On March 27, 1867, after the end of the Freedmen's meeting in Charleston, a group of African-Americans decided to test their right to ride on the Charleston Street Cars. The Streetcar Company's rules denied them this right. At 5 o'clock two to five men entered a streetcar on the King Street line, and sat among the white customers. Conductor Rivers endeavoured to explain the rules of...
On March 27, 1867, the North Carolina Republican Party officially formed at a meeting in Raleigh. Holden set the tone of the Republican Party. He wrote in the Raleigh Standard, “let our loyal people, and especially the colored people, trust no man who will not promptly say he is a Republican' (Raleigh Standard, April 4, 1867). The party, according to Albert Tourg?e, revealed men of “ignorance,...
The Second Reconstruction Act of March 23, 1867 supplemented the First Reconstruction Act. The First Reconstruction Act left the Southern States in confusion to whose role it was to reinforce the legislation. The Second Act answered this problem. It established and clarified that the military commanders held responsibility to register voters and hold elections in their territories. The Second Reconstruction...
During the Civil War the 90th Pennsylvania saw some of the most intense action of any regiment in the war. Made up of volunteer men from the Philadelphia area, these troops moved shortly after their formation into Maryland to be on call as soon as they were needed for battle. They went into many of the first battles of the war including First Bull Run, different skirmishes, and the battle of Antietam....
Four leaf clovers adorned the street corners of New York City, soft bagpipes in the background-accompanied fiddles, and the whiskey flowed forth with a seemingly endless supply. The stereotypes of St. Patrick’s Day are numerous, and all derogatory towards the Irish immigrants who migrated to this land for a better life than the turmoil they were facing due to the Great Famine. These images are...
In 1867, Charles Warren Stoddard sent the well-known author William Gilmore Simms a sample of poetry that he, a hopeful young author, had written. On May 1, 1867, Simms replied, congratulating Stoddard on the quality of his poetry and discussing his desire to help young authors whom he felt merited encouragement. These letters began a correspondence between the young author and his mentor that would...
The First Reconstruction Act, also known as the Military Reconstruction Act, passed into law on March 2, 1867 over the veto of President Andrew Johnson. The act applied to all the ex-Confederate states in the South, except Tennessee who had already ratified the Fourteenth Amendment. It split the states into five military districts, each under the control of a Northern General whose responsibility...
During March and April, 1867, John Rice, the President of the National Bank of Atlanta arrived in the Cherokee Gold Belt of Georgia to investigate the quality of recently mined minerals. He declared the beauty and high value of the gold and quartz specimen qualities. Rice's arrival in the Gold Belt reflected the rapidly growing interest in the mining of minerals in Georgia. Many had declared...
New to the Little Rock area, John Levering, a U.S. colonel from Indiana, needed a place for his family to live.Recently re-stationed to the city from New Orleans, he found the best hotel in town uncomfortable and unsuitable for a Union officer.In January 1865, Levering encountered a desirable solution.Levering casually visited a local, celebrated lady of society, a Mrs. S--, and informed her that...
An escalating series of events led to armed soldiers charging at an African American mob of one thousand. Although the evening had started with a small group of African Americans watching a trial of engines between the Richmond and the visiting Wilmington, Delaware Fire Companies, police soon arrested an African American man who allegedly attacked the firemen. A riot followed, with the mob hurling...