Episodes Located: Washington City, District of Columbia in the 1860's

  1. Crittenden Attempts to Stave off Secession
    date December 18, 1860map Washington City, District of Columbiatags African-Americans, Slavery, Migration/Transportation, Law

    Prior to the Secession of the Confederate States, many people in the United States wanted a compromise in order to prevent secession and the Civil War that would follow. James McPherson noted that in order for the Senate to filter through the proposed compromises they formed the...

  2. George Boutwell Fights for Black Rights in D.C.
    date January 18, 1866map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Politics, African-Americans, Law, Government

    With the conclusion of the Civil War, came the question of what to do about the rights of the freedmen who were now considered men instead of property.  George Boutwell gave a speech to the House of Representatives, he rationalized why African...

  3. Federal Government issues the Homestead Act
    date May 8, 1862map Washington City, District of Columbiatags 37th Congress

    Millions of unsettled acres remained in the west by the 1850s, and the Republicans viewed the land as an opportunity to offer it to settlers for next to nothing. Republicans drafted a homestead bill, but southern senators immediately rejected it. One southerner explained it "would prove a most efficient ally for Abolition by encouraging and stimulating the settlement of free farms with Yankees and...

  4. Andrew Johnson Provokes the Radical Republicans
    date 1865 to 1867map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Government, Politics, Race Relations, Constitution

    Johnson was impeached for violating a number of laws, but was acquitted. He attempted to accomplish a number of things while trying to get former Confederate states back into the Union, but he did so in an improper manner. In 1868 the House of Representatives brought Andrew Johnson on trial for violating the Tenure of Office Act. According to The New York Times article, "The President's...

  5. William Newell Defends Congressional Reconstruction
    date February 15, 1866map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Politics, Reconstruction

    When the Honorable William A. Newell of New Jersey spoke in February 1866, the slaves were freed thanks to Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and the great sacrifice the Union forces gave. It was time to decide the fate of the South and William Newell was less than hospitable towards the South, saying in his speech that, "[T]he enemies of this Union and this liberty are still insidiously...

  6. Passage of the Civil Rights Act
    date April 9, 1866map Washington City, District of Columbiatags African-Americans, Slavery

    The Civil Rights Act, which put forth in detail the rights of former slaves, was passed by the United States Congress on April 9, 1866. On January 5th, 1866 Senator Trumbull from Illinois had presented “A Bill to protect all persons in the United States in their civil rights, and furnish a means for their vindication.' In an effort to counteract the Black Codes passed in many southern states...

  7. The Establishment of the First Black Law School
    date January 4, 1869map Washington City, District of Columbiatags African-Americans, Education, Law, Race-Relations

    African Americans never enjoyed exclusive access to law schools, much less to graduate schools in general. At the start of 1869, however, John Mercer Langston and the Trustees of Howard University announced the opening of the very first law school in the United States intended for African Americans and those seeking to provide legal defense for other African Americans. Langston himself was the founding...

  8. The Execution of Captain Henry Wirz
    date November 10, 1865map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Crime/Violence, Health/Death

    Captain Henry Wirz came to America from Switzerland in 1849. He settled in Louisiana and worked as a doctor to slaves on a plantation. At the beginning of the Civil War, he joined the Fourth Louisiana Infantry and fought for about a year before he was wounded and lost most of the use of his right arm. Since he could not fight, the army reassigned him to work at a couple of prisons and he eventually...

  9. Reports of Southern Atrocities at Manassas Published
    date April 1, 1862 to May 5, 1862map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Crime/Violence, Government, Politics, War

    There had been reports of horror coming from the battlefield at Manassas. In April 1862, the Senate Committee on the Conduct of War was asked to investigate accusations of Confederate crimes against Union dead and wounded at the First Battle of Manassas. On May 5, 1862, The Chicago Tribune published the Committee's report, including excerpts of testimony and their conclusions. The testimony...

  10. The Establishment of the United States Colored Troops
    date October 13, 1863map Washington City, District of Columbiatags African-Americans, Race-Relations, War

    In the midst of the Civil War, with its end undetermined, the War Department in Washington, D.C., requested the Lieutenant Colonel George Wagner to serve as the Captain for the Eighth Regiment of the U.S. Colored Troops. The U.S. Colored Troops had been established only a month before Wagner received this request. Many of the men within the Colored Troops had originally escaped into Washington where...

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