Reconstruction & the 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments

The Civil War remains one the most momentous events in American history. The survival of the United States as one nation was at risk and on the outcome of the war depended the nation's ability to bring to reality the ideals of liberty, equality, justice, and human dignity.

The war put constitutional government to its severest test as a long festering debate over the power of the federal government vs. state rights reached a climax.

The Civil War and the bloodshed preserved the Union while releasing African-Americans as well as the entire nation from the oppressive weight of slavery.

Reconstruction was the period after the Civil War in which attempts were made to solve the political, social and economic problems arising from the readmission to the Union of the 11 Confederate states that had seceded at or before the outbreak of war. Reconstruction...
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