Question

How did the union victory in the civil war and the contested reconstruction of the south settled the issues of slavery and secession, but left unresolved many questions about the power of the federal government and citizenship rights?

Answer 1

The reconstruction after the Civil War changed the relationships an powers between the states and the government. It ended slavery as well as any idea of a divisible union but did not answer who was in relative power. It also left mostly unchanged social and economical patterns. The addition of the 13th Amendment abolished slavery which brought a dramatic social change but even after that the share cropping practices continues for several generations. Republicans worked to reconstruct the south but the balance of power between the congress and presidency only gave short term results. The union was reunited which opened political opportunists as well as leadership roles to former slaves which also temporarily rearranged relations between blacks and whites, which was already beginning to strain the south.