establishment of a national banking system, imposing an income tax,
creating a huge railroad corporation, and much else. Much of this
came about through the impetus of war and the same enthusiasm
for radical change persisted to some extent into the postwar years.
But the far-reaching Reconstruction measures attempted by Congress
into the early 1870s soon met intransigent opposition in the South
and became mired in political squabbles in Washington, D.C. By the
1870s, the North no longer had much interest in sorting out Southern
problems, and white veterans on both sides spoke increasingly of
reconciliation. Whites soon regained most of their former economic
and political dominance in the South. Former slaves made undoubted
gains, being able to lead real family lives and have some control over
their futures, but the political changes hinted at in the postwar
constitutional amendments and civil rights laws still lay far ahead.
1877
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(^) Red River
GULF OF^ ME
XIC
O
A
T
L
A
N
T
I
C
O
C
E
A
N
Chicago
New York City
Philadelphia
New Orleans
Boston
Charleston
Savannah
Atlanta
Mobile
Galveston
Buffalo
Richmond
Norfolk
Concord
St. Louis
Memphis
Louisville
Cincinnati
Washington, D.C.
Montgomery
Meridian
Corinth
Austin
Des Moines
Vicksburg
Chattanooga
Nashville
Indianapolis
Kansas City
Jacksonville
VERMONT MAINE
NEW
HAMPSHIRE
MASSACHUSETTS
NEW
YORK
NEW JERSEY
RHODE ISLAND
CONNECTICUT
PENNSYLVANIA
OHIO
MICHIGAN
INDIANA
ILLINOIS
MISSOURI
KENTUCKY
WISCONSIN
IOWA
MINNESOTA
KANSAS VIRGINIA
1870
NORTH CAROLINA
1868
SOUTH
CAROLINA
1865
TENNESSEE
1866
GEORGIA
1870
ALABAMA
1868
FLORIDA
1868
MISSISSIPPI
1870
ARKANSAS
1868
TEXAS
1870
LOUISIANA
1868
NEBRASKA
DAKOTA
TERRITORY
DELAWARE
WEST MARYLAND
VIRGINIA
1863
Indian
Territory
Inset map area
Sharecropping in the South
Following the abolition of slavery, landlords lease out land
in return for a share of the crop (usually 50 percent), but
the tenant has to buy his own seed, tools, and animals.
Sharecropping comes to dominate Southern agriculture.
By the 1880s most Southern blacks, and many whites,
live this way, tied into a vicious circle of poverty and debt.
Arlington Cemetery
This photograph, taken
soon after the end of the
war, shows the Arlington
National Cemetery in its
earliest years. It was
established in 1864
on the grounds of
Arlington House, part
of the family estate of
General Robert E. Lee’s
wife, Mary Anna Custis.
The Fifteenth Amendment
As a condition of their readmission to the
Union, Southern states have to approve the
amendment, ratified in 1870, that prohibits
denying the vote to any citizen on grounds
of race. But Southern governments rapidly
find ways to prevent black citizens voting.