Reconstruction was a dynamic period in American history. Politically, Republicans made
massive gains as people associated the Democratic party with secession, though many urban areas,
such as New York, remained Democratic. Union army veterans became a reliable voting bloc for the
Republican Party, and they pressured Congress for pensions for their service. African American
males won the right to vote in 1870, with the Fifteenth Amendment, though they were kept away
from the polls in the South by the Ku Klux Klan and other terrorist groups. Despite efforts to
keep them away, black men in many Southern locations still voted for their pre-war leaders, with
Alexander Stevens of Georgia being a prime example of a former Confederate who was able to
return to Congress after the war.
Economically, many former slaves moved
north in order to find jobs. The West also enjoyed an emigration boom as railroad construction
increased, making it easier for people to move west for homesteading, mining, or...
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