America And The Civil War

The Civil War split the nation after the Confederacy was defeated and slavery ended.   There were many questions left unanswered such as how Southern states would return to the Union and the Constitutional and legal status of the Negro Freedmen.   This period known as the Reconstruction Era, from 1865-1877, had the goal of reuniting the country after a war that had just tore it apart.   During this time of economic and social change, farmers and workers had many troubles as jobs were not available, wages were not high, labor was very strenuous, agricultural prices were falling, and competition in jobs and from overseas farmers also increased.   This was a time for the country to work together in order to achieve success and fix problems faced by workers and farmers in the North and South.   Times were hard as the depression, or panic, of 1873, devastated many jobs in the North, as well as farmers in the South and expanding westward.   Full-time employment was hard to find and led to many strikes as unemployed workers were very poor and desperate for better wages and better shifts (WBA, 480).   Optimism was necessary to survive in this post-Civil War era because workers and farmers faced so many challenges in achieving success.   Farmers and workers faced many problems after the Civil War, yet had to keep their hopes up that better days, which included higher wages and better work hours, were ahead.
Attitudes toward success in the 1870’s depended on who you were, but the main public was demoralized from the Panic of 1873 and hard times throughout the Reconstruction Era had the country looking forward to changes for the better.   Benefitting from the resources one had at the time was necessary for success because northern working and western farming families did not have much to work with and to profit from.   Success was something that was, at the time, only seemed to be achieved by the business elite.   Inspirational literature portrayed how people should think about...