Revised 08/2023

HIS 269 - Civil War and Reconstruction (3 CR.)

Course Description

Studies factors that led to the division between the States. Examines the war, the home fronts, and the era of Reconstruction. Lecture 3 hours per week.

General Course Purpose

To establish a course of special interest to students which will help them understand the events which led to the conflict and the importance of the Civil War and Reconstruction to the development of the United States.

Course Prerequisites/Corequisites

It is preferable but not mandatory that the student take a general course in American History before enrolling in HIS 269 Civil War and Reconstruction. The ability to read and write the English language effectively at the college level is expected.

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

  • ‌Interpret the Civil War and Reconstruction era in the larger context of United States history.
  • ‌Analyze the impact of the Civil War and Reconstruction on the development of United States economic, social, cultural, religious, legal, and political institutions.
  • ‌Discuss the emancipation of the slaves and analyze its long-term consequences for United States race relations.
  • ‌Identify and discuss the causes of the Civil War.‌
  • Describe the military developments (campaigns, technology, strategy) during the war and explain the war’s outcome.

Major Topics to Be Included

  • The Antebellum Period: 
    • United States modernization and the antebellum South (1800-1860)
    • Nativism, ideology, slavery, and racism in American history- slave work, life, and resistance
    • Reform movements and the anti-slavery movement
    • The Constitution, territorial expansion and slavery, and compromise before 1850
    • The deepening crisis decade of the 1850s-the critical year 1859-60
    • Secession, the creation of the Confederacy, and the coming of war
  • The Civil War: 
    • Mobilizing for war and the comparative strengths of North and South
    • Technological innovations during the war
    • Diplomacy, strategies, and the major military campaigns, including key turning points
    • The home fronts-North and South
    • Native Americans and women
    • Slavery and war, Emancipation, war issues and politics, and wartime Reconstruction
    • The end of the Confederacy--winning and losing
    • Why the north won and the south lost
  • Reconstruction: 
    • Presidential Reconstruction, the problems of peace, the crisis of impeachment
    • Congressional Reconstruction-Moderate and Radical (military)
    • Political Reconstruction and the making of the New Regime in the South
    • Economic and social Reconstruction of the South
    • The destruction of Reconstruction
    • The new Solid South—the continuation of systemic racism and white supremacy