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Opportunity: Yankee Marshall Twitchell and Southerner Adele Coleman marry, over her family's objections.
Introduction: After a bloody Civil War, Americans fight about how to rebuild the nation. Chaos: Southern planters and liberated slaves are thrown into chaos as Union victory nears. Revolution on the Land: The Federal government allots abandoned plantation acreage to freed slaves as Southern whites face defeat. Uncertainty: After President Lincoln's assassination, Andrew Johnson takes office amid deep uncertainty. Cultivating Liberty: Activist Tunis Campbell and former slaves start self-sufficient lives in Georgia. Freedmen's Bureau Agent: Union veteran Marshall Twitchell moves to an isolated, battle-hardened Confederate district. 'White Men Alone': President Johnson plans to restore the Union quickly with few changes to the social order. An Independent Black Community: Tunis Campbell's black settlement establishes schools and bans whites from the island. Losses and Reconciliation: As Southerners return home to catastrophic losses, the president pardons planters and returns their lands. Slavery Without the Chain: To rebuild their cotton economy, Southern whites force black submission. Opportunity: Yankee Marshall Twitchell and Southerner Adele Coleman marry, over her family's objections. War in Congress: Deep rifts divide Washington as Congress passes the first law to protect civil rights. Radical Reconstruction: Shocked by Southern violence, Northerners support military governance and black suffrage. Citizens at Last: White Southerners' sense of injustice and fear of vengeance grow as black men obtain the vote. Credits Introduction: As Abraham Lincoln warned, Reconstruction is a task 'fraught with great difficulty.' Interracial Democracy: Black suffrage is imposed in the South, though blacks cannot vote in many Northern states. Sharecropping: Landowner Fan Butler negotiates new labor arrangements with her former slaves. Carpetbagger: Southerners start to view Northerners like Marshall Twitchell with suspicion. 'Let Us Have Peace.': As racial conflicts continue, Ulysses Grant gains the presidency by promising reconciliation. The New Order of Things: Republican legislators like former slave John Lynch introduce new services -- and new taxes. War of Terror: Secret groups like the Ku Klux Klan form to attack black political power with violence. Seeking Profit: Southern whites and blacks struggle to gain political power and forge a workable economy. A New South: The Federal government cracks down on violence, and Grant's re-election promises more change. The Lost Cause: The nation loses patience for the plight of Southern blacks as whites take back power. The Coushatta Massacre: President Grant makes an unpopular decision to send troops South to suppress an insurrection. Ideals and Intimidation: Congress passes a visionary civil rights bill, but Southern vigilantes continue their violence. At War: White vigilantes in Coushatta, Louisiana try to kill Marshall Twitchell. Secret Compromise: The North abandons Reconstruction in a secret political deal. Looking Back: By 1913, Reconstruction is widely viewed as a mistake, though its progressive legacy will endure. Credits
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NARRATOR
By early 1866, Marshall Twitchell was feeling pressure from the locals, who resented his authority. Soon another distraction made his life even more complicated. Adele Coleman was just 20 years old. She was spirited, intelligent, and much admired by local bachelors. Adele and Marshall became daily companions. But their romance was troubled from the start. Scandalized by their daughter's suitor, Adele's parents forbade her to see the Yankee officer. When she tried to continue the affair in secret, Adele's brother Gus, a Confederate veteran, set out to hunt Twitchell down. One evening, a stranger came calling on Twitchell, unannounced.

TUNNELL
Marshall goes walking outside. He's ready to blow this person away. And then when the person speaks, he hears Adele's voice. It is Adele in disguise. She has come to warn him that her brother Gus is out gunning for him. He, of course, is not going to let her ride home alone. The trip takes two and a half to three hours. It takes Marshall and Adele, this particular night, all night. Adele comes marching in with the morning sun and the Coleman household just goes berserk, ballistic. Twitchell has gotten himself into the position whether he fully realizes it or not, he's either going to marry her or they're going to kill him.

NARRATOR
Not everyone in northern Louisiana believed marriage was the honorable solution.

MARSTON
A Southern girl, following the Civil War, there were no men, there were no men to marry. But, for goodness sake, they couldn't marry a Yankee. And Adele Coleman did. But, a lot members of her own family didn't like the fact that she had married a Northerner, and especially one in the position of power that he was in.

NARRATOR
Six months after their wedding, Marshall and Adele settled on a 420-acre plantation overlooking Lake Bistineau. It was as much an alliance as it was a marriage.

TUNNELL
It opens up possibilities for the Colemans; it opens up possibilities for him. Here is, in a sense, the opportunity to become wealthy much quicker than he had ever anticipated. The Colemans teach Marshall Twitchell about growing cotton and he teaches them about Yankee business enterprise.

MARSTON
Everybody in the South was broke. And I think that he came to enrich himself. And if that helped somebody then fine, and if it hurt somebody, that's the spoils of war.

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