We are looking the national reduction of protection for freed slaves after the civil war. From the Supreme Court chambers in D.C. to the mines of Birmingham, from the docks of San Francisco to the plains of the Lakota.

This is the timeline of how a nation redefined "we the people" to exclude almost everyone but a few. This time line of the past will lay the foundation of understanding of how our modern America came to be.

We’re stepping into one of the most misunderstood chapters in American history. Not the Civil War. Not slavery. But what came immediately after. A period known as Reconstruction.

From roughly 1865 to 1877, the United States attempted something it had never tried before: rebuilding a nation while redefining freedom, citizenship, and power — all at the same time.

For a brief moment, America stood at a crossroads. One road led toward true democracy. The other led back toward hierarchy, control, and exclusion.

The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 triggered the secession of eleven Southern slave states, who formed the Confederate States of America. What followed was a brutal four-year war fought over the very soul of the nation, fundamentally testing the durability of the democratic experiment.

This conflict would redefine American citizenship, centralize federal power in unprecedented ways, and finally abolish the institution of slavery. We will trace the war through its key figures and battles, analyze the monumental legal changes it unleashed, and examine how global events influenced—and were influenced by—America’s internal struggle.