The story many Americans inherited about the Confederacy is tidy and also deeply misleading. It frames the Civil War as a tragic misunderstanding rooted in honor or regional pride, casting the Confederacy as a defender of a way of life rather than slavery.

The phrase "Reconstruction failed" is often repeated as a simple historical fact. Yet, this statement reflects a political judgment rather than an accurate assessment of what Reconstruction accomplished. After the Civil War, the United States embarked on a bold experiment that challenged its own foundations. Reconstruction treated formerly enslaved people as citizens, expanded voting rights, and built public institutions. It forced the nation to confront whether democracy wou