The Southern States were in Political and Economic Ruins after the Civil War

Discuss the reality of the reconstructed south with special reference to the situation of the freed slaves in that part of the country
The Southern states were in political and economic ruins after the civil war. Several difficult decades of reconstructing the south lay ahead. In the short term, the Federal and state governments needed to plan for the adoption of new state constitutions, new land policies, and rights of suffrage. The reform of the constitution and land policies proved much easier to accomplish than those of racial attitudes and justice.
The story of reconstruction is actually a story of the tension between increasing the rights of freedmen and unchanged racism of Southerners and Northerners alike.
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