However, public consciousness of the period ranges from “deeply rooted mythologies” to a “blank slate”. All the major questions before us – racism, rights, citizenship, democracy, terrorism – are Reconstruction questions. More than most historical subjects, Reconstruction history matters. As preeminent Reconstruction scholar Eric Foner asserts, The Reconstruction Era is critical to understanding both the American past and present.

And importantly, Reconstruction in Beaufort County shows how this rebuilding experiment was working because of the efforts of ordinary people. This is when and where the first African Americans enlisted as soldiers, one of the first African-American municipalities was created, and the first public schools for African-Americans were established. It was there that the federal government launched the Port Royal Experiment intended to support the integration of the formerly enslaved into a democratic society. Under the Union Army’s control by 1861, Beaufort County became the “birthplace of Reconstruction”. The culmination of a process that began 26 years prior, historians and citizens applauded this symbolic and practical recognition of one of the most significant, complex and misunderstood periods in American history.įittingly, Beaufort County directly and rightly challenges outdated interpretations of the period with a wealth of stories and evidence. President Obama took one step towards addressing this in his last ten days in office and authorized the long-awaited first national monument to Reconstruction, to be located in Beaufort County, South Carolina. First National Monument of Reconstruction They confer an importance to the era that is well deserved and yet, public knowledge and consciousness of Reconstruction, the period immediately after the Civil War, is minimal at best. America’s unfinished revolution, second founding, its mirror – all of these titles have been given to the American historical period known as the Reconstruction Era.

Foner reconstruction