Reconstruction

Engraving of Confederate troops being administered the Oath of Allegiance.

After the war, the federal government pursued a program of political, social, and economic restructuring across the South-including an attempt to accord legal equality and political power to former slaves.

Reconstruction became a struggle over the meaning of freedom, with former slaves, former slaveholders and Northerners adopting different definitions. Eventually, faced with increasing opposition by white Southerners and some Northerners, the government abandoned efforts for black equality in favor of sectional reconciliation between whites.

Showing results 1-10 of 100

  • Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park

    Fredericksburg National Cemetery

    • Type: Gallery
    Landscape in a cemetery with a statue of Civil War general atop a stone base platform surrounded by yellow, green, and orange trees.

    The Fredericksburg National Cemetery is the final resting place for over 15,000 United States soldiers include those killed at the four battles protected by the park, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, and Spotsylvania Court House.

  • Leaders & Legacies of the Civil War Era Series: Oliver O. Howard and the Freedmen’s Bureau

    • Type: Event

    Join James A. Garfield NHS staff and volunteers at Mentor Public Library on the second Wednesday of each month for a new talk on “Leaders & Legacies of the Civil War Era”! The Freedmen’s Bureau was a short-lived but critically important government agency charged with aiding formerly enslaved people after the Civil War. The Bureau helped freed people build schools, purchase land, find family members who’d been sold, and more. Learn more about this agency and its director, Union Gen. Oliver O. Howard!

  • Breathing Democracy Into Spaces: 1st South Carolina Volunteers of African Descent

    • Type: Event

    Mark your calendars now for USCB Institute for the Study of the Reconstruction Era's Spring Symposium (April 19 & 20, 2024) where we bring together members of the Beaufort community, students of all ages, historians and others to help tell the remarkable story of the 1st South Carolina Volunteers of African Descent and the impact of Reconstruction in South Carolina.

  • Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony Monument.jpg

    • Type: Multimedia Asset
    Outdoor color photo of black granite, rectangular monument dedicated to the "The Freedmen

    While the exact location of the colony is still unknown, it is included with history of the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site.

  • Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony Monument.jpg

    • Type: Photo
    Outdoor color photo of black granite, rectangular monument dedicated to the "The Freedmen

    While the exact location of the colony is still unknown, it is included with history of the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site.

  • Lockwood House.jpg

    • Type: Multimedia Asset
    Color photo of brick building exterior on green grassy lawn, with porch on the first and second story. Sun beams stream in through trees from behind the building.

    Lockwood House: Armory Paymaster's residence, Civil War hospital, Union garrison headquarters, and school for formerly enslaved men and women. The Lockwood House is located within Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and was the first location of Storer College.

  • Lockwood House.jpg

    • Type: Photo
    Color photo of brick building exterior on green grassy lawn, with porch on the first and second story. Sun beams stream in through trees from behind the building.

    Lockwood House: Armory Paymaster's residence, Civil War hospital, Union garrison headquarters, and school for formerly enslaved men and women. The Lockwood House is located within Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and was the first location of Storer College.

  • McDonogh School No. 6 (St. George's Episcopal School).jpg

    • Type: Multimedia Asset
    Color photo of exterior of brick school building. Large green grass lawn meets with steps that lead up to the front doors, encased by white columns. A few benches, chairs, and trees are on either side of the steps.

    McDonogh School No. 6 was built in 1876, and currently occupying its historic location is St. George's Episcopal School.

  • McDonogh School No. 6 (St. George's Episcopal School).jpg

    • Type: Photo
    Color photo of exterior of brick school building. Large green grass lawn meets with steps that lead up to the front doors, encased by white columns. A few benches, chairs, and trees are on either side of the steps.

    McDonogh School No. 6 was built in 1876, and currently occupying its historic location is St. George's Episcopal School.

  • Howard High School.jpg

    • Type: Multimedia Asset
    Sepia toned photo of the exterior of a brick high school building. The letters on the building read "Howard School" and below that "High School". Snow covers the lawn and the leaf-less bushes.

    Howard High School, Chattanooga, Tennessee, was originally started as a church school in 1866, moving four times before settling in its current location.

Tags: civil war reconstruction
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Last updated: April 23, 2015

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