The Tragic Changes In American Politics After The Civil War
The Civil War was one of the most tragic wars in American history. The nation was so divided leading up to the Civil War because when Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas joined the Confederacy while Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri stayed in the Union, President Abraham Lincoln became determined to preserve the Union. After the war, the nations reunited and the southern states were not allowed to secede, were placed under military rule, and had to apply for readmission to the Union. The war impacted American politics by starting the Radical Reconstruction, the plan to rebuild America after the Civil War. The war changed American society when slavery effectively ended. After slaves became legally free, African Americans
began exercising their rights, which enraged many white southerners. Thus the attitude towards African American was one of the elements of the country that stayed the same.