Reconstruction Era: What Happened After The Civil War That We Didn't Learn In School?

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Dressed in period clothing, Viola Stoops of Woodville, Texas walks past Civil War reenactors gathered in Gettysburg to celebrate the 140th anniversary of the famous three-day battle. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

The years following the American Civil War, from 1865 to 1877, is a period known as the Reconstruction Era, but the name is a bit misleading. It sounds like a time when battle-decimated infrastructure was rebuilt, plans for the future were hammered out, and political and social relationships were mended, but the reality was that freed slaves faced a new set of obstacles, violence was widespread, and citizens were divided.