United States History Student Edition

01

Introducing Reconstruction Rebuilding the Nation The era of Reconstruction was a time of repair and rebuilding following the ravages of the Civil War. During Reconstruction, leaders worked to bring the two parts of the country together again, secure the rights of African Americans, and repair the physical damage done during the Civil War. The Assassination of Lincoln In the final days of the Civil War, John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln while he attended a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. African Americans and Union supporters grieved at the death of the president who issued the Emancipation Proclamation and saved the Union.

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red! Where on the deck my captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. — Walt Whitman, “O Captain! My Captain!” (1865)

PHOTO: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZC4-5341]; TEXT: Whitman, Walt. “O Captain! My Captain,” in The Patriotic Poems of Walt Whitman. (2008). Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved January 1, 2017, from http://www.gutenberg.org/files/27494/27494-h/27494-h.htm#Page_76

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