This chapter describes what happened to the conflicting goals and dreams of three groups as they sought to redefine new social, economic, and political relationships during the postwar Reconstruction era. It also shows how America sought to re-establish stable democratic governments. Amid vast devastation and bitter race and class divisions, Civil War survivors sought to put their lives back together. Victorious but variously motivated northern officials, defeated but defiant southern planters, and impoverished but hopeful African Americans could not all fulfill their conflicting goals and dreams, yet each had to try. Reconstruction would be divisive, leaving a mixed legacy of human gains and losses.
