What Are The Goals Of Reconstruction

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The Civil War consisted of many events led to Reconstruction. First of all, South Carolina seceded, followed by ten more, when Abraham Lincoln was elected President because they thought he was a threat to their practices of slavery. This started a war with the purpose of preserving the Union: the war lasted two years before people lost hope in the cause. This led Lincoln to draft the Emancipation Proclamation which shifted the purpose of the war from preserving the Union to abolishing slavery in the Confederacy as well. After two more years of battle the Union defeated the Confederacy and the United States was a country again, but the Southern states that were a part of the Confederacy were left in ruins. The infrastructure, government, financial systems were destroyed and the social system of the South were about to change drastically – these events are what started Reconstruction. Some of the goals of Reconstruction included creating new government for the South, rebuilding the South, integrating new freedmen into society and reuniting the country. During the war the Union troops tore up Southern land, railroads, buildings and farms so the Southerners lost all of their Union and Confederate money and means of making money. Also, the South had to create new governments that accommodate the rights of freedmen and they had to work on their relationship with the North to try and prevent further conflict and relieve the tension and resentment.