Reconstruction: America After the Civil War

Reconstruction: America After the Civil War

  • Overview
  • Cast
  • Crew
  • Recommendations

Status

Released

Release Date

Apr 9, 2019

Runtime

4h 0m

Genres

Documentary, History

User Score

70%

Original Title

Reconstruction: America After the Civil War

Production Companies

Inkwell Films, McGee Media, PBS Productions

Director

Julia Marchesi

Description

The series explores the transformative years following the American Civil War, when the nation struggled to rebuild itself in the face of profound loss, massive destruction, and revolutionary social change. The twelve years that composed the post-war Reconstruction era (1865-77) witnessed a seismic shift in the meaning and makeup of our democracy, with millions of former slaves and free black people seeking out their rightful place as equal citizens under the law. Though tragically short-lived, this bold democratic experiment was, in the words of W. E. B. Du Bois, a ‘brief moment in the sun’ for African Americans, when they could advance, and achieve, education, exercise their right to vote, and run for and win public office.