The early part of today's session reactivated prior knowledge about the Reconstruction era during the mid to late nineteenth century, when the nation struggled to find a balance between uniting the country and assisting the newly freed Black population of the South, called freedmen. We examined the months after the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery. We discussed the Freedmen's Bureau - an agency whose goal was to help the newly 'freed men' by providing education, housing, food, and medical aid. We noted that although the Thirteenth amendment abolished slavery, it had a loophole that allowed prisoners to be used as unpaid laborers. We then transitioned to a discussion about the new immigrants and the reasons for the waves of immigration, which was mainly to escape the overcrowding, religious and political persecution, and economic problems of their homelands. This material is covered in Chapter 27 in our text.