Preface / Robert K. Sutton and John A. Latschar -- Introduction / Kate Masur and Gregory Downs -- Reconstruction during the Civil War / Thavolia Glymph -- Political reconstruction / Heather Cox Richardson -- From slavery to free labor in the South / Steven Hahn -- African American mobilization after the Civil War / Heather Andrea Williams -- Constitutional reconstruction / Michael Les Benedict -- Southern white response to reconstruction / Elaine Parsons -- Southern reconstruction governments / Lawrence N. Powell -- An army of occupation / Brooks Simpson -- Reconstruction in the U.S. West / Ari Kelman -- Reconstruction in the North / Stephen Kantrowitz -- When did reconstruction end? / David Blight -- The legacy of terror / Thomas Holt -- Epilogue / Eric Foner.
Summary:
The Reconstruction Era (1865-1877) is one of the most complicated, poorly understood, and yet most significant periods in American history. The federal government faced the enormous question of how to usher the states of the former Confederacy back into the United States of America. It was a pivotal period in Southern history in which four million African Americans, newly freed from bondage, sought to establish schools and communities and in which white Southerners faced the challenge of both wartime defeat and slavery's abolition. Reconstruction's big questions--about democracy, race, war, and religion--give it lasting resonance in our own time. This book contains insightful essays written by noted scholars and historians.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.