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.
By the start of the Civil War, four million people, nearly all of African descent, were held as slaves in 15 southern and border states. Slaves represented one-eighth of the U.S. population in 1860. Many think that slavery ended with the Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863.