the United States after the war;
2. Reintegrate the former Confederate states back into the Union; and
3. Address the social, political, and economic impacts of slavery in American government and institutions, most notably by amending the U.S. Constitution.

During this period, slavery was abolished, Confederate secession was annulled, 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 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;[2] 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 corruption, starvation, disease, death, and brutal treatment of Union soldiers. Moreover, it offered reparations to former slaveowners but not to former slaves.[3] However, Reconstruction did succeed in restoring the federal Union, limiting reprisals against the South, establishing the constitutional rights to national birthright citizenship, due process, equal protection of the laws, and male suffrage regardless of race, and a framework for eventual legal equality for Black people.[4]