Before this unit, I knew very little about post-civil war US history in general. I had never covered it in school. I knew tensions existed between the South and North and that things were not easy for African Americans, even after the 13th amendment. I also knew that many white Southerners  after the war yearned for the antebellum culture that they perceived to have existed before the war.

What really stood out to me in this unit was the political and emotional nature of Reconstruction and post Reconstruction. I was very surprised that the Republicans would allow northern troops to leave the south in return for having a Republican president.  This is especially surprising because they had created so much power for themselves in the Senate and House. At that point, it seemed to me that the president was losing more and more power to the Representatives and Senators, and the Republicans should have focused on maintaining their majority. In addition, It was also interesting how much emotion played in to the post war US. I would have thought that after such a taxing war, Southerners would have been much more open to joining the Union to make everything easier for themselves. Instead, it seems, Southerners were more concerned with maintaining the feeling of power. They wanted to feel independent from the North and powerful compared to the African Americans, even though they lost the war. From a distant observer, it is clear that the way of life would never be sustainable like it was in the South. Because a large part of the population in the South was black, the lifestyle would not be sustainable if this group was discontent. In addition, the way of life in the South was actively opposed by many people in the North.

It is beneficial for people to understand the history of the place they live because history provides a context for laws and customs that may still be present today. People can learn from how a culture, or individuals within the culture, acted. In addition, it provides an explanation for how life is today and where it might go in the future.