American History to 1877 - HIST 121 Resource Guide

The Union victory in the Civil War in 1865 may have given some 4 million slaves their freedom, but the process of rebuilding the South during the Reconstruction period (1865-1877) introduced a new set of significant challenges.

Streaming video from Films on Demand :This archival educational film shot in 1965 examines the Civil War and Reconstruction as they affected the nation's African-American population.

DVD available at Stafford Library
Tells the story of how ordinary Americans struggled to reconstruct their lives in the years immediately following the Civil War. Shows the struggles and triumphs of both African Americans and whites in the North and the South.

Mississippi Valley Historical Review v.22, no.2, Sep. 1935

Designation mainly given to two distinct secret societies that played a part in American history, although other less important groups have also used the name. The first Ku Klux Klan was an organization that thrived in the South during the Reconstruction period following the Civil War. The second was a nationwide organization that flourished after World War I. Subsequent groups calling themselves the Ku Klux Klan sprang up in much of the South after World War II and in response to civil-rights a

The term Reconstruction refers to the period in American history immediately following the U.S. Civil War—from 1867 to 1877—during which efforts were made to assist former slaves as they made the transition from slavery to freedom. In spite of federal legislative initiatives and three new constitutional amendments extending civil liberties to African Americans, much of the Reconstruction effort remained incomplete when federal troops left the South in 1877.

Generally dating from 1865 to 1877, Reconstruction is the term describing the period of readjustment following the American Civil War. The term is instructive on many levels. Physically, the destruction wrought in the South by the invading Union forces was enormous and there was little local financing for rebuilding. Socially, chaos reigned in the South: the old social and economic order founded on slavery had collapsed completely, with nothing to replace it. Nationally, the eleven Confederate states somehow had to be restored to their positions in the Union, provided with loyal governments, but without allowing Northerners to feel that the war had been for nothing. Finally, the role of the emancipated slaves in Southern society had to be defined. In sum, a region, but also a nation, demanded reconstruction in 1865.

1865–77, in U.S. history, the period of readjustment following the Civil War. At the end of the Civil War, the defeated South was a ruined land. The physical destruction wrought by the invading Union forces was enormous, and the old social and economic order founded on slavery had collapsed completely, with nothing to replace it.

Journal of Southern History
v.45, no.1, Feb. 1979

Making of America (MoA) is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction.

Reconstruction, one of the most turbulent and controversial eras in American history, began during the Civil War and ended in 1877.

The article provides an overview of the "American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 5, 1866-1877." The period was notable as the time of reconstruction after the U.S. Civil War and the periodicals help provide insights into the American culture of the period and considers topics as diverse as religion, the social and economic roles of women and children, consumption, industry, and agriculture.