Reconstruction Video Reaction

General Robert E. Lee Surrendering

Reconstruction Period

The period of Reconstruction following the American Civil War represented one of the most ambitious attempts to rebuild a divided nation. When Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865 — Palm Sunday — celebrations erupted as approximately four million enslaved people anticipated new lives in freedom Former enslaved Americans had long contributed to their own liberation; by the summer of 1862, many sought refuge in Union-controlled areas, while thousands of Black men enlisted in the U.S. military to fight for the Union cause. 

Reconstruction immediately faced critical questions: What would freedom look like for newly emancipated people? Which rights—education, land ownership, voting, and economic security—would define this “new America”?  

Freedmen's Bureau

To address these challenges, the U.S. government established the Freedmen’s Bureau, led by General Oliver O. Howard, which at one point controlled 850,000 acres of land intended for redistribution to formerly enslaved families — popularly remembered as “40 acres and a mule”. This initiative offered a blueprint for economic independence. 

Forty Acres and a Mule 

However, the effort to build a just post-slavery society quickly met resistance. Only days after advocating publicly for limited Black suffrage, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. His successor, Southern Democrat Andrew Johnson, swiftly shifted policy. Though the Freedmen’s Bureau had begun granting land to freed people, Johnson reversed these gains by issuing pardons to former Confederates and ordering that confiscated land be returned to white owners. Frederick Douglass, among many, expressed concern about Johnson’s priorities, recognizing that the president’s leniency threatened hard-won progress. 

Reconstruction Push Back

Johnson’s approach empowered Southern legislatures to impose the Black Codes beginning in late 1865 — restrictive laws meant to acknowledge the end of slavery while eliminating meaningful freedom. Violence accompanied this backlash. Paramilitary groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, founded in Tennessee in 1866, continued the terror tactics earlier used by slave patrols. Disorder escalated: the Memphis massacre required federal troops three days to suppress and left 48 people — all but two of them Black — dead; a similar massacre in New Orleans followed only months later. These events demonstrated that legal freedom did not equate to security. 

Republicans in Congress responded forcefully. Using their majority, they refused to seat prominent ex-Confederate leaders and advanced civil rights legislation that established birthright citizenship and defined formerly enslaved people as full American citizens under the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and later the Fourteenth Amendment. These measures became foundational to constitutional equality and remain pivotal today.

By 1867, Radical Republicans were firmly in control of Reconstruction policy. Military Reconstruction Acts expanded Black political participation dramatically: in the beginning of the year fewer than 1% of Black men in the South could vote, but by year’s end more than 80% participated in elections. African Americans often traveled armed and in large groups to polling locations for protection against violence. Ultimately, roughly half a million Black men cast ballots, playing a pivotal role in electing Ulysses S. Grant to the presidency in 1868 and helping send dozens of Black leaders into public office. 

Jim Crow Era

This surge of political representation and civic engagement symbolized the promise of Reconstruction — a revitalized America defined by possibility, diversity, and democratic inclusion. Yet, as history shows, the achievements of Reconstruction provoked a fierce and lasting backlash. Later segregation laws, known as Jim Crow, emerged from that resentment, embedding racial inequality for generations. 

Jim Crow Protest Sign

Even in contemporary times, tragedies such as the Charleston church massacre remind us that the violence and resistance to equality that began in Reconstruction still echo in modern America. The struggle of Reconstruction — one of progress met by opposition — remains an essential chapter in the ongoing pursuit of civil rights and racial justice. 

AI Disclosure: I took all my notes from the video, poured them into Claude Ai to have it write me this, where I then edited the text slightly to make sure my main points came across. I then added images with captions and subheadings.