Dunn’s Civics > Black History > Crafting a Black Identity in the American Empire

Reconstruction

The Southern infrastructure economy and slave-based economy was destroyed by the Civil War.  Charleston, South Carolina: Broad Street, 1865. 

A political cartoon of Andrew Johnson and Abraham Lincoln, 1865

Johnson: Take it quietly Uncle Abe and I will draw it closer than ever. Lincoln: A few more stitches Andy and the good old Union will be mended.

George Bancroft (1800 - 1891), the father of American History and the founder of the Naval Academy at the conclusion of his 1865 tribute to the just assassinated President Lincoln holds out the highest humanitarian and ethical hopes for the future of an America of free men. 

Learn the last three paragraphs of Bancroft’s complete speech by heart.