5.13 Continuity and Change in Period 5

Political realignment endures

The Civil War and Reconstruction permanently reshaped American politics. The Second Party System collapsed as slavery split the nation, giving rise to the Republican Party and a Third Party System. The Democratic Party remained dominant in the South, while Republicans controlled national politics for decades, cementing sectional voting patterns that persisted long after 1877.

Federal power and rights expand

The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments abolished slavery, established birthright citizenship and equal protection, and granted Black men suffrage — expanding federal authority over individual rights once left to states. Yet after Reconstruction ended in 1877, Southern states used Black Codes, sharecropping, and later Jim Crow laws to restrict these gains, showing continuity of racial inequality despite legal change.

Economic and social transformation

The war accelerated industrialization, railroad expansion, and centralized federal economic policy (national currency, tariffs, banking acts), foreshadowing the Gilded Age. Meanwhile, debates over labor systems, citizenship, and the role of government launched during this period — such as free labor vs. slavery — continued shaping conflicts over race, class, and federal power well into the late 19th century.

Key terms

Third Party System

The political alignment emerging from the Civil War era, centered on the Republican Party (North) and Democratic Party (South).

Reconstruction Amendments

The 13th (abolished slavery), 14th (citizenship/equal protection), and 15th (Black male suffrage) Amendments.

Black Codes

Southern laws passed after the Civil War restricting the rights and freedoms of formerly enslaved people.

Sharecropping

A labor system where farmers worked land for a landowner in exchange for a share of the crop, often trapping Black Southerners in debt and poverty.

Economic legacy of the Civil War

Federal policies like national banking acts and railroad expansion accelerated industrialization, setting the stage for the Gilded Age.

Try an AP-style question

The most significant change from 1844 to 1877 was…

1. women gaining the vote
2. the abolition of slavery
3. the collapse of the Union
4. the end of westward expansion