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Informationen zum Autor Sherri L. Smith; Illustrated by Tim Foley Klappentext "Reconstruction--the period after the Civil War--was meant to give newly freed Black people the same rights as white people. And indeed there were monumental changes once slavery ended--thriving new Black communities, the first Black members in Congress, and a new sense of dignity for many Black Americans. But this time of hope didn't last long and instead, a deeply segregated United States continued on for another hundred years. Find out what went wrong in this fascinating overview of a troubled time"-- Leseprobe What Was Reconstruction? In the early hours of May 13, 1862, a military steamboat made its way past the guards at Fort Sumter outside of Charleston, South Carolina. The United States was in the middle of the Civil War. The Northern states were fighting against the South over slavery. The North wanted slavery to end, but the South was determined to keep it. Eleven Southern states had broken away and formed a new country—the Confederate States of America. South Carolina was a Confederate state. The soldiers at Fort Sumter thought the steamboat passing by was on their side of the war. But they were wrong. The man at the wheel was not a Confederate officer on routine business. His name was Robert Smalls. He was an enslaved African American who had been forced to work on the ship. Every day he worried his family would be sold away from him. But now he was making an escape! The white captain had left the steamboat to spend the night with his family. As on other nights, Smalls and some other enslaved crewmen invited their own families to visit them onboard. But tonight, instead of leaving, the women and children hid. And now, in the early hours, they were all steaming north to freedom! “Although born a slave,” Smalls later said, “I always felt that I was a man and ought to be free, and I would be free or die.” A few hours later, Smalls’s steamboat reached the Union ships guarding the coast. There, he offered his ship, and later his service, to continue the fight against slavery. Smalls could not have imagined how much his life was going to change. He went on to meet President Abraham Lincoln, the man who helped bring an end to slavery. He served in the Union army. When the war ended, Smalls and his family returned to South Carolina. In 1874, he was elected to Congress. He was among the first African Americans to serve in federal government. But the most unexpected change may have come after Smalls learned that the stately house of his former enslaver was for sale. Smalls bought it! He lived the rest of his life in the house where he had once been considered property. This huge reversal of fortune was thanks to the tumultuous period of change in post–Civil War America known as Reconstruction. Reconstruction is the name for the post-war recovery that took place from 1865 to 1877. Black people became citizens and got the right to vote. Over these twelve years, the nation would attempt to rebuild itself in a new image. Many Americans hoped to see a stronger, fairer country emerge. But what began as a time of hope also proved to be a time of terror and sorrow, especially for the nation’s newest citizens, African Americans. Chapter 1: The End of Slavery For more than two hundred years, wealthy white farmers in the South depended on enslaved Africans to work in their fields and wait on them as servants. They considered enslaved people to be property, not human beings. In 1861, a new president, Abraham Lincoln, took office. He was from Illinois. Like other Northern states, Illinois had abolished, or ended, slavery. The South feared that President Lincoln was going to outlaw slavery everywhere, something the South would not stand for. So eleven states seceded, o...
