The Reconstruction era (1861 to 1900), the historic period in which the United States grappled with the question of how to integrate millions of newly freed African Americans into social, political, and labor systems, was a time of significant transformation within the United States.
Reconstruction was, as one textbook puts it, a moment of “revolutionary possibility and violent backlash” (Locke & Wright, 2019). For roughly twelve years, the federal government, Black Americans, former Confederates, and Northern reformers fought over the answers.
According to Downs and Masur, "Reconstruction began when the first US soldiers arrived in slaveholding territory, and enslaved people escaped". Soon afterwards, early discourse and experimentation began regarding Reconstruction policies.
Reconstruction, the period (1865–77) after the American Civil War during which attempts were made to redress the inequities of slavery and its political, social, and economic legacy and to solve the problems arising from the readmission to the Union of the 11 states that had seceded.
Reconstruction (1865-1877), the turbulent era following the Civil War, was the effort to reintegrate southern states from the Confederacy and 4 million newly freed people into the United States.
Reconstruction - Civil War End, Changes & Act of 1867 | HISTORY
In the twelve years after the Civil War—the era of Reconstruction—there were massive changes in American culture, economy, and politics. These were the years of the "Old West," of cowboys, Indians, and buffalo hunts, of cattle drives, railroads, and ranches.
The period of Presidential Reconstruction lasted from 1865 to 1867. Andrew Johnson, as Lincoln's successor, proposed a very lenient policy toward the South. He pardoned most Southern whites, appointed provisional governors and outlined steps for the creation of new state governments.