8th+Grade+United+States+History

= Current Chapter: Chapter 16: Reconstruction = RECONSTRUCTION QUIZ, THURSDAY, 5/14/15! Legacy of the Civil War Reconstruction Freedman's Bureau 15th Amendment Sharecropping President Grant's Road to Success Post Civil War Reconstruction: Following the ending of the Civil War in 1865, the nation was in shambles. The United State was torn apart through bloody warfare. The South was left in severe ruins. Their entire society was destroyed with this war. The railroads dismantled, farms and houses burned by Sherman’s March of destruction, and food was scarcely available. The political, social, and economic fabrics of the Southern society were in disarray. The union’s ambitions and aggressive tactics of crushing the will of the people by taking away their means of surviving had major psychological effects on Southerners.

Although the war ended, the real battle began between Northern and Southern politicians. How will the South be re-admitted in the Union? Most of all, what role will the newly free African Americans play in the new South? What political rights will they have? How will they participate in the rebuilding of the South? How will they improve their economic status and education?

A bigger question to ask is "**will the new South adhere to the new laws passed to protect African American rights and participation in the government?"** The years of reconstruction were in fact a period in United States history where African Americans were making political progress and actively participating in the government. However, economic and political changes made Northerners turn their backs on Reconstruction. Though African Americans gained their political rights such as citizenship and the right to vote, the enforcement of these rights was forgotten and Southern resistance to black progress developed such as the Ku Klux Klan.

The period of Reconstruction was a success in terms of politically reuniting the North and South as one nation. From a different vantage point, however, Reconstruction was a failure. African Americans were disregarded and left with political rights not enforced and limited economic and educational opportunities. Yet what is important about the period of Reconstruction is it established the political basis needed for African American to fight for their right during the Civil Rights Era.

__ Chapter 15: __ Check out www.civilwar.org Interactive Timeline of Abraham Lincoln's presidency

[|Civil War Novels]

[|Civil War Barnes and Noble suggestion]

[|Civil War] Sherman's March to the Sea

Links
[|Crash Course History: The Election of 1860 & the Road to Disunion] [|Crash Course History: Battles of the Civil War #19] [|Crash Course History: Civil War, Part I #20] [|Crash Course History: Civil War, Part II #21] [|Crash Course History: Reconstruction and 1876] [|Crash Course History: The Industrial Economy] Extra Credit: Comic Strip project