Despite the Union’s
victory on the battlefield, sectional differences between North
and South still seethed, and the prospect of rebuilding and healing
the United States amid such chaos and destruction was daunting.
The competing needs of southern blacks and whites—as well as those
of northern emigrants to the region—made the challenges of reestablishing
the United States as a cohesive and functional country largely insurmountable.
This process, which came to be known as Reconstruction, proved virtually
endless for those involved. Local, state, and national leaders wrestled
with complex questions, such as how to mend the broken South and
how a new society would embrace both Confederate elites and former
slaves.
Modern historians regard
Reconstruction as a failure. Although Radical Republicans restored
the Union politically, they failed to protect African Americans
from abuse by white southern elites. By the end of the 1870s, former
Confederates had reclaimed power in the southern states and virtually
reinstated slavery.
