8.11.1

List the original aims of reconstruction and describe its effects on the political and social structures of different regions.
             Reconstruction started during the Civil War and attracted the attention of the public as the North began to win. As Union forces gained control of more areas of the South, both Union commanders and the federal government were forced to make decisions about how those areas should be ruled or controlled. These decisions were made first for the sea islands off the east coast of South Carolina and Georgia, for southern Louisiana, for northern Virginia, and then for the South. Federal officials supervised experiments in northern Missionaries schools for blacks, and employed former slaves. By January 1, 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation that freed all slaves in rebel-held areas, the North’s war aims had shifted from preserving the Union to remaking the South. The heart of the Reconstruction plan was laid out in two measures: the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution and the Reconstruction Act. It was designed to protect the rights of Southern blacks and restrict the political power of former Confederates. As reconstruction began, an intense struggle was underway in the South between the slaves and their former owners. Many, although not all, whites who had not owned slaves also found it difficult to imagine a society in which blacks had the same rights as they did.


More Information:

   1.    http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/H/1994/ch6_p13.htm

   2.    http://http://americanhistory.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fmemory.loc.gov%2Fammem%2Fndlpedu%2Ffeatures%2Ftimeline%2Fcivilwar%2Frecontwo%2Frecontwo.html