Reconstruction: America After the Civil War

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 Reconstruction: America After the Civil War


In “Reconstruction: America After the Civil War,” Henry Louis Gates Jr. presents a visual history of the turbulent years following the American Civil War.  

Reconstruction of the South was a momentous task. To assist former slaves during this time, the Freedman’s Bureau was established. While the Freedman’s Bureau was assuring former slaves had resources to start their new life of freedom, many former slaveholders were receiving pardons from President Johnson. With these pardons, ex-slave holders were given back their old power to rule.


In November 1865 the new government in Mississippi created oppressive laws against blacks later called “Black Codes.” One of the Black Code stated that black children could be taken away and given to white planters who volunteered to feed, clothe, and teach the children to work. This Black Code gave the black parents no rights to refuse to have their children taken from them.  Confederate leaders, many of whom were responsible for these Black Codes, went to Washington but were denied their seats in Congress.


In 1866 Edward A. Pollard coined the phrase "Lost Cause.” The “Lost Cause” is an interpretation of the American Civil War that created and romanticized the "Old South" and the Confederate war effort. Gates’ visual history denies the “Lost Cause’s” assertion that the war was not fought over slavery.

In the south, violence began to rise against the blacks. This violence was an attempt to return blacks to their subordinate place in society. The Ku Klux Klan was established to take on the old job of the slave patrols in the south. Just as those patrols had kept the slaves in line, the KKK kept the ex-slaves in line.

Due in part to black massacres and the Black Codes enacted in the south, US Congress passed the 14th amendment in 1866. Congress then passed laws redefining reconstruction in the south. This new reconstruction reorganized the south into military districts, governed by military generals. To be readmitted to Congress, the southern states had to establish new constitutions, give blacks the right to vote, allow blacks to hold office, and ratify the 14th Amendment. Gates’ visual history points out the irony in these requirements when it reflects on the fact that many northern states at the time did not allow blacks to vote. The new reconstruction led to blacks to become more involved in politics, education, and legal issues. Finally, in mid-1868 the 14th Amendment became the law of the land. Thousands of blacks immediately registered to vote. Although threatened by intimidation, many blacks voted in the election of 1868. This election saw General Ulysses Grant become President and many blacks elected to the US Congress. It was a time that W. E. B. Du Bois called African Americans’ “brief moment in the sun.”  

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