Abstract: at the present, there is an oversupply of works dedicated to the Reconstruction period. However, most of these works are of a general nature and deal with different aspects of the period: politics, economics and society. The question of how the supreme legislative body of the state coped with the crisis in the country is relevant.
The work on the topic of the study required a review and analysis of legal and documentary sources, such as the constitutional amendments of the Reconstruction period, the “United States Statutes at Large”, the President’s papers and resolutions on the appointment of governors, his speeches and statements.
Methods: A historical genetic method for analysing the emergence of a new legislative body. Typological method for identifying the main reconstruction projects. The historical-comparative method was used to compare two reconstruction plans and to identify differences.
In this article, we carried out the careful analysis of legislative activity of the Congress of the USA concerning regulation of Reconstruction of the South. In addition, we analyzed the basic features of presidential reconstruction; revealed features of radical reconstruction; based on the research, the role, the basic directions and results of activity of the Congress of the USA are defined.
Two years after the beginning of the Reconstruction, Congress was at the forefront of its policy of rebuilding the Union. The Union was successfully restored, the Southern market was incorporated into the overall domestic capitalist market in the United States, slavery was legally abolished, former slaves were given the right to vote, and the foundations were laid for an equation of black and white rights.
Keywords: Reconstruction of the South, U.S. Congress, Abolition of Slavery, Restoration of the Union