RECONSTRUCTING A NATION
Printed Page 456
16
RECONSTRUCTING A NATION
1863–1877
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> What were the achievements and failures of reconstruction? Chapter 16 explores the era of reconstruction, in which the nation struggled to define the defeated South’s status and the meaning of freedom for ex-slaves. Following the Civil War, the nation entered one of its most confused and violent periods as victorious Northerners, defeated white Southerners, and newly freed African Americans battled to shape the postwar South.
Figure false: Voting day, June 5, 1867. Black freedmen line up to vote in Washington, D.C. The Granger Collection, New York.