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  1. Returning Board Case
    date January, 1878map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Crime/Violence

    In New Orleans, the beginning of 1878 saw a tumultuous case played out in the press about the returning board of elections scandal. The charges were that the board had committed some foul voting practices during the 1876 election of President Rutherford Hayes. Louisiana was in sad situation politically at that time due to the end of Reconstruction and a deplorable financial state, and charges of political...

  2. Arrival of more tobacco men in Congress
    date January 11, 1878map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Economy

    The arrival of men to Congress who wanted a reduction on the tax on whiskey and tobacco was heralded as a great victory for the Virginia and the South. Previously, according to the Daily Dispatch, “the South was then weak in representation and had the whole organization of the internal-revenue system against her interests.' The main goal of the new congressional arrivals was to get the taxes on...

  3. The Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Regiment's Attack on Fort Wagner
    date July 18, 1863map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags African-Americans, Race-Relations, War

    July 18, 1863 marked the first time an all-black regiment fought in the Civil War. The Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Regiment composed of only blacks and led by abolitionist Robert Gould Shaw, attacked Fort Wagner in a Union attempt to gain control of Charleston Harbor in Charleston, South Carolina. During the recruiting process of his regiment, Shaw experienced a difficult time attempting to recruit...

  4. Lincoln's Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction
    date December 8, 1863map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Slavery

    Lincoln issued this proclamation with hopes of expediting Reconstruction. By this time during the war, a vast portion of Confederate states were under Federal control and needed reorganization of their governments. His plan proposed that if ten percent of a state's voter population swore allegiance to the future alliance of the United States as well as approving Emancipation, then Reconstruction...

  5. Memphis Race Riot of 1866
    date May 1, 1866 to May 2, 1866map SHELBY, Tennesseetags Crime/Violence, Race-Relations, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    On May 1-2, 1866, Memphis experienced the worst race riot in the city's history, with forty-six African-Americans and two whites dead, five African American women raped and hundreds of African American homes and churches burned to the ground. At the end of the war, four regiments of black Union soldiers were stationed just outside of Memphis at Fort Pickering. To the chagrin of the Irish in Memphis,...

  6. African American Religious Communities
    date 1875map LIBERTY, Georgiatags African-Americans, Church/Religious-Activity, Education, Race-Relations

    Old Midway Church in Liberty County, Georgia served as a place where both whites and blacks came together to worship in antebellum society. A Congregational polity, its members opposed secession, but the rising tensions brought on by the Civil War resulted in the termination of communication between the Church and its fellow congregations in the North. During Reconstruction, a white Congregational...

  7. 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 after...

  8. Homestead Act of 1866
    date June 21, 1866map Washington City, District of Columbiatags African-Americans, Agriculture, Migration/Transportation

    The Homestead Act of 1866 was passed on June 21st of that year and opened up public land to settlement and farming by African-Americans and white persons loyal to the Union. Representative George W. Julian a Republican from Indiana proposed the bill, which opened up forty-four million acres of public land in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi in 80 acre lots to freedmen who were...

  9. Freedman's Bureau Labor Contracts
    date December 1, 1865map HALIFAX, Virginiatags African-Americans, Law, Race-Relations

    In the year 1865, Samuel Wilson signed a Freedman's Bureau document that concerned two of his younger slaves. The document proclaimed Edmund and Farrel free boys of color. The document went on to say that the boys were age 13 and 11 and became Samuel's apprentices till the age of 21. The two boys had to faithfully serve and obey their master until their apprenticeship with Samuel came to an end. The...