Post-Civil War Southern Society

After the end of the Civil War, the United States government embarked on a plan called Reconstruction to rebuild the South and reunite the nation. Reconstruction lasted from 1865 to 1877. Under Reconstruction, the southern states set up new governments and revised their constitutions. By 1870, all of the former Confederate states had been readmitted to the Union. However, the new legislatures often restricted the freedoms of African Americans, a practice to which many northern Republicans objected. On a positive note, Reconstruction governments founded new social programs and organizations, such as public school systems. Southern states also spent a great deal of money repairing their infrastructure, that is railroads, bridges, and public buildings, which had been destroyed during the war.

At first, African Americans were optimistic about their future. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments gave equal citizenship to African Americans and guaranteed their right to vote. Many...