Reconstruction: Voices from America's First Great Struggle for Racial Equality (LOA #303)

Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States, Civil War Period (1850-1877), Military
Cover of the book Reconstruction: Voices from America's First Great Struggle for Racial Equality (LOA #303) by , Library of America
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: ISBN: 9781598535631
Publisher: Library of America Publication: January 30, 2018
Imprint: Library of America Language: English
Author:
ISBN: 9781598535631
Publisher: Library of America
Publication: January 30, 2018
Imprint: Library of America
Language: English

**The violent aftermath of the Civil War comes to dramatic life in this sweeping new collection of firsthand writing **

There are few periods in American history more consquential but less understood than Reconstruction, the tumultuous twelve years after Appomattox, when the battered nation sought to reconstitute itself and confront the legacy of two centuries of slavery. This Library of America anthology brings together more than one hundred contemporary letters, diary entries, interviews, petitions, testimonies, and newspaper and magazine articles by well-known figures--Frederick Douglass, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Andrew Johnson, Thaddeus Stevens, Ulysses S. Grant, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mark Twain, Albion Tourgée--as well as by dozens of ordinary men and women, black and white, northern and southern, to tell the story of our nation's first attempt to achieve racial equality. Through their eyes readers experience the fierce contest between President Andrew Johnson and the Radical Republicans resulting in the nation's first presidential impeachment; the adoption of the revolutionary Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments; the first achievements of black political power; and the murderous terrorism of the Klan and other groups that, combined with northern weariness, indifference, and hostility, eventually resulted in the restoration of white supremacy in the South. Throughout, Americans confront the essential questions left unresolved by the defeat of secession: What system of labor would replace slavery, and what would become of the southern plantations? Would the war end in the restoration of a union of sovereign states, or in the creation of a truly national government? What would citizenship mean after emancipation, and what civil rights would the freed people gain? Would suffrage be extended to African American men, and to all women?

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

**The violent aftermath of the Civil War comes to dramatic life in this sweeping new collection of firsthand writing **

There are few periods in American history more consquential but less understood than Reconstruction, the tumultuous twelve years after Appomattox, when the battered nation sought to reconstitute itself and confront the legacy of two centuries of slavery. This Library of America anthology brings together more than one hundred contemporary letters, diary entries, interviews, petitions, testimonies, and newspaper and magazine articles by well-known figures--Frederick Douglass, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Andrew Johnson, Thaddeus Stevens, Ulysses S. Grant, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mark Twain, Albion Tourgée--as well as by dozens of ordinary men and women, black and white, northern and southern, to tell the story of our nation's first attempt to achieve racial equality. Through their eyes readers experience the fierce contest between President Andrew Johnson and the Radical Republicans resulting in the nation's first presidential impeachment; the adoption of the revolutionary Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments; the first achievements of black political power; and the murderous terrorism of the Klan and other groups that, combined with northern weariness, indifference, and hostility, eventually resulted in the restoration of white supremacy in the South. Throughout, Americans confront the essential questions left unresolved by the defeat of secession: What system of labor would replace slavery, and what would become of the southern plantations? Would the war end in the restoration of a union of sovereign states, or in the creation of a truly national government? What would citizenship mean after emancipation, and what civil rights would the freed people gain? Would suffrage be extended to African American men, and to all women?

More books from Library of America

Cover of the book The American Revolution: Writings from the War of Independence 1775-1783 (LOA #123) by
Cover of the book Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic by
Cover of the book Abigail Adams: Letters (LOA #275) by
Cover of the book Into the Blue: American Writing on Aviation and Spaceflight by
Cover of the book Cane by
Cover of the book Dance in America: A Reader's Anthology by
Cover of the book Sleep with Slander by
Cover of the book The Unexpected Universe by
Cover of the book John Muir: Nature Writings (LOA #92) by
Cover of the book The Age of Movies: Selected Writings of Pauline Kael by
Cover of the book Countee Cullen: Collected Poems by
Cover of the book Sherwood Anderson: Collected Stories (LOA #235) by
Cover of the book The Leaning Tower and Other Stories by
Cover of the book Carson McCullers: Stories, Plays & Other Writings (LOA #287) by
Cover of the book World War I and America: Told By the Americans Who Lived It (LOA #289) by
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy