ABSTRACT
A merican slavery disintegrated during the Civil War, and in its demise precipitated the collapse of the Confederate quest for national independence. During the decades immediately following the destruction of the South’s peculiar institution, conflict inevitably erupted as members of the “Freedom Generation” (former slaves and their immediate descendants) struggled to realize their hopes for economic, political, and social equality. Intense debate over the meaning of freedom occurred both within the states of the former Confederacy and across the nation. During the Reconstruction period, which is generally dated from 1865 when the war ended to 1877 when President Rutherford B. Hayes withdrew the last federal troops from the South, two questions dominated national politics: How could the shattered Union be restored? and How could American society be restructured to accommodate the aspirations of the freed slaves?
