"Learn why the Reconstruction was such a significant chapter in the history of civil rights in the United States, and the great effort it took to transform the south and free the slaves"--

Learn how the Civil War influenced different aspects of the Americans' lives including frontline soldiers, women at home, African Americans, and even the nation's leaders, while the Reconstruction era changed the society and daily lives of African American citizens.

Describes the struggles following the Civil War to decide how to deal with the newly freed slaves, through the years of Reconstruction, Jim Crow, sharecropping, and segregation.

Historian Eric Foner chronicles the way in which Americans -- black and white -- responded to the unprecedented changes unleashed by the war and the end of slavery. He addresses the quest of emancipated slaves searching for economic autonomy and equal citizenship, and describes the remodeling of Southern society, the evolution of racial attitudes and patterns of race relations, and the emergence of a national state possessing vastly expanded authority...

For a hundred years after the end of the Civil War, a quarter of all Americans lived under a system of legalized segregation called Jim Crow. Together with its rigidly enforced canon of racial "etiquette," these rules governed nearly every aspect of life--and outlined draconian punishments for infractions. The purpose of Jim Crow was to keep African Americans subjugated at a level as close as possible to their former slave status. Exceeding even...

"Of Blood and Sweat: Black Lives and the Genesis of White Power and Wealth tells the story of how Black lives and labor created White power and wealth in agriculture, politics, jurisprudence, law enforcement, culture, medicine, financial services, and other fields. Through the lives of individual Black men and women a deeper understanding unravels of the role Blacks played, directly and indirectly, in creating American institutions of power and wealth-while...

Describes the experiences of African Americans in the South, from the Emancipation in 1863 to the 1954 Supreme Court decision that declared school segregation illegal.

Presents the pioneering work in the study of the role of African Americans during Reconstruction by the most influential black intellectual of his time.