Radical Reconstruction

[Keith Broaders]

the states of the Confederacy did not lose their status as states and become territories after the Civil War. The Confederate states—South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina—remained states within the United States, despite their secession attempt during the Civil War (1861–1865). However, during the Reconstruction era (1865–1877), these states faced significant federal oversight. After the war, they were placed under military governance as part of the Reconstruction Acts of 1867, which divided the South into five military districts. This was to enforce federal laws, protect newly freed African Americans, and ensure the states’ reintegration into the Union. The states had to meet certain conditions to regain full representation in Congress, such as ratifying the 14th Amendment and rewriting their state constitutions to guarantee civil rights. While they were under federal control and their governments were reorganized, they were never officially designated as territories. They retained their status as states, and by 1870, all former Confederate states had been readmitted to the Union with full statehood rights. The distinction is important: territories are not states and lack the full constitutional protections and representation that states have, whereas the Confederate states, even during Reconstruction, were treated as states in rebellion that needed to be restored to their proper place in the Union.