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Lincoln's Radical Acknowledgement
- Lincoln's second inaugural address acknowledged slavery as the cause of the Civil War and implied a moral debt owed by white America.
- This speech implicitly supports reparations, a stance unique among U.S. presidents since then.
Black Land Ownership in Reconstruction
- During and after the Civil War, black families like the Smalls in Beaufort, SC, acquired land and began building independent lives.
- This land ownership was crucial and contrasted with failed promises of land redistribution like Sherman's order.
Reconstruction's Radical Democracy
- Reconstruction was a radical attempt to establish a multiracial democracy with black political participation.
- The period produced fundamental constitutional changes through the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments.