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Article: Reconstruction
- Article from:
- Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History
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RECONSTRUCTION
Reconstruction (1865
–
1877) was one of our most controversial political eras. It followed the American Civil War (1861
–
1865), the bloodiest war in U.S. history, and saw the South's transformation from a slave to a free society. The U.S. government had to decide how to reintegrate the Confederate states into the union and how to assimilate almost four million freed slaves into the war-torn and hostile society of the South. Its economy was in shambles at the end of the Civil War, with manufacturing and transportation systems in disarray, banks insolvent, and Confederate currency worthless. The agricultural labor pool of slaves, who represented the most valuable ...