Reconstruction explained in five questions and answers


The period after the American Civil War is known as the Reconstruction era, when the United States grappled with reintegrating seceded states into the Union and determining the legal status of formerly enslaved Black Americans.
It’s also a time rife with historical misconceptions—and without looking close, it may be hard to determine what really happened.
When was the Reconstruction era?
Reconstruction lasted from 1865 to 1877. It began after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. His successor Andrew Johnson initiated what was called Presidential Reconstruction: the steps taken by the federal government from 1865 to 1867 to ensure that the nation would come back together. The second phase, known as Radical Reconstruction, was led by Congress and sought to secure the political and civil rights of formerly enslaved people. It lasted from 1867 to 1877.
What did Presidential Reconstruction look like?
Led by Johnson, Presidential Reconstruction was extremely lenient to the reintegrated South. All Southern whites, except wealthy landowners and Confederate leaders, received a blanket pardon for secession; most of those who didn’t would later receive individual pardons.
As long as they agreed to abolish slavery and pay Confederate debts, Southern governments were allowed to manage their affairs as they pleased, including passing laws that limited the legal rights of Black Americans.
How was Reconstruction received by the American people?
Presidential Reconstruction frustrated many people. White Northern voters in the autumn 1866 congressional elections pressured lawmakers to begin anew, and the period of Radical Reconstruction followed as the new Congress outlined new rules for how Southern states could manage their governments. With voting rights now enforced nationwide for all men regardless of race, Black Southerners and antislavery white Southern allies precipitated the rise of the Republican Party in the former Confederate states.
African Americans were elected to public office throughout the South, some of them winning seats in Congress.
Who opposed Radical Reconstruction?
Many white Southerners, especially those who had been proslavery, were resentful of governments populated by Black Americans.
As multiracial governments passed laws against racial discrimination and segregation, bitter white Southerners spread the myth that Reconstruction was secretly establishing “Black supremacy” over whites.
How did Reconstruction end?
As anti-Reconstruction whites blamed Southern governmental corruption on the exclusion of wealthy white landowners, white Northern Republicans began getting more conservative.
Slowly, Republicans—and thus Black American voters—began losing power in the South. When Rutherford B. Hayes was elected president in 1876, he acknowledged and accepted Democratic control over the South.
By the turn of the century, white Amercicans once again had almost full control. Racial segregation and the disenfranchisement of Black voters were enforced, with no government censure in sight.