Episodes Nearest to January 1, 1866 to February 14, 1871: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. Bold Burglary Blamed on Blacks
    date July 14, 1868map BALDWIN, Georgiatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Education, Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    On the evening of July 9, 1868, the bustling town of Milledgeville, capitol of Georgia, witnessed a daring burglary. Casting subtlety aside, thieves approached Stetson & Brother's Store, drilled a hole through a window shutter, lifted the door's latch, and walked in through the front doors. Dragging the safe (so-called) from the backroom into the common area, the burglars forced it open,...

  2. A New Use for Cotton
    date August 4, 1868map JEFFERSON, Kentuckytags Agriculture, Economy

    A dentist from Louisville, Dr. John McClelland, recently patented a process that converts cotton, flax, and other vegetable fibers into a hard and solid substance with a texture and quality like horn or ivory. It was patented at about the same time by an Englishman, after whom the material, Parkensite, is named. The new material is easy to mold when it is in a plastic state, so McClelland used it...

  3. Many Southern States readmitted to the Union
    date July 9, 1868 to July 14, 1868map Washington City, District of Columbiatags African-Americans, Race-Relations

    Having fulfilled the Congressional requirements for re-admittance to the Union, including the drafting and ratification of new state constitutions, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana came back into the Union between July 9, 1868 and July 15, 1868. This also meant the election of new state legislatures and governments in these states under the new constitutions. For the most part, these...

  4. Congress passes act continuing operations of the Freedmen's Bureau until January 1869
    date July 11, 1868map Washington City, District of Columbiatags African-Americans, Education, Race-Relations

    The Freedmen's Bureau was a federal agency created in the aftermath of the Civil War that aimed towards aiding newly freed blacks by providing them with some education and working to integrate them into the labor force. It was very unpopular with most white southerners and another intolerable aspect of the radical Reconstruction controlled by Congress. Southerners saw the Bureau as a means...

  5. Ratification of the 14th Amendment
    date July 9, 1868map Washington City, District of Columbiatags African-Americans, Race-Relations

    The 14th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified on July 9, 1868. President Johnson issued a proclamation announcing its ratification on July 11, 1868 in the aftermath of the amendment's acceptance in Florida and North Carolina. The radical Republican Congress that dominated Reconstruction enacted the measure.<br /> The 14th Amendment extended citizenship to blacks, overturning...

  6. The Deadly Cash Crop
    date January 11, 1868 to 1868map HENRICO, Virginiatags Agriculture, Health/Death, Economy, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    Even a hundred years before Surgeon General Warnings, we already had begun to understand tobacco's effects. On January 11, 1868, HarpWeek published a two-picture political cartoon entitled The Pleasure of Tobacco. The first picture featured a young man in bed enjoying his pipe. The caption under the drawing said, To which young and promising Tom Smudger abandons himself. He wasteth the midnight...

  7. The Republican Party in Mississippi
    date 1868map JACKSON, Mississippitags Government, Law, Politics

    In 1868, a broadside advertising the Mississippi Election Ticket for the Republican Party was released. The pamphlet was entitled Vote the Flag. There was a faded image of an American Flag in the background and a list of those running for Republican state offices in the foreground. The Republican Party had reappeared on the southern scene.

    Only three years after the close of the Civil War...

  8. The Letter Begging for Peace
    date August 26, 1868map MARION, Texastags Murder, Freed Slaves, Hate Crimes

    Around one o' clock Friday morning Albert Browning, "a freedman and quiet inoffensive citizen of the city," lay resting peacefully in his home with his wife and little children. For unknown reasons a number of white men grabbed him and led him just a few feet outside of his home. They tied the terrified man's hands behind his back, went into his home, and began robbing him of his money,...

  9. Georgia Democrats in state House of Representatives move to expel blacks from the State Legislature
    date September 5, 1868 to September 9, 1868map FULTON, Georgiatags African-Americans, Race-Relations

    Democrats in the Georgia legislature moved in the first week of September, 1868, to expel black members of the legislature on the grounds that the new state constitution did not guarantee them the right to hold office. On September 5, 1868, Representative R.W Phillips made a speech calling upon all white men to expel blacks. He further condemned the government for giving what he referred to as...

  10. Use of Southern Railroads after the Civil War
    date May 15, 1868 to 1868map ALBEMARLE, Virginiatags Economy, Migration/Transportation, Women

    Lucy Brown left on a long trip, so long that the sheer volume of her own and her daughter's luggage precluded her from stopping to visit her sister on her return. Mrs. Brown wrote her sister a short letter explaining why she could not stop and visit, and that she would be away from her native Charlottesville until the end of June. When she wrote the letter, Mrs. Brown was traveling through Lynchburg....

  11. Removing the Middle Man
    date September, 1868map ORLEANS, Louisianatags commodities, Chicago Grain Corner

    The late 19th century was a period of rating, standardization and putting a price on previously unvalued commodities. From people, crops, and even time a need for equality and standardization in the commodities market and in every day life was answered.  Commodities markets began to crop up around the country and laws are put on books to both protect and hold farmers to higher standards.  Prior...

  12. African American Religious Services
    date September 18, 1868map PAGE, Virginiatags African-Americans, Church/Religious-Activity, Race-Relations

    In one edition of the Page Valley Courier Newspaper a reader asserts that The African Baptist Church is larger than any other Baptist church other than on in England. The same gentleman informed the newspaper that he recently attended there sitting by the right side of Chief Justice Chase and ex-Governor Wise, when two hundred persons were baptized. Their evening prayer meeting is attended...

  13. Amnesty and Pardon for former Confederates
    date July 4, 1868 to December 25, 1868map Washington City, District of Columbiatags War

    On July 4th, 1868, President Johnson gave amnesty to approximately 300 Southerners still under the edict of rebellion, except for several top Confederate officials. On Christmas 1868, he pardoned the rest, including Breckenridge, Slidell, and Thompson. This was significant because Johnson had just been impeached (in March) and though he hoped he would receive the Democratic nomination at the Democratic...

  14. Freedmen Massacred at Opelousas
    date September 28, 1868 to September 29, 1868map ST LANDRY, Louisianatags Politics, Race-Relations, Crime/Violence, African-Americans

    The Opelousas massacre occurred in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, on September 28, 1868. It centered around Emerson Bentley, a white editor for a local newspaper called The Landry Progress and an influential schoolteacher who promoted the education of black children. Bentley wrote an article that local members of the Seymour Knights, a branch unit of the white supremacist group The Knights...

  15. Hesper Affair
    date October 8, 1868 to October 15, 1868map SHELBY, Tennesseetags Crime/Violence, Migration/Transportation

    With the increase in racial violence in Arkansas, Governor Powell Clayton sought to create a secret militia aimed at preventing white supremacy movements in the form of organizations like the Ku Klux Klan. The majority of white citizens in Arkansas despised the Governor's enforcement officials. To outfit his militia Clayton ordered 4,000 muskets which were shipped to Memphis, Tennessee. However,...

  16. The Murder of Senator Benjamin Franklin Randolph
    date October 17, 1868map ORANGEBURG, South Carolinatags hate, Reconstruction, Crime, Politics

    Benjamin Franklin Randolph was born a freeman in Kentucky in 1820.  He graduated from Oberlin College and became an ordained minister.  After college, he joined the U.S. Colored Troops and served as a chaplain.  B.F. Randolph found himself in South Carolina after the war, where he became a prominent participant in local politics.  In 1868, Randolph was elected to the Senate for the Orangeburg...

  17. New Orleans Race Riots
    date October 24, 1868 to October 28, 1868map ORLEANS, Louisianatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Race-Relations

    Tensions between White Democratic clubs and Black Republican clubs in the parishes of Orleans, Jefferson and St. Bernard and heightened fear from whites of a black uprising led to violence days before the 1868 elections. The conflict erupted when a white democratic procession opened fire on a black procession on the streets of the city. Violence escalated when blacks went home to gather weapons...

  18. Election Day riot in Savannah
    date November 3, 1868map CHATHAM, Georgiatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Race-Relations

    Racial tensions in Savannah came to a head on November 3, the day of the presidential election. Both the Charleston Mercury and Atlanta Constitution contained similar accounts of the event. Allegedly, a large group of black people moved to the voting booths and proceeded to block the entrance of whites to the polls. During the afternoon, a group of men from the central railroad came to vote and...

  19. Governor Clayton declares martial law in large parts of Arkansas
    date November 4, 1868map PULASKI, Arkansastags Crime/Violence, Race-Relations

    During the summer and fall of 1868, white unrest grew in most of the southern states due to the newly created state governments enacted under the radical Reconstruction Acts. Resentful of Republican control and the extension of rights to blacks, white southerners further turned to violence to impose their will. In Arkansas, racial violence continued to escalate as whites attempted to keep blacks...

  20. Southern Diseases and Public Health
    date April 10, 1868map ALBEMARLE, Virginiatags Health/Death, Education, Urban-Life/Boosterism, Women

    E.J. Harrison was not a well man. Shortly after his convalescence for an unknown disease, he wrote to his sister Cornelia. He told her of his plans to go to the Anniversary Celebration of the Jefferson Society at the University of Virginia the next day. He wrote with a fleeting melancholy which suggested he lacked confidence in himself. First he lamented not being able to see a good friend the next...

  21. More Funds Needed for the Manual Labor School
    date December 12, 1868map RUTHERFORD, Tennesseetags African-Americans, Agriculture, Economy, Education, Government

    On behalf of the Manual Labor School of the colored citizens in Rutherford, Tennessee, Reverend Daniel Watkins appealed to the public for extra support. The school aimed to enhance the labor skills of newly freed blacks. The state chartered 15,000 towards the school, but still needed more funds. The board of trustees purchased three hundred acres of land with an estimated worth of 2800 in yielded...

  22. Knights of the White Camellia Opposed in Arkansas
    date December 19, 1868map CONWAY, Arkansastags Crime/Violence, Law, Government, Politics

    In December 1868 a report from Little Rock, Arkansas stated that "In the Legislature last night, Mr. Brooks introduced a bill requiring all persons to withdraw from the Knights of the White Camellia...within thirty days, under penalty of heavy fine and imprisonment...". Following this resolution the state declared martial law in Conway County, Arkansas as reported in the New York Times.

    The...

  23. Reconstructing the Constitution in South Carolina
    date January 14, 1868 to March 17, 1868map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags African-Americans, Education, Government, Law, Politics, Race-Relations, Slavery, War

    The Civil War was over, but the fight to ensure that it was not fought in vain was just beginning. After the Civil War, the North wanted to ensure the abolition of slavery, recognition of the rights of African Americans, and that the South would remain a part of the nation; these were the major goals of the Reconstruction policies. To meet these goals, The North required all former Confederate...

  24. The Rebellion In Alabama
    date February, 1868 to 1868map MONTGOMERY, Alabamatags Reconstruction, alabama

    The Rebellion in Alabama

    ”What’s next?  Is Alabama to come back without a new and equal constitution?  Never!  Let her be kept out until doomsday!”  This quote comes from an editorial written by an unnamed author in 1868 by The Independent, a Northern magazine which was complaining about the political situation in Alabama at the time.  One of the conditions for Alabama’s...

  25. 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...