How Did the United States Change After the Civil War?
Learn more about the aftereffects of the American Civil War.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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Transcript
The American Civil War was a conflict between the United States and the Confederate States of America, which was formed by 11 Southern states that had seceded from the Union.
The war lasted from 1861 to 1865, ending when the Confederate army surrendered and the Union was restored.
For the first time, telegraphs and newspapers informed civilians of news from the battlefield almost as soon as it happened, bringing more of the horror of war - the personal and political trauma - to them with new immediacy.
The Civil War resulted in the deaths of as many as 851,000 soldiers, or approximately 2% of the American population at the time.
American religion changed as survivors on both sides struggled to comprehend the enormous death toll.
Understanding of the afterlife shifted, with Northerners and Southerners comforting themselves with the idea that heaven looked like their parlors at home.
When the North and South reunited, how their new society would function was not assured. President Andrew Johnson showed leniency toward Southern whites and former slave owners, who invented new ways to limit opportunities for Black Americans.
The South was forced to abide by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Enslaved people were freed and granted citizenship and equal civil and legal rights.
But by returning seized Southern land to its previous owners, Johnson kept Black people from prospering in the new economy.
Many Black families turned to sharecropping, forcing them to rent the land they farmed, and both Black and poor white Southerners began to rely heavily on credit to pay their bills.
Allowed to make their own rules, especially after the end of Reconstruction in 1876, Southern states legally limited the ways Black citizens could participate in society.
Even after legal segregation began to end in the 1950s, undoing centuries of codified racism was a defining American problem.
The war lasted from 1861 to 1865, ending when the Confederate army surrendered and the Union was restored.
For the first time, telegraphs and newspapers informed civilians of news from the battlefield almost as soon as it happened, bringing more of the horror of war - the personal and political trauma - to them with new immediacy.
The Civil War resulted in the deaths of as many as 851,000 soldiers, or approximately 2% of the American population at the time.
American religion changed as survivors on both sides struggled to comprehend the enormous death toll.
Understanding of the afterlife shifted, with Northerners and Southerners comforting themselves with the idea that heaven looked like their parlors at home.
When the North and South reunited, how their new society would function was not assured. President Andrew Johnson showed leniency toward Southern whites and former slave owners, who invented new ways to limit opportunities for Black Americans.
The South was forced to abide by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Enslaved people were freed and granted citizenship and equal civil and legal rights.
But by returning seized Southern land to its previous owners, Johnson kept Black people from prospering in the new economy.
Many Black families turned to sharecropping, forcing them to rent the land they farmed, and both Black and poor white Southerners began to rely heavily on credit to pay their bills.
Allowed to make their own rules, especially after the end of Reconstruction in 1876, Southern states legally limited the ways Black citizens could participate in society.
Even after legal segregation began to end in the 1950s, undoing centuries of codified racism was a defining American problem.
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