Reconstruction was an outrage perpetrated on the prostrate South by a group of vindictive Northern Radical Republicans. It was a period of great corruption during which unprincipled and self-serving carpetbaggers flooded the South so they could profit from the misery of the defeated region. At the same time, ignorant and illiterate blacks obtained positions of power for which they were entirely unfit. The Reconstruction experiment survived only because of the Republican party's determination to keep itself in power.

Southerners, both black and white, used Reconstruction to create a truly democratic society. The misdeeds of the Reconstruction governments are greatly exaggerated and their achievements almost entirely overlooked. The money expended by the Southern governments did not go to the politicians. Rather, it went areas such as education and other public services that had never been funded on such a large scale.

During Reconstruction, former slaves used their new found freedom to develop a certain independence for themselves within the Southern society. They built up  their churches, reunited their families, and refused to work within the "gang labor" system that replaced slavery. Instead, they created a new labor system in which they had more control over their lives. Reconstruction gave blacks a certain amount of legal and political power in the South.