In which those present African Americans could not vote either. Reconstruction was a very important period in the history of blacks in America. It was the period where blacks were first completely freed from slavery and tasted the fruits of citizenship for a while.t changed the lives of African-Americans by: -First,the 13th Amendment was made, it gave them something they had always wanted, ever since each one was born, and ever since the early 1600's when the first slaves were brought from Africa to America by Dutchmen, their freedom.