Dbq Reconstruction

April 1865 saw the end of the Civil War, and with it came the need for some sort of policy to reunify, restore or “reconstruct” the political, economic, and social relationship of the southern states with the rest of the Union. The period of this process of bringing the states of the Confederacy back into the Union is called Reconstruction.

It is impossible to fully understand Reconstruction without a grasp of the social and economic upheaval the war brought about. For the people living through the times, this upheaval created a situation that demanded immediate attention. Economically, the South had been shattered, with much of its capital—formerly invested in slaves—lost. Fields remained untilled and fallow. Capital that during the

In some states—like Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana—where earlier Union 2, victories had been so complete as to effectively take them out of the Confederacy; the populations had already taken steps in the direction of re-establishing their former relations with the Union. To rebuild the trust and friendship between these states and the Union, Abraham Lincoln believed in granting generous terms of amnesty for former rebels, and in encouraging a speedy restoration of legitimate state governments within the formerly rebellious states. Lincoln believed in the justice of a merciful policy, but he also recognized that a swift procedure for reconstruction—taking place, in effect, as Union victories gradually spread throughout the South—would aid in the effort to bring the war to a speedy end. Since Lincoln believed that the purpose of the war was to bring the Southern states back into their former relationship with the Union, he saw little distinction between good war policy and wise reconstruction policy. Indeed, he preferred the term “Restoration” over
“Reconstruction” because he did not wish to imply that something new was being constructed. Reconstruction, he believed, should re-establish the authority of the