You might like to look at Skytrax; www.airlinequality.com which rates airlines with one to five stars. Most US based carriers get three stars, as does American. The site will also allow you to view passenger's comments bout their experiences. Again, many people only comment when things go wrong, so bear that in mind.
Reconstruction and Its Aftermath. The Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 freed African Americans in rebel states, and after the Civil War, the Thirteenth Amendment emancipated all U.S. slaves wherever they were. As a result, the mass of Southern blacks now faced the difficulty Northern blacks had confronted--that of a free people surrounded by many hostile whites.
Act to Prohibit the Importation of Slaves. The U.S. Congress passed this piece of landmark legislation to end the profitable international slave trade on March 2, 1807, and President Thomas Jefferson promptly signed the act, making it law. The act went into effect on January 1, 1808, prohibiting from that time on the importation of African slaves to the United States.