After a war that cost the lives of more men than all other wars combined, much of the country was left in ruins, literally and figuratively . Dozens of southern cities had been razed. Meanwhile, relations between North and South had crumbled. Something had to be done so that the country could go back to being the United States of America, and not the Divided States of America. The years 1865 to 1877 were a period of reconstruction: communities destroyed and relationships broken. This period of time was known as Reconstruction. Reconstruction was a failure on the grounds that the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments passed were supposed to give protection and freedom to the African American people, instead, it actually harmed them because the laws were not enforced, and ultimately led to the organizing of the gangs white supremacist terrorists. The 13th Amendment to the Constitution legally ended slavery, however, one could argue that socially and economically this did not happen. Once free, African Americans had nothing and received very little. Because of the rampant racist attitudes in the South, it was nearly impossible to find anything other than low-skilled, low-paying jobs. Since blacks needed work and plantation owners had vacant land, they came to a compromise: sharecropping. Sharecropping was an agreement whereby in exchange for land, hut and tools, at a very high interest rate, the landowner would receive a portion of the harvest. While this may seem like a good deal, high interest rates made the debt nearly impossible to repay, so once again African Americans were under the control of the white race. The contracts also included clauses that were simple ... middle of paper ... ...instructions, the majority of blacks continued to be oppressed on every front. Not only were they oppressed, but they were also continually terrorized. Maybe if the government had stepped in and done their job the outcome would have been different. Reconstruction brought together the states of the country, but at the same time pitted the country's inhabitants against each other. Works Cited Clark-Pujara, Christy. "Reconstruction Part I." November 11, 2013. Lecture.Clark-Pujara, Christy. "Reconstruction Part II." November 18, 2013. Lecture.Clark-Pujara, Christy. “The Rise of Jim Crow.” November 20, 2013. Lecture.Franklin, John Hope, and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. From Slavery to Freedom: An African American Story. 9th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. Print. "Senate Apology Resolution for Victims of Lynching." GovTrack.us. United States Senate, June 13, 2005. Web. November 24. 2013.