![\"A](\"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/text\/wp-content\/uploads\/contraband1.jpg\")
<\/a> \"Contrabands,\" Cumberland Landing, Virginia, 1862, via <\/a> \"Contrabands,\" Cumberland Landing, Virginia, 1862, via Library of Congress<\/a>.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nAfter the Civil War, much of the South lay in ruins. \u201cIt passes my comprehension to tell what became of our railroads,\u201d one South Carolinian told a Northern reporter. \u201cWe had passably good roads, on which we could reach almost any part of the State, and the next week they were all gone\u2014<\/span>not simply broken up, but gone. Some of the material was burned, I know, but miles and miles of iron have actually disappeared, gone out of existence.\u201d He might as well have been talking about the entire antebellum way of life. The future of the South was uncertain. How would these states be brought back into the Union? Would they be conquered territories or equal states? How would they rebuild their governments, economies, and social systems? What rights did freedom confer upon formerly enslaved people?\r\n\r\nThe answers to many of Reconstruction\u2019s questions hinged upon the concepts of citizenship and equality. The era witnessed perhaps the most open and widespread discussions of citizenship since the nation\u2019s founding. It was a moment of revolutionary possibility. African Americans and Radical Republicans pushed the nation to finally realize the Declaration of Independence\u2019s promises that \u201call men were created equal\u201d and had \u201ccertain, unalienable rights.\u201d But conservative white Democrats granted African Americans legal freedom but little more. White Southerners argued that citizenship was something less than equality. As time passed, southern resistance mounted, and Reconstruction collapsed, their vision triumphed. In the South they imposed limits on human freedom that would stand for nearly a century more.","rendered":"![\"A](\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images-archive-read-only\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/881\/2015\/08\/23195149\/contraband1-1000x573.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n“Contrabands,” Cumberland Landing, Virginia, 1862, via Library of Congress<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n After the Civil War, much of the South lay in ruins. \u201cIt passes my comprehension to tell what became of our railroads,\u201d one South Carolinian told a Northern reporter. \u201cWe had passably good roads, on which we could reach almost any part of the State, and the next week they were all gone\u2014<\/span>not simply broken up, but gone. Some of the material was burned, I know, but miles and miles of iron have actually disappeared, gone out of existence.\u201d He might as well have been talking about the entire antebellum way of life. The future of the South was uncertain. How would these states be brought back into the Union? Would they be conquered territories or equal states? How would they rebuild their governments, economies, and social systems? What rights did freedom confer upon formerly enslaved people?<\/p>\n The answers to many of Reconstruction\u2019s questions hinged upon the concepts of citizenship and equality. The era witnessed perhaps the most open and widespread discussions of citizenship since the nation\u2019s founding. It was a moment of revolutionary possibility. African Americans and Radical Republicans pushed the nation to finally realize the Declaration of Independence\u2019s promises that \u201call men were created equal\u201d and had \u201ccertain, unalienable rights.\u201d But conservative white Democrats granted African Americans legal freedom but little more. White Southerners argued that citizenship was something less than equality. As time passed, southern resistance mounted, and Reconstruction collapsed, their vision triumphed. In the South they imposed limits on human freedom that would stand for nearly a century more.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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