The Civil War and Reconstruction

History of the USA · Expansion and sectional conflict. The idea in plain words, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid and a worked example, written and checked by Mega Lecture.

Test this topic free All History of the USA topics

The idea

The Civil War (1861 to 1865) was fought over secession, and behind secession lay slavery. The Union had more people, factories, railways and a navy. The Confederacy hoped to defend its land until the North tired.

Lincoln first fought only to save the Union. After Antietam he issued the Emancipation Proclamation (1 January 1863), which made the end of slavery a war aim. Gettysburg and Vicksburg in July 1863 turned the war, and Lee surrendered at Appomattox in April 1865.

Reconstruction (1865 to 1877) tried to rebuild the South and secure the rights of the freed people through three amendments. It ended when federal troops left, and white Southern governments soon took those rights away again.

Rules to remember

Fort Sumter April 1861; Antietam September 1862; Gettysburg and Vicksburg July 1863; Appomattox Court House April 1865.
Vicksburg gave the Union control of the Mississippi and cut the Confederacy in two.
Emancipation Proclamation: freed enslaved people in areas in rebellion only, not in the loyal border states.
13th Amendment (1865): abolished slavery.
14th Amendment (1868): citizenship for all born in the United States, equal protection and due process.
15th Amendment (1870): the vote may not be denied on grounds of race or colour.
Reconstruction Acts 1867: five military districts. Andrew Johnson impeached 1868, acquitted by one vote. Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction.

Common mistake

The Emancipation Proclamation did not free every enslaved person. It applied only to Confederate-held areas; slavery was ended everywhere by the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865.

Worked example

In 1866 a Southern state passes a law that lets Black residents be punished more severely than white residents for the same offence. Which Reconstruction amendment was written to stop this?

The 13th Amendment ended slavery but did not say what rights freed people had.
The 15th Amendment deals only with voting.
The 14th Amendment makes them citizens and forbids a state to deny any person the equal protection of the laws.

Answer: The Fourteenth Amendment (1868), through its Equal Protection Clause.

Ask about this

Type what you are stuck on. The helper finds the explanation, worked examples and the notes to read, free and instant.

Read the full notes

Full-course notes

Keep going

← Slavery and the road to civil war Industrialisation, immigration and Progressivism →Take a History of the USA test