Civil War and Reconstruction (1861–1877)
Civil War and Reconstruction (1861–1877)
The Civil War was the deadliest conflict in American history and the great turning point of the nation's story. It destroyed slavery, settled the question of secession, and vastly strengthened the national government. The uncertain peace that followed, Reconstruction, briefly promised a genuine multiracial democracy before that promise was violently abandoned.
7.1A war of unprecedented scaleThe Confederacy sought only to defend its independence; the Union had to conquer a vast territory to restore itself. The North held major…7.2EmancipationAt first Lincoln framed the war narrowly, as a fight to preserve the Union, not to end slavery. But as the conflict deepened, emancipation…7.3Union victory and Lincoln's deathBy 1864, Union armies under Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman waged relentless campaigns that broke Southern resistance. Sherman's…7.4The promise of ReconstructionReconstruction sought to rebuild the South and define the place of freed people in American life. The Republican-controlled Congress…7.5The parties after the warThe war remade the parties. The Republicans were now the party of the Union, emancipation, and a strong, activist federal government…7.6The abandonment of ReconstructionReconstruction's promise was crushed by violence and fatigue. White supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan terrorized Black voters and…7.7Meanwhile, elsewhere (1861–1877)The 1860s and 1870s were a great age of nation-building abroad. Italy completed its unification, and in 1871 the German states united into…