Civil War “Reconstruction” as a time when well-meaning Republicans tried to aid newly-freed slaves who were being oppressed ...

Reconstruction may be one of the most misunderstood ... We can see here a differentiation between North and South, and one that I'm sure fueled the Lost Cause in the late 19th century.

A good way to think of Reconstruction is a set of goals that the Republicans in Washington had in mind. And those goals are for the South to rebuild the social order along the lines of the North ...