The aftermath of the Civil War was exhilarating and fraught, hopeful, and violent. Four million newly freed African Americans faced the future untethered from the old plantation system, with few rights or protections, and surrounded by a war-weary and intensely resistant white population. But for all that, the prayers of generations were being answered: before them was the chance to build new lives and reconnect with family members torn away under slavery.
Black people, particularly soldiers, had played a critical role in preserving the Union. As the country dealt with the terms and implications of Reconstruction, they sought to resuscitate their hard-won independence. They had little hope in Abraham Lincoln's successor, a pro-Union Southerner with scant sympathy for former slaves. President Andrew Johnson's generous treatment of former Confederates sparked a fierce reaction among Northerners, particularly Republicans in Congress, just months after the war ended. Former slaves and their allies established new meanings of freedom and citizenship because of this second American revolution. In the South help send Republican war hero, Ulysses S. Grant, to the White House.
Freedom is taken for granted nowadays. In 1865, many people did not have freedom or any rights. Specifically black people / African Americans during the reconstruction. We don’t realize the power we have until we put ourselves in other people's shoes.
Watch the movie, it was powerful seeing all the pictures and hearing what they went through. I was shocked hearing some of this stuff. For example, they had barely any rights or protections. It gives you a culture shock and makes you be grateful for what we have today because it could be worse.
As we enter today's world, we go back to the reconstruction which abolished slavery, gave black Americans equal protection under the law, and granted suffrage to black men.
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